Before the man lost his wallet, he had seen the black-haired girl ______. A. only once B. twice C. three times D. four times
Ahead of him the brunette disappears around a comer and in the same moment a young man in a marine uniform puts out a foot to trip him up. He falls hard, banging knee and elbow on the tile floor of the terminal, but manages to hang on to the wallet which is not his.
The wallet is a woman’s, fat with money and credit cards, and it belongs to the blonde in the fur- trimmed coat — the blonde he has earlier seen in conversation with the criminal brunette. She, too, is breathless, as is the police man with her.
"That’s him," the blonde girl says. "He lifted my billfold."
It occurs to the man that he cannot even prove his own identity to the policeman.
Two weeks later -- the embarrassment and rage have diminished, the family lawyer has been paid, the confusion in his household has receded — the wallet turns up without explanation in one morning’s mail. It is intact, no money is missing, all the cards are in place. Though he is relieved, the man thinks that for the rest of his life he will feel guilty around policemen, and ashamed in the presence of women.