This time, a rage took full possession of his muddled head.
“Suppose I stop the cab an’ let you get out,” he said. “You’re too damn stuck-up to suit me, an’ I won’t stand f’r any more of it, see? You’re nothin’ but a lousy gold-digger, you are!”
A cool sneer rose up within Blanche—she’d “call his bluff” this time, and show him that he couldn’t insult her with impunity. She tapped on the glass panel and stopped the cab. Roper tried to detain her, but she shook off his hands and stepped out to the pavement. The cab driver looked on with a quizzical ennui—this thing happened in his cab at least once every night.
“C’m on back, Blanche, I’ll be good,” Roper cried, but she ignored him and strode down the street.
He followed her in the cab to the next corner, repeating his entreaties and not quite daring to leap after her, but the presence of an inquisitive policeman caused him to abandon the chase, with a final oath. As she walked home, Blanche had a feeling of relief and of self-reproach. She had taught this fellow a lesson, but what was the sense of such happenings? She couldn’t dismiss a twinge of guilt at having taken his entertainment and then rejected him, but what could a girl do—sit at home all the time and watch the walls? Oh, darn, it was all a mess, all right.
On the following morning at the cafeteria, she had a heavy head and a scarcely veiled sulkiness. If Harrison, the proprietor, started anything now, she’d have to quit her job—it was about time that men found out that they couldn’t treat her as though she were a bag of oatmeal! Nothing occurred until the middle of the afternoon, when Harrison, a tall, thin man with a long nose and blinking eyes beneath his curly brown hair, hung around her desk.
“Wanna go somewheres to-night?” he asked.
“No, thanks, I’ve got ’n engagement,” she replied, trying to make her voice a little cordial.
“Say, you’re always turnin’ me down,” he said. “What’s the matter, don’t I look good to you?”
“Oh, you’re all right,” she answered, “but I can’t help it ’f I’m usually dated up. There’s a lot of men in this town, you’d be surprised, and there’s only seven days in the week, y’ know.”