"This is the way," he said. He was on my left side, and putting his arm
about my waist, and with his right hand over my right hand, he tried to
teach me to use the little bone picker; but while he was doing this he
got as close to me as he could, and as I bent over the mandolin, so did
he, till his face came right against mine, and he kissed me.
Then something terrible happened. Lolly screamed. She screamed like
a person gone mad. Chambers and I jumped apart, and I felt so weak I
was afraid to go inside that room. Just then Hermann came rushing in
with the landlady. She had heard Lolly's screams, and she wanted to
know what was the trouble. I said Lolly was ill; but as soon as she
went out, I told Hermann the truth. When Chambers realized that he was
the victim of a trap, and while Lolly was still crying,--a moaning
sort of cry now,--he picked up his hat and made for the door. There he
encountered Hermann, all of whose teeth were showing. Hermann's hand
shot up to Chambers's collar, and he threw him bodily from the room.
How he did this, I am sure I don't know, for Chambers was a larger
and seemingly much stronger man than Hermann. Then Hermann went in to
Lolly, and I, feeling like a criminal, followed.
I had never seen a woman in hysterics before. Lolly was lying on her
back on the bed, with her arms cast out on each side. Her face was
convulsed, and she was gasping and crying and moaning and laughing all
at the same time. Hermann put his arms about her, and tried to soothe
and comfort her, and I, crying myself now, begged her to forgive me.
She screamed at me, "Get out of my sight!" and kept on upbraiding and
accusing me. She seemed to think that I must have been flirting with
Chambers for some time, and she said I was a snake. She said she hated
me, and that if I did not go "at once! at once! at once!" she'd kill me.