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the bath!
    He sat down amid the confusion of her clothes. She had thrown them off, leaving them scattered on the bed and floor, saying she wanted to think, and she thought best in a bath. A beautiful woman like her had no right to think!
    He picked up the sheer silk stockings and pulled them slowly through his fingers, thinking of Eve.
    He had known her for two months. At first, he had thought of her merely as a woman to amuse him in his leisure moments. He had got rid of that dark girl — he had to think a moment to remember her name
    – Cora Hennessey.
    Eve had moved into the apartment five days later. He was glad to be rid of Cora. She had demanded so much of him. He supposed she was too young for him, and he frowned uneasily at finding himself admitting such a thing. But how she had tired him! A week of her, and his nights became something to dread. There had been no satisfying her.
    She hadn’t been easy to get rid of, and it cost him much more than he could afford. She had gone eventually, taking his gold and diamond cuff-links, his cigar cutter, and the little jade statue of a naked boy he had bought in a San Francisco brothel, an amusingly obscene bit of carving, and which he valued. He wanted these things back, but it would mean going to the police, and just now he was particularly anxious not to attract the attention of the police.
    His mind shied away from this unpleasant channel, and he began to worry about Eve. What an extraordinary girl! How completely mistaken he had been about her! He had imagined she was an empty-headed little beauty whose only asset was her body. For the first six weeks he had no reason to believe otherwise. Then suddenly he realised she had been lulling him into a position of false security while she had been digging into his private affairs. Her apparently innocent questions about his past and present mode of life hadn’t been, as he had thought, the idle chat er of an empty-headed blonde. She had been building up a picture of him until she knew him almost as well as he knew himself. She had managed to find out about his financial position. How she had got the information he couldn’t imagine.
    He supposed a girl with her looks could find out anything if she made the effort. Someone must have talked: someone possibly at his bank.
    She had surprised him horribly one night by saying in her quiet, cool voice, ‘What’s the matter with you, Preston? Why are you drifting like this? You could be making piles of money instead of loafing here with me. Have you lost your ambition, or what is it?’
    Startled, he had told her abruptly he had no need to work.
    ‘I have all the money I want,’ he had said sharply. ‘I’ve retired from business. Besides, so long as I give you what you want, I really can’t see it’s any business of yours what I do.’
    But that hadn’t touched her. She had gone right on confounding him.
    ‘Why do you lie to me?’ she had asked; her big blue eyes seemed able to see right inside his mind.
    ‘You don’t have to pretend with me. I want to help you.’
    ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said irritably. ‘I don’t need anyone’s help.’
    ‘You’re broke,’ she said calmly, and put her hand on his. ‘Already the tradesmen are talking about you. You owe thousands. Whatever money you did have, you’ve spent. Isn’t it time you did something about it?’
    He had been so shocked that he had said nothing for some moments. True, he had immediately begun to bluster, but the expression in her eyes told him she was sure of her ground, and the bluster died sourly in his mouth. Instead, he tried to defend himself, though why he should make excuses to her he couldn’t imagine. After all, it was no business of hers. He could have told her to pack up and get out if she didn’t like him as she found him. But deep down, tucked away in his innermost being, Kile was afraid. He knew he was slipping. He knew unless a miracle happened, the slip