He told her in plain and violent English what he thought of her, and if she went out there again he'd be damned happy to let her drown.
Now, it had been some time since any man had had the hardihood or temerity to upbraid Madame Obosky.

No male had cursed her since she left Petrograd,--and that was four years ago.

She had been cursed often enough by her own sex,--professionally, of course,--but the men she had encountered since leaving Russia were either too chivalrous or too cowardly to abuse her, and she missed it terribly.
She had gone through a very hard school in order to become one of the principal dancers in her land.

Teachers had cursed her, teachers had beaten her,--and they always were men.
When she was eighteen she married a lion-tamer.

Who would have thought that a man who trained lions could be gentle and mild, and as tame as the beasts he had beaten for years?
She was barely nineteen when he died, quite suddenly.