“Never mind, John,” Nielsen cut in. “You must allow us the occasional escape of some of our surplus wind. Now, let’s drop these bravado poses and get down to business. I want the rest of the proposition. We know that we’re to put Erna to the test. Now, Breen, tell us how.”
“There’s nothing to explain. I said, put her to the test. Let each one, in his own way and for himself, perhaps, pay her attentions—I don’t mean, make love to her—but simply, well, let him take her to the theatre or to supper some evening—she’s free nights—and find out how close he can get to her—I don’t mean seduction—but that he penetrate her character. Let each, in his own way, learn for himself, and later we’ll compare notes and decide whether the respected lady has the moral or the unmoral tendency or even whether she might develop an—er—”
“See here, Breen!” Carstairs exploded.
“Oh, I’d forgotten that we agreed to throw that out,” the painter apologized. “You see, I couldn’t help thinking of that little affair with the young prize ring gladiator. What was his name? Allen!”
“But that was only a temptation,” Carstairs fought back.
“Of course, only a temptation. But we have only her word that it never proved more.”
The composer was ready with a hot retaliation when Nielsen interposed: “Now don’t let’s revert to that topic again, Breen. We can never know the whole story, and it only annoys John to refer to it. We know that Erna was down and out at the time—she’d just come to Landsmann’s, was unsettled and that sort of thing—that much we know and that young Allen followed her there with an offer of cash. At least, she intimated something like that to John and said it was a case of being good or bad then and there. She chose being good. Even if she had chosen the other, the transaction might have been an unmoral and not an immoral one, for she was fond of Allen.”
“But—”
“Now never mind, Breen! We’ve threshed that out often enough. Erna didn’t flop—in fact, she showed Mr. Allen the door, hasn’t seen him since and—”
“But we have only her word for all that stuff.”