Olga gazed at her helplessly.  “Violet, what am I to say to you?  How could you and I go off for a whole day with that detestable man?  Why, it—­it would start everyone talking!”

“My dear, no one will know,” said Violet with composure.  “Haven’t you sworn to keep it a dead secret?  He won’t talk and neither shall I. So, you see, it’s all perfectly safe.  Not that there would be anything improper about it in any case.  He is as old as you and me put together,—­older I should say.”

“Oh, but he’s such a fiend!” burst forth Olga.  “You said you were going to give him up only the other night.”

“When?” said Violet sharply.

Olga hesitated.  It was the first time she had made direct reference to that midnight episode.

“When did I say that?” insisted Violet.

Half-reluctantly Olga made reply, while Violet leaned forward and listened intently.  “The night before last.  You came to my room late, don’t you remember?”

Violet’s eyes had a startled look.  “Yes?” she breathed.  “Yes?  What else?”

Olga looked straight up at her.  “Dear, I don’t think we need talk about it, need we?  You were not yourself.  I think you were half-asleep.  You had been smoking those hateful cigarettes.”

“Ah, but tell me!” insisted Violet.  “Why did I come to you?  What did I say?  Was—­was Max there?”

“He came in,” faltered Olga.  “He—­guessed you weren’t well.  He helped you back to your own room.  Don’t you remember?”

“Yes—­yes—­I remember!” Violet’s brows were drawn with the effort; there was a look of dawning horror in her eyes.  “I remember, Allegro!” she said, speaking rapidly.  “He—­he was very brutal to me, wasn’t he?  He made me tell him where to find the cigarettes, and then—­and then—­yes, he took them away.  I’ve hated him ever since.”  Again that vindictive note sounded in her voice.  “I won’t bear brutality from any man,” she said.  “Do you know, if I didn’t hate him, I believe I should be afraid of him?  I know you are, Allegro.”

“Perhaps; a little,” Olga admitted.

“Ah!  I knew it.  He can do anything he likes with you.  But I am different.”  She lifted her head proudly.  “I am no man’s slave,” she said.  “He thinks that he has only to speak, and I shall obey.  He was never more mistaken in his life.”

“But, Violet, he was only treating you as a patient,” Olga protested.  “And he only took the cigarettes because—­”

“I know why he took them.”  Quickly Violet interrupted.  “And remember this, Allegro!  Whatever happens to me in the future you must never, never let him attend me again.  I suffered more from his treatment than I have ever suffered before, and I can never go through it again.  You understand?” She looked at Olga with eyes that had in them the memory of a great pain.  “It was torture,” she said.  “He forced his will upon mine.  He crushed me down, so that I was at his mercy.  It was like an overpowering weight.  I thought my heart would stop.  I don’t know—­even now—­how it was I didn’t die.”