The whiskey he had drunk had given
broad wings to his self-satisfaction; and what he was now sipping from
his tea-cup--it was not tea, for Barney was on the proper terms with
his waiter here--this draught from his tea-cup tipped these broad
wings at a yet more soaring angle.
Yes, he had certainly put it over so far. And Maggie would certainly
prove a winner. Those fair women he had chatted with as he had moved
from table to table, why, they'd be less than dirt compared to Maggie
when Maggie was rigged out and readied up and the stage was set. And
it had been he, Barney Palmer, who had been the first to discover
Maggie's latent possibilities!
He had an eye beyond mere surfaces, had Barney. He had used women in
the past in putting over many of his more private transactions (and
had done so partly for the reason that using women so was eminently
"safe"--this despite his violent outburst of sneering disdain at Larry
when the latter had spoken of safety): some of them professional
sharpers, some unscrupulous actresses of the lower flight--such women
as he had just chatted with in the restaurants where he had made his
brief visits. But such, he now recognized, were rather BLASEES, rather
too obvious. They were the blown rose. But Maggie was fresh, and once
she was properly broken in, she would be his perfect instrument.
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