are johnsons feelings toward the widow and her companion still relevant today? interpret johnsons tone toward the couple in terms of critiquing societal norms or taboos?

His time in New York ends abruptly, though, when has a run-in with the widow's kept man and witnesses her violent death at her companion's hands. This type of domestic abuse, unfortunately, still happens. I suppose the idea of "kept men" exists today but it certainly isn't talked about, the situation is usually the other way around. The widow's companion approaches their table and just when the narrator thinks he is going to strike her, the widow's companion pulls out a revolver and shoots her in the throat. The narrator leaps up and runs frantically into the city streets, frightened and paranoid, until the millionaire drives by and finds him. The narrator tells him what has happened and the millionaire replies, "'I decided last night that I'd go to Europe tomorrow. I think I'll take you along instead of Walter'" (91).