“We alighted and were shown to a little room, which I have since learned was a private dining room. I did not exactly like the idea of being shut up in a room alone with him at the time, but did not dare comment on the matter for fear of showing my ignorance. He ordered a nice dinner and asked me what I would have to drink. I told him I never drank, so he did not insist on my taking anything, but ordered whiskey for himself. On the pretext of getting his handkerchief out of his overcoat, which hung back of me, he passed me and bent over and kissed me. Not a kiss of respect, but a kiss of vile, lecherous passion, and one, no doubt, intended to inflame me. I pushed him away from me disgusted and reprimanded him severely. He apologized and said: ‘You are so sweet, so irresistible I could not help it.’
“After dinner he came over to me again and kissed me. I was very angry this time and resolved to go home at once. He pushed me down into the chair and told me I could not go yet. I finally succeeded in rising to my feet and he sat down in the chair I vacated and pulled me down in his lap. I struggled to free myself and reached the door. He caught me in his arms and pressed me to him in a passionate embrace, raining burning kisses on my face. He subjected me to every indignity that was possible considering that I was fighting all the time to get away. I tried to reach the electric bell and summon aid, but he divined my intention and drew me back. I was afraid to scream for fear of creating a scene and perhaps getting my name in the paper in connection with such a scandalous affair.
“I prayed for deliverance from that man as I never prayed before in all my life, and promised myself if I got home safely I would never, never flirt with anyone again.
“As if in answer to my prayer, a thought flashed across my brain. My hat pins! They were of very stiff steel, and I snatched one out of my hat and plunged it viciously into his arm. It broke. I took the other and struck him with all my strength and that broke and I could not see that I had hurt him a particle. My strength was fast giving out, and I was in despair. I feared he would force me to yield that which I would rather die than part with. But joy! by this time the blood was running down his arm in a stream. He saw it and let me go. ‘My God! girl! What have you done? Look at the blood!’
“He took off his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeve. His heavy flannel undershirt was saturated with blood. The pin points had entered the upper arm with great force and the wounds were bleeding profusely. I felt sorry when I saw what I had done, and I offered to bind them up for him. He gave me his handkerchief and I bandaged it up tightly. Then he sat down, pale and trembling, weak from the loss of blood. I was in about the same condition from nervousness. He urged me to take a stimulant of some kind, and I finally consented and took my first drink of whiskey and absinthe. He told me all about his wife and how happy they had been the one short year she had been spared to him. He told me how she suffered on her deathbed and with what fortitude she bore up under it, trying with her last breath to cheer him and asking him to live for her baby’s sake.
“The tears rolled down his cheeks and I cried in sympathy.
“‘My angel wife is dead and her baby—our baby. No one cares for me now nor what I do. I have lost all my friends since she died and nearly all my money. I have been drinking and gambling and was in my cups when I came to you to-night. I would not hesitate a minute to kill myself if it were not for the fear that I should never meet her in heaven.”
“‘Do you think what you have done to-night would please her if she can look down and see you? You deliberately enticed an innocent girl here, one whom you surely must know was innocent, and for what purpose I can form but one opinion.’
“He went down on his knees beside me and begged my forgiveness.
“‘Give me one kiss to show me that you forgive me,’ he said.