The picture filled her with shame. She had known since
childhood about Mr. Royall's "habits": had seen him, as she went up to
bed, sitting morosely in his office, a bottle at his elbow; or coming
home, heavy and quarrelsome, from his business expeditions to Hepburn
or Springfield; but the idea of his associating himself publicly with a
band of disreputable girls and bar-room loafers was new and dreadful to
her.
"Oh----" she said in a gasp of misery; and releasing herself from
Harney's arm she went straight up to Mr. Royall.
"You come home with me--you come right home with me," she said in a
low stern voice, as if she had not heard his apostrophe; and one of the
girls called out: "Say, how many fellers does she want?"
There was another laugh, followed by a pause of curiosity, during which
Mr. Royall continued to glare at Charity. At length his twitching
lips parted. "I said, 'You--damn--whore!'" he repeated with precision,
steadying himself on Julia's shoulder.
Laughs and jeers were beginning to spring up from the circle of people
beyond their group; and a voice called out from the gangway: "Now,
then, step lively there--all ABOARD!" The pressure of approaching and
departing passengers forced the actors in the rapid scene apart, and
pushed them back into the throng.
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