It was all I could do to keep my temper in check.
"What d'ye bring her over to your place at night for, if you're playin' straight?" he continued.
"To teach her grammar;—that's all," I exclaimed.
"Grammar be damned," he thundered. "What d'ye put up blinds for if you're playin' straight?"
"To keep skulkers from seeing how respectable people spend their evenings," I shot at him.
"You're a confounded liar," he yelled, beside himself. "I know what you're up to, with your oily tongue and your Jim Dandy style.
"Rita was mine before you ever set your damned dial in Golden Crescent. She'd 've been mine for keeps by this time, but you got her goin'. Now you're usin' her to pass the time, keepin' men who want to from marryin' her."
With a black madness inside me, I sprang in on him. He stepped aside.
"No, you don't!" he cried. "Take that."
He threw one of his clubs at my feet.