She ended by making a wry face.
"You had a run-in with him, didn't you?" he asked, as if casually, and the girl looked at him sharply.
"How'd you know?"
"He's been kind of nutty an' said somethin' about it."
A pause.
"He come in here last week, Bruce, drunk. He made a grab for me an' said somethin' fresh an' he was so crazy, so awful lookin', that it scart me for a minute. I told him to keep away or you'd knock all th' poison out of him. He ... You see,"—apologetically—"I was scart an' I knew that was th' easiest way out—to tell him you'd get after him. You ... Th' worst of 'em back up when they think you're likely to land on 'em."
He reached out and pinched her cheek, smiled and shook his head with mock seriousness.
"Lordy, Sister, you'd make me out a hell-winder of a bad man, wouldn't you?"
"Not much! 'N awful good man, Bruce. That's what puts a crimp in 'em—your goodness!"
He flushed at that.