might be angry, and might not see me again. I could not bear the thought of losing her in this fashion. I had admired and desired her from afar for months. Then tonight we had met, and talked. I found her irresistibly attractive. 'Please let me apologize,' I begged. 'I was thoughtless and rude.'
'Don't bother,' she said.
'Please, please,' I said.
'It is not necessary,' she said, icily.
I was miserable. She was an intelligent woman. How offended she must have been by my foolish audacity. How scandalized she must have been by the pretensions of my boorish and foolish masculinity. Did I not care for her feelings? Did I not respect her mind? How tiresome and obnoxious she must have found my inopportune and unorthodox views. Surely there was still time to change them, to please her. I hoped that I had not ruined everything that might have been between us. Was I not strong enough to be solicitous, sweet, gentle, tender and feminine? I hoped she would still like me, that she could still permit me a chance to try to please her. I realized then, with a force I had not felt before, probably because I had not found a woman so exciting as she before, that, in this society, men must strive to please women, that they must, if they wish to relate to them, be and do exactly what the women wish and require, else the women will simply remain aloof. The women, now, were of a whole new breed, somehow magically different from all women of the past, free and independent. It was they who would set their terms, and it was the men who would, if they wished to know them, comply with their wishes. But was this not all right? Surely women have a right to demand that men comply precisely with their wishes. If the men do not do so, the women simply need have nothing to do with them. In my society it was women who called the tune, and the men who would have to dance. If the women, for some reason, wished us to be just like women then we would have to do our best to be just like women. They could decide matters, by the device of granting or withholding their favors.
'Please,' I begged.
'You are despicable,' she said.
'Please forgive me,' I begged.
The driver went to close the door. 'Wait,' I said to him. I held the door open. For some reason, it seemed, he wished for me to remain outside the cab. He did not ask me if I were getting in, or accompanying the lady. It seemed he wished to be on his way, leaving me behind. I did not understand this, but I did not stop to consider it.
'Please, Miss Henderson,' I said. 'I know I must have truly offended you. For this I am extremely sorry.' I was thinking quickly. 'But it is late now, and it may be hard to find another cab. If you will not let me take you home, let me, at least, share the cab, so I can get back to my apartment without a great deal of inconvenience.'
The driver reacted irritably. I did not understand this. It seemed to me in his best interest to have an extra fare.
'All right,' she said, looking straight ahead, 'get in.'
I entered the cab. The driver shut the door, it seemed to me a bit angrily.
Miss Henderson and I sat side by side in the cab, not speaking.
The driver went around the cab. In a moment he had slipped behind the wheel.
We then gave him the addresses. Miss Henderson lived closer to the restaurant than I. Although the driver was not facing us I could tell that he reacted angrily when I gave him my address, which was farther from the restaurant. His irritation made no sense to me. What difference could it make which fare was let off first? He seemed a surly fellow, Too, he was a large man.
'I am sorry, Miss Henderson,' I said.
'That's all right,' she said, not looking at me.
In the top of the seat in front of us, that against which the driver's back rested, there was a long, lateral slot. In the top of the cab, interestingly, there was a similar slot. The slot was about an inch in width.
The cab pulled away from the curb and entered the traffic on 128th Street.
'I am a woman,' said Miss Henderson, speaking very precisely and very quietly. 'I am free. I am independent.'
'Of course,' I said, hastily.
'In the restaurant you held me for an instant, when you were helping me with my cape. I did not like that.'
'I'm sorry,' I said.
'You tried to put me in your power,' she said. 'I will never be in a man's power.'
I was silent, miserable.
'Too, you insulted me, when you wished to pay for the meal and leave the tip.'
'I'm sorry, Miss Henderson,' I said.
'I will never be dependent on a man for anything,' she said.
'Of course not,' I said.
'I am free and independent, and a person, and a true woman,' she said.
'Yes, Miss Henderson,' I said.
She looked at me. 'Do you think I am a slave?' she asked.
'Of course not!' I said. 'Of course not!'
'Do not forget it,' she said.
'No, Miss Henderson,' I said.
We drove on in silence.
'Do you think I might see you again, sometime?' I asked.
'No,' she said. Then she looked at me, in fury. 'I find you utterly contemptible,' she said.
I put down my head. I was miserable. My behavior, so boorish and gross, and my foolish attitudes and opinions, so crudely expressed, so unenlightened, had ruined our possibilities for a meaningful relationship. I was miserable. I was not pleasing to her.
'I am free and independent, and a true person, and a true woman,' she said.
'Yes, Miss Henderson,' I said.
'And I will never be dependent on a man for anything,' she said, 'nor will I ever be in a man's power.'
'Yes, Miss Henderson,' I said, my head down.
'Driver,' she said, suddenly, 'you have taken a wrong turn.'
'Sorry,' he said.
He reached under the dashboard and pulled two levers. I heard a movement of metal in the door beside me. An instant later, as he had pulled the second lever, I heard a movement of metal within the door on Miss Henderson's side.
He continued to drive in the same direction, not circling about.
'Driver,' said Miss Henderson, 'you're going in the wrong direction!'
He continued to drive.
'Driver,' she said, irritably, her small voice imperious and cold, 'you are going in the wrong direction!'
He did not respond to her.
'Turn back here,' she said, as we neared a corner. But he continued to drive straight ahead.
'Can you hear me?' she asked, leaning forward.
'Be silent, Slave Girl,' he said.
'Slave Girl!' she cried.
I was startled. Almost instantly, as he threw a lever which must have been beside him, a heavy glass screen or shield sprang up, from the top of the seat in front of us, against which his back rested. It locked in the lateral slot in the top of the cab. At the same time I heard two sudden hisses, coming from the back of the seat in front of us, one on each side. I started to cough. A colorless gas, under great pressure, was being forced into the rear of the cab.
'Stop the cab!' I demanded, coughing, pounding on the glass shield with the flat of my hand. It rang softly. It was thick. I do not even think the driver could hear me, or well hear me, through its weight.
'What is going on?' cried the girl.
The cab had now begun to accelerate. I suddenly discovered that there were no handles by means of which
