He put out his hand automatically, palm upturned, but she didn’t give him anything. It had become a sort of signal between them, a way for him to establish that she was still a girl he could respect. People gave Wallace money to make him go away, so they wouldn’t be embarrassed by him, and he hated them for that.

“You going up there?” he asked in his gravelly voice and nodded toward Muriel’s.

“Yes.”

His eyes darted left and right, checking to see if anyone was in earshot. He leaned forward confidentially. Rose braced herself not to flinch. Wallace smelled sour, and his breath was always very bad.

“Nasty things going on.”

“I know, Wallace.”

“You keep watch up there.”

“Where? At Muriel’s?”

He nodded and ground his stained teeth together. His lips were chapped and cracked. Black and gray whiskers sprouted all over his chin and cheeks. But his eyes were beautiful: a clear, fragile blue that would have looked icy but for the long black eyelashes that shaded them.

“Why? Is she in trouble?”

‘Tow take care,” Wallace said. “It may be a trick of mirrors or it may be a miracle, I can’t say. Persons in the dark look different than in the day. Bad persons might go inside there, or they might come out.”

“I don’t understand, Wallace. Are you saying someone is hanging around the dance school?” “I tried to ask. She won’t talk with me.”

Rose recalled the night Muriel drove her home. She had been repulsed by Wallace.

“Are you sure about this?” Rose asked and noticed the hurt look in his eye. “I mean, is this something you should tell the police?”

Wallace looked uneasy. “No police,” he said adamantly. The police had not been his favorite people even before they held him in connection with Nancy’s murder. Periodically they grew disgusted with his vagrancy and forced him off the common.

“But if Muriel’s in danger — ”

“Maybe not her. Person been around many befores. Many many befores. Knows I watch here. Many dangers. I’ve suffered many bad hurts, many worries.” Agitated, he danced from one foot to another, preparing to go off into one of his tirades. He often gave speeches from his bench on the common, and they were always about his grievances toward his family.

“Thank you, Wallace,” she said gently and walked slowly away.

“Many bads, would I do that? No, but she never listened, she never paid attention to me,” Wallace was saying. “Would I do that? Would I do that? No no no no.”

Rose picked up speed in spite of not wanting to offend him. With talk like that, Wallace would get himself arrested. It gave her the shivers, hearing him denying he’d done bad things. But she was thoroughly disgusted with herself by the time she’d crossed the street and was at the door to the studio.