Page:That Royle Girl (Balmer).pdf/64



" do you want me to go with you?" Calvin asked.

"I'll show you," she replied and looked at the door which Denson guarded.

Calvin turned to the plain-clothes man and said, "I will be responsible for her," and himself opened the door.

Immediately the girl slipped past him, but she awaited him in the hallway. "I'd better get on some clothes," she mentioned to him, as though she had just recollected that she was in night attire. "Do you want to come up with me?"

"I'll be here," answered Calvin, coldly.

"Come up first, for a minute. See my place," the girl urged. "I want to show it to you; I'm going to tell everything to you."

Calvin followed her up the stairs and tried not to think about her; but, as she ascended ahead of him, her small, white heels rose out of her slippers with every step and he could not help noticing them.

She led him into the large room, where Ket and she had listened to the radio, and where she had made up her bed.

"My mother and father are in there," she said, gesturing toward the bedroom. "He's drunk; she's dizzy from veronal. If you want, I can—"

"I am satisfied with the police report of them," Calvin interrupted.

"The things you see here," she continued, "are got by bluff. I want to tell you that before you find it out.