Mayhew, but curiously enough, she was very much like her in many ultimate ways-a sort of understudy of the older and more passionate woman, with a child's mischievous gaiety to boot and a childish joy in living. But a great and new sensation was now to come into my life. One evening a girl without a hat on and without knocking came into my office. Sommerfeld had gone home for the night and I was just putting my things straight before going out. She took my breath; she was astoundingly good looking, very dark with great, black eyes and slight girlish figure. «I'm Topsy,» she announced and stood there smiling, as if the mere name told enough. «Come in,» I said, «and take a seat: I've heard of you!» And I had. She was a privileged character in the town: she rode on the street-cars and railroads, too, without paying. Those who challenged her were all «poor white trash,» she said, and some man was always eager to pay for her. She never hesitated to go up to any man and ask him for a dollar or even five dollars-and invariably got what she wanted: her beauty was as compelling to men as her scornful aloofness. I had often heard of her as «that d… d pretty nigger girl!» but I could see no trace of any Negro characteristic in her pure loveliness. She took the seat and said with a faint southern accent I found pleasing, «You» name Harris?» «That's my name,» I replied smiling. «You here instead of Barker?» she went on. «He sure deserve to die hicuppin': pore white trash!» «What's your real name?» I asked. «They call me 'Topsy',» she replied, «but ma real true name is Sophy, Sophy Beveridge. You was very kind to my mother who lives upstairs. Yes,» she went on defiantly, «she's my mother and a mighty good mother, too, and don't you fergit it,» she added, tossing her head in contempt of my astonishment. «Your father must have been white,» I couldn't help remarking, for I couldn't couple Topsy with the old octoroon, do what I would. She nodded, «He was white all right: that is, his skin was,» and she got up and wandered about the office as if it belonged to her. «I'll call you 'Sophy,'«I said, for I felt a passionate revolt of injured pride in her. She smiled at me with pleasure. I didn't know what to do. I must not go with a colored girl, though I could see no sign of black blood in Sophy, and certainly she was astonishingly good looking, even in her simple sprigged gown. As she moved about I could not but remark the lithe panther-like grace of her and her little breasts stuck out against the thin cotton garment with a most provocative allurement. My mouth was parching when she swung round on me. «You ondressing me,» she said smiling, «and I'se glad, 'cause my mother likes you and I loves her-sure pop!» There was something childish, direct, innocent, even, about her frankness that fascinated me, and her good looks made sunshine in the darkening room.
«I like you, Sophy,» I said, «but anyone would have done as much for your mother as I did. She was ill!» «Hoo!» she snorted indignantly. «Most white folk would have let her die right there on the stairs. I know them: they'd have been angry with her for groaning.
I hate 'em!» And her great eyes glowered. She came over to me in a flash: «If you'd been an American, I could never have come to you, never! I'd rather have died, or saved and stole and paid you-» the scorn in her voice was bitter with hate: evidently the Negro question had a side I had never realized. «But you're different,» she went on, «an' I just came-» and she paused, lifting her great eyes to mine with an unspoken offer in their lingering regard. «I'm glad,» I said lamely, staving off the temptation, «and I hope you'll come again soon and we'll be great friends-eh, Sophy?» and I held out my hand smiling; but she pouted and looked at me with reproach or appeal or disappointment in her eyes. I could not resist: I took her hand and drew her to me and kissed her on the lips, slipping my right hand the while up to her left breast. It was as firm as India rubber: at once I felt my sex stand up and throb: resolve and desire fought in me, but I was accustomed to make my will supreme. «You are the loveliest girl in Lawrence,» I said, «but I must really go now. I have an appointment and I'm late.» She smiled enigmatically as I seized my hat and went, not stopping even to shut or lock the office door. As I walked up the street, my thoughts and feelings were all in a whirl. «Did I want her? Should I have her? Would she come again? «Oh, Hell! women are the very devil and he's not so black as he's painted! Black?» That night I was awakened by a loud knocking at my office door; I sprang up and opened without thinking and at once Sophy came in laughing. ^"What is it?» I cried, half asleep still. «I'se tired waiting,» she answered cheekily, «and anyways I just came.» I was about to remonstrate with her when she cried: «You go right to bed,» and she took my head in her hands and kissed me. My wish to resist died out of me. «Come quickly!» I said, getting into bed and watching her as she stripped. In a hand's turn she had undressed to her chemise. «I reckon this'll do,» she said coquettishly. «Please take it off,» I cried, and the next moment she was in my arms naked. As I touched her sex, she wound her arms round my neck and kissed me greedily with hot lips. To my astonishment her sex was well formed and very smalclass="underline" I had always heard that Negroes had far larger genitals than white people; but the lips of Sophy's sex were thick and firm. «Have you ever been had, Sophy?» I asked. «No, sir!» she replied. «I liked you because you never came after me and you was so kind and I thot that I'd be sure to do it sometime, so I'd rather let you have me than anyone else. I don't like colored men,» she added, «and the white men all look down on me and despise me and I-I love you,» she whispered, burying her face on my neck. «It'll hurt you at first, Sophy, I'm afraid,» but she stilled all scruples with, «Shucks, I don't care. If I gives you pleasure, I'se satisfied,» and she opened her legs, stretching herself as I got on her. The next moment my sex was caressing her clitoris and of herself she drew up her knees and suddenly with one movement brought my sex into hers and against the maiden barrier. Sophy had no hesitation: she moved her body lithely against me and the next moment I had forced the passage and was in her. I waited a little while and then began the love game. At once Sophy followed my movements, lifting her sex up to me as I pushed in and depressing it to hold me as I withdrew. Even when I quickened, she kept time and so gave me the most intense pleasure, thrill on thrill, and, as I came and my seed spirted into her, the muscle inside her vagina gripped my sex, heightening the sensation to an acute pang; she even kissed me more passionately than any other girl, licking the inside of my lips with her hot tongue.
When I went on again with the slow in-and-out movements, she followed in perfect time and her trick of bending her sex down on mine as I withdrew and gripping it at the same time excited me madly; soon, of her own accord, she quickened while gripping and thrilling me till again we both spent together in an ecstasy. «You're a perfect wonder,» I cried to her then, panting in my turn, «but how did you learn so quickly?» «I loves you,» she said, «so I do whatever I think you'd like then I likes that too, see?» And her lovely face glowed against mine. I got up to show her the use of the syringe and found we were in a bath of blood. In a moment she had stripped the sheet off. «I'll wash that in the morning,» she said laughing, while doubling it into a ball and throwing it in the corner. I turned the gas on fulclass="underline" never was there a more seductive figure. Her skin was darkish, it is true, but not darker than that of an ordinary Italian or Spanish girl, and her form had a curious attraction for me: her breasts, small and firm as elastic, stood out provocatively: her hips, however, were narrower than even Lily's, though the cheeks of her bottom were full; her legs, too, were well-rounded, not a trace of the sticks of the negro; her feet even were slender and high arched.