The lady in red

The lady in red. A woman stands in the doorway: young, pretty, dressed in red, with Sherry rubbing against her. She says he should see a doctor 'if you're serious about your work' (a joke about burglary). She heard him 'from the top of the house'.

Fear of prison. She says that if he runs, she'll telephone the police. Horace begs: he steals only from the rich, for a good reason, and 'I hate the thought of prison'. He promises never to steal again. She laughs, and says, 'I have always liked the wrong kind of people.'

The gloves come off. She takes a cigarette from a silver box. Eager to please her, Horace takes off his gloves to light it. Then her deal: she promised her husband to take her jewels to the bank, but left them in the safe. She wants them for a party tonight, and she has 'forgotten the numbers'. She doesn't mind if he breaks the safe: her husband won't be back for a month.

Caught. Within an hour Horace opens the safe, bare-handed, gives her the jewels and leaves happily. He keeps his promise for two days. On the third morning he starts thinking of another safe, but by noon he is arrested. His fingerprints are all over the room. The real owner's wife, 'a grey-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty', calls his story nonsense. Horace is now assistant librarian in the prison.