edge of the door connecting the next room. Thumping of bags. Laughter of two men. One man said something to the porter.
"Yes, suh, I kin get you anything you want. You want something else sides gin 'n' ice? San'wiches?"
A confidential voice asked an inaudible question.
"Sure thing. You jus' call this numbah and say Cee-dric—thass me—tol' you. Horta, she'll take care you good."
A voice conferred with another voice and then made a phone call.
"I wish," grumbled awakened Lucy, "they'd talk loud enough for me to hear or keep quiet. I was sound asleep."
"S-sh, don't listen, try and sleep, dear!" Mae said tensely.
Grunts, groans, shoes dropping, water running, matches struck. They could smell the tobacco. "Ah-ah! these slippers feel better," said a voice. "Christ, the wife's sure going to be sore because I didn't get home. It's her birthday." The two men laughed.
Mae dozed fitfully. The proximity of the men frightened her. It was almost as if they were in the room. There was something sneaking about them, boys doing what they shouldn't.
Clink of glasses, drinks being poured.
"Something else you want, jus' call, ahm on all night."
"O.K., George."
"Cee-dric."
"O.K., George—Cee-dric."
Desultory talk, then a light tap, door opening, and rustle.
"Why how do you do, girls, come right in," said one man.
Two girl voices, soft and high, almost like Lucy's. Mae cowered under the cover. Lucy was all ears.
"My friend and I were just having a little sociable drink, won't you join us?"
It was all hesitantly polite and formal until after the third or fourth drink. Ugly thick male voices made bewildering demands. Lucy was puzzled. Then the girls said, "Nothing doing until we see money, mister." Slobbering incoherent men pleading, but mockingly calm businesslike women. Then silence.
"Hurry up," Lucy heard one of the girls say roughly. "I can't stay here all night."
Then the men began to yell words Lucy had heard boys shout and the girls yelled them back. Some words she never had heard. What did they mean? Lucy was afraid to move. She heard Mother retching in the bathroom. She, too, felt sick but was too afraid to move.
