"Was it like a grain of that nasty musk that gets into a woman's drawer and taints endlessly?
"I tell you, I saw that girl disintegrate, decay, turn fungoid under my eyes—ugh!
"There had to be an end, of course. I asked where she was going one afternoon, and then she smiled and looked up at me sidewise.
"'You needn't come back,' I said abruptly. 'I'll settle with your mother. Do you understand?'
"She arched her shoulder and flashed a glance straight above me, out of the open window.
"'I'm sorry you don't want me, doctor,' she said softly. I could see poor George tremble—the porch vines shook.
"Then I took her by the shoulders and shook her.
"'Get out of my house, you black slut!' I said—but I didn't say 'slut.' And she went. It was the only time I was ever brutal to a woman."
He gulped the rest of his tumbler.
"The next day I moved my office stuff back, and that damned house was empty.