Before Betty could recover from the horror of his answer he had brushed rudely past her and disappeared in the crowd. She picked up her bag in a stupor of dumb rage and started home. She was too weak for the walk she had hoped to take. She called a hack and scarcely had the strength to climb into the high, old-fashioned seat.
Never in all her life had blind anger so possessed her soul and body. In a moment of tenderness she had offered to forgive and forget. It was all over now. The brute was not worth a tear of regret. She would show him!
Two weeks later John Vaughan stared into the ebony face of a negro who had attached himself to his fortune somewhere in the revelry of the night before. Washington was swarming with these foolish black children who had come in thousands. They had no money and it had not occurred to them that they would need any. Their food and clothes had always been provided and they took no thought for the morrow.
John had forgotten the fact that he had taken the negro in his hack for two hours and finally adopted him as his own.
He sat up, pressed his hand over his aching head and stared into the grinning face:
"And what are you doing here, you imp of the devil?"
Julius laughed and rolled his eyes:
"I'se yo' man. Don't you min' takin' me up in de hack wid you las' night?"
"What's your name?"
"Julius Cæsar, sah."