a bad idea to have a little fun.
"I'd love to go with you," he said. "But you won't mind if I don't stay very long. I've left instructions at my hotel that I'm to be called at seven."
"We'll leave as soon as ever you like."
Nicky found it very pleasant at the Knickerbocker. He ate his bacon and eggs with appetite. They shared a botde of champagne. They danced, and the little lady told him he danced beautifully. He knew he danced pretty well, and of course she was easy to dance with. As light as a feather. She laid her cheek against his and when their eyes met there was in hers a smile that made his heart go pit-a-pat. A coloured woman sang in a throaty, sensual voice. The floor was crowded.
"Have you ever been told that you're very good-looking?" she asked.
"I don't think so," he laughed.
"Gosh," he thought, "I believe she's fallen for me."
Nicky was not such a fool as to be unaware that women often liked him, and when she made that remark he pressed her to him a little more closely. She closed her eyes and a faint sigh escaped her lips.
"I suppose it wouldn't be quite nice if I kissed you before all these people," he said.
"What do you think they would take me for?"
It began to grow late and Nicky said that really he thought he ought to be going.
"I shall go too," she said. "Will you drop me at my hotel on your way?"
Nicky paid the bill. He was rather surprised at its amount, but with all that money he had in his pocket he could afford not to care, and they got into a taxi. She snuggled up to him and he kissed her. She seemed to like it.
"By Jove," he thought, " I wonder if there's anything doing."
It was true that she was a married woman, but her husband was in Morocco, and it certainly did look as if she'd fallen for him. Good and proper. It was true also that his father had warned him to have nothing to do with women, but, he reflected again, he hadn't actually promised he wouldn't, he'd only promised not to forget his advice. Well, he hadn't; he was bearing it in mind that very minute. But circumstances alter cases. She was a sweet little thing; it seemed silly to miss the chance of an adventure when it was handed to you like that on a tray. When they reached the hotel he paid off the taxi.
"I'll walk home," he said. "The air will do me good after the stuffy atmosphere of that place."
"Come up a moment," she said. "I'd like to show you the photo of my little boy."
"Oh, have you got a little boy?" he exclaimed, a trifle dashed.
"Yes, a sweet little boy."
He walked upstairs after her. He didn't in the least want to see the photograph of her little boy, but he thought it only civil to pretend he did. He was afraid he'd made a fool of himself; it occurred to him that she was taking him up to look at the photograph in order to show him in a nice way that he'd made a mistake. He'd told her he was eighteen.
"I suppose she thinks I'm just a kid."
He began to wish he hadn't spent all that money on champagne at the night-club.
But she didn't show him the photograph of her little boy after all. They had no sooner got into her room than she turned to him, flung her arms round his neck, and kissed him full on the lips. He had never in all his life been kissed so passionately.
"Darling," she said.
For a brief moment his father's advice once more crossed Nicky's mind and then he forgot it.
Nicky was a light sleeper and the least sound was apt to wake him. Two or three hours later he awoke and for a moment could not imagine where he was. The room was not quite dark, for the door of the bathroom was ajar, and the light in it had been left on. Suddenly he was conscious that someone was moving about the room. Then he remembered. He saw that it was his little friend, and he was on the point of speaking when something in the way she was behaving stopped him. She was walking very cautiously, as though she were afraid of waking him; she stopped once or twice and looked over at the bed. He wondered