And it had been he, Barney Palmer, who had been the first to discover Maggie's latent possibilities! He had an eye beyond mere surfaces, had Barney.

He had used women in the past in putting over many of his more private transactions (and had done so partly for the reason that using women so was eminently "safe"-- this despite his violent outburst of sneering disdain at Larry when the latter had spoken of safety): some of them professional sharpers, some unscrupulous actresses of the lower flight--such women as he had just chatted with in the restaurants where he had made his brief visits.

But such, he now recognized, were rather BLASEES, rather too obvious.

They were the blown rose.

But Maggie was fresh, and once she was properly broken in, she would be his perfect instrument.