With her free hand
she stroked the sleeve of his coat. Her gesture was misunderstood by the
man who was not thinking of her words but of her body and of his hunger
to possess it. He took her into his arms and held her tightly against his
breast. She tried to struggle, to tear herself away but, although she was
strong and muscular, she found herself unable to move. As he held her
uncle, who had heard the two people come up the steps to the door, threw it
open. Both he and his wife had on several occasions warned Clara to have
nothing to do with young Metcalf. One day when he had sent flowers to the
house, her aunt had urged her to refuse to receive them. "He's a bad,
dissipated, wicked man," she had said. "Have nothing to do with him." When
he saw his niece in the arms of the man who had been the subject of so much
discussion in his own house and in every respectable house in Columbus,
Henderson Woodburn was furious. He forgot the fact that young Metcalf was
the son of the president of the company of which he was treasurer. It
seemed to him that some sort of a personal insult had been thrown at him by
a common ruffian. "Get out of here," he screamed. "What do you mean, you
nasty villain? Get out of here."
Frank Metcalf went off along the street laughing defiantly, and Clara went
into the house. The sliding doors that led into the living room had been
thrown open and the light from a hanging lamp streamed in upon her.
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