“Arion’s admonitions came back to me. Evil Doers. I realized I was looking into the eyes of the roughest of the girls, who had most assuredly expected me to be murdered, and as I did so I could see into her mind: I could see her anger, see her bitterness, see her heated temper. And as I stared at her, with the tender Adonis adjusting my clothes, there came from her the nastiest voice.

“ ‘Why you?’ she demanded. ‘Why you instead of one of us? Who are you that it should be you?’

“ ‘Hush, no,’ said the boy quickly. ‘Don’t be so foolish.’

“The other girl affected a cold, cynical air, but she felt the same sentiment. She felt cheated and angry. Hatred emanated from both women, and I realized it was angering me, and I detested them, detested them that they would have dumped my body this very night with no thought more than that it was a cumbersome task for them.

“ ‘We work, we wait,’ said the brash one, ‘and then you’re brought here, and she chooses you. Why!’

“ ‘No, quiet,’ said the boy again. He had finished adjusting my turtleneck and the lapels of my coat. He looked pleadingly into my eyes, wondering, adoring. He seemed to feel some mammoth sympathy for me that I hadn’t died. He seemed to think it marvelous.

“ ‘How many others has she brought here?’ I asked him.

“He had no time to answer. The two doors to the bath were shut with a snap. And before the two girls or the boy could turn around, another two doors were also shut. No exit now remained except the terrace, and I knew the drop that existed beneath it.

“I turned around. I found Petronia against the doors behind me.

“ ‘Very well then,’ she said, ‘so you’ve finished dying, and you’ll never know it again unless you choose to know it. Now you’ll make another choice. You’ll choose your first kill. And that will be one of these. Be swift about it. I don’t care who it is. No. I do care. I’m curious. Go on!’

“ ‘The girls gasped and screamed and, reaching for each other, backed up against the marble-tiled wall. The boy merely looked at Petronia and did nothing. He seemed to feel a profound disappointment but never made a sound.

“ ‘I can’t do it,’ I said.

“ ‘You can and you will,’ said Petronia. ‘Choose one of these or I’ll choose for you. They’re Evil Doers par excellence. They would have hauled you away tonight, a mere carcass to them, had you died.’

“She came up beside me. Her face softened and she put her arm up over my shoulder and she looked up at me tenderly. She spoke in a gentle voice as the girls still shivered and whimpered in panic and the boy stood his ground, frozen.