He said quietly: "The customer insulted her, Cookie—"
"You dirty liar!" shouted Zellermann.
"— and he had it coming to him," Simon went on in the same tone. "I saw it all happen. Why not just throw him out and let's go on with the fun?"
"You mind your own goddam business!" Cookie blazed at him purply. Again she turned to the girl. "You drunken slut — I've had just about enough of your airs and graces and bull—"
That was it. Avalon's lips came together for an instant, and the suppressed blaze flashed like dynamite in her eyes.
"That's fine," she said. "Because I've had just about enough of you and your creep joint. And as far as I'm concerned you can take your joint and your job and stuff them both."
She whirled away; and then after only one step she turned back, just as abruptly, her skirts and her hair swooping around her. And as she turned she was really smiling.
"That is," she added sweetly, "if the Saint doesn't do it for you."
Then she was gone, sidling quickly between the tables; and there was a new stillness in the immediate vicinity.
In the local silence, the Saint put a match to his neglected cigarette.