Elma could only gaze at her.
"You think I'm a kind of 'case,' I suppose. Some one to feel good and generous over. Just because my hair is coming out in patches. Well, it's stopped coming out in patches but I still have a few calls to pay."
"Weren't you afraid last night?" asked Elma in complete wonder.
They had moved into a shadow against the wall.
"Afraid," blazed the Serpent, and then she trembled as though she would fall.
"Don't," cried Elma sharply, "don't faint."
"I nearly did--last night. I nearly did. It was dreadful going home. Who knows that it was I who was there?"
"I do," said Elma, "that's all."
"Don't tell a soul," wailed the burglar. "You won't, will you? I know it was awful of me, but such fun up to the moment, when--when I heard them moving inside. Then my legs grew so weak and it was like a dream where you can't get away. You shouldn't have called me the Serpent."
"We didn't," said Elma. "Not in the way you mean. But because you seemed to know about animals in a queer way--like Elsie Venner. Lance said she was half a snake, but just because she knew about snakes. It's difficult to explain."