Munsey's Magazine, August 1925

"The Price of Curiosity" by L. M. Hussey This complete novelette depicts life at the border between social worlds in 1920s New York. Stella Beresford, a naive young woman from Virginia whose family has rented a city apartment for the winter, is engaged to Sterling Elliot, an assistant district attorney. Fascinated by urban crowds and underworld figures, Stella presses Elliot to show her the city's dangerous side—murderers, gangsters, Bolsheviks. He refuses, calling such "slumming" unsafe and unpleasant. Left alone one afternoon while shopping on Fifth Avenue, Stella encounters Dulcie Armstrong, an elegantly but flamboyantly dressed young woman who suffers a sudden heart attack on the street. Stella assists her and accompanies her by taxi back toward her home. Dulcie proves worldly and enigmatic, suggesting she is known in certain circles though Stella doesn't recognize the name. The narrative breaks as Stella accepts Dulcie's invitation to visit her apartment, signaling the beginning of Stella's crossing into dangerous social territory.