“Certainly!” With his best courtliness of manner, he bowed her into his private office. “Won’t you have a seat?”
Susannah sat down.
“It’s about—about Mr. Cowler and last night.” She paused.
“Oh,” asked Mr. Warner, carelessly, casually, “did you have a pleasant evening?”
“It’s about that I wanted to talk with you,” Susannah faltered. Suddenly, her embarrassment broke, and she became perfectly composed. “Mr. Warner, I dislike to tell you all this, because I know how it will shock you to hear it. But you will understand that I have no choice in the matter. It is very hard to speak of, and I don’t know exactly how to express it, but, Mr. Warner, Mr. Cowler insulted me grossly last evening ... so grossly that I left the table where we were eating after the theater and ... and ... well, perhaps you can guess my state of mind when I tell you that I was actually afraid to take a taxi. Of course, I see now how foolish that was. But I ... I ran all the way home.”
For an instant, Mr. Warner’s fine, incisive geniality did not change. Then suddenly it broke into a look of sympathetic understanding. “I am sorry, Miss Ayer,” he declared gravely, “I am indeed sorry.” His clergyman aspect was for the moment in the ascendent. He might have been talking from the pulpit. His voice took its oratorical tone. “It seems incredible that men should do such things—incredible. But one must, I suppose, make allowances. A rural type alone in a great city and surrounded by all the intoxicating aspects of that city. It undoubtedly unbalanced him. Moreover, Miss Ayer, I may say without flattery that you are more than attractive. And then, he is unaccustomed to drinking—”
“Oh, he had not drunk anything to speak of,” Susannah interrupted. “A little claret at dinner. He had ordered champagne, but this ... this episode occurred before it came.”
“Incredible!” again murmured Mr. Warner. “Inexplicable!” he added. He paused for a moment. “You wish me to see that he apologizes?”
“I don’t ask that. I am only telling you so that you may understand why I can never speak to him again. For of course I don’t want to see him as long as I live. I thought perhaps ... that if he comes here again ... you might manage so that he doesn’t enter through my office.”