Samuel pondered. “I think that is a very terrible saying,” he declared earnestly.
Miss Gladys laughed. And she went on to cross-question him as to the suicide—satisfying her curiosity as to the last hideous detail.
Then she looked at Samuel and asked suddenly, “Why do you wear that hideous thing?”
Samuel started. “What thing?” he asked.
“That tie!”
“Why!” he said—“I got that specially—”
He stopped, embarrassed; and the other's peal of laughter rang through the room. “Take it off!” she said.
She got up and came to him, saying, “I couldn't stand it.”
With trembling fingers he removed the tie. And she took off the beautiful red ribbon that was tied about her waist, and cut it to the right length. “Put that on,” she said, “and I'll show you how to tie it.”
And Samuel stood there, rapt in a sudden nightmare ecstasy. She was close to him, her quick fingers were playing about his throat. Her breath was upon his face, and the intoxicating perfume of her filled his nostrils. The blood mounted into his face, and the veins stood out upon his forehead, and strange and monstrous things stirred in the depths of him.