“It’s time I had someone to take care of my leisure moments,” he said. “I’ve been looking around. There are plenty of good-looking women in this town, but I only want the best, and I’m in no immediate hurry. I can wait.” He slid off the stool. “Would you be interested to see the diamond collar? I have it in my room upstairs. You might like to try it on. One of these days you might even own it.”
She sat motionless, staring at him. She knew there would be more to it than trying on a diamond collar.
“And at the same time I could satisfy myself that what I’m now looking at is gold and not brass,” Ferrari went on, confirming her suspicions. “You don’t have to come up unless you want to. You are following what I’m saying, or do I still speak in riddles?”
Dolores struggled with a sense of revulsion. To let a little horror like this touch her, and yet was he any worse than fat, oily Gollowitz?
She didn’t struggle for long.
“I wasn’t born yesterday,” she said, and gave him a long stare from her big exciting eyes. “You won’t be disappointed. Where’s your room? I still have to be careful. I’ll come up in a few minutes.”
II
Conrad pushed open the door of the changing room and groped for the light switch. He could hear O’Brien’s heavy breathing just behind him.
“Where the hell’s the switch?” he asked, still groping.
O’Brien turned on a flash-light and swung the big beam around the room.