Her movement seemed to awaken the little old man into sudden action. He flung himself on me with a snarl, his shaking, shriveled fingers clutching at my throat. I shook him off, but he came back instantly, throwing himself at me fearlessly, with a shrill, maniacal, blood-curdling cry. Reason left me; for an instant the room swam red before my eyes. I tore his fingers again from my throat, and seizing him around the waist, hurled his frail body violently to the floor. His head struck a corner of the model stand; his body quivered a moment and then lay still. The girl, with livid, terror-stricken face, was shrinking against the side wall of the room, with one hand pressed tightly over her mouth. I hurried to her. “Never mind the wrap, Malella—we will go without it.” She looked at me numbly. “Come,” I added, and, putting my arm about her shoulders, dragged her unresisting from the room. It took us but a moment to descend the rickety stairs to the darkened shop. I stopped in the shop and snatched up my overcoat and hat. When we got to the street I found it had stopped snowing; across the square I could see the glistening white of Washington Arch. A jolly crowd of young people came hurrying by, and seeing us standing there in the doorway—a girl in Moorish costume, and me with my overcoat on my arm—laughed and waved in friendly greeting. An alert taxi-driver—thinking doubtless we were going to some masquerade—drove his car to the curb and stopped. “You are safe now, Malella,” I said, after a moment, when we were in the taxi and had started toward the hospital uptown. Her slim little body swayed toward me; her arms stole up around my neck like the arms of a tired, frightened child who seeks protection. “You need not be frightened,” I said. “You are never going back.” And then I added aloud, but softly, very softly to myself: “For when they make you well again at the hospital you are going to be with me—always.” For I was in my twenties then, as I have said, and the decisions of youth are very quickly reached. [Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in the May 29, 1920 issue of All-Story Weekly magazine.]