Page:Minnie Flynn (1925).pdf/109

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needed. Eleanor knew of a shop where Minnie could get an afternoon frock (she simply must have an afternoon frock in her wardrobe), an evening cloak, extra slippers and lingerie. Minnie laughingly repeated the word "lingerie" several times before she could pronounce it. Funny word to call underwear. Eleanor explained that all the girls had their own wardrobes. If they were called for costume plays the company would supply the costumes, but there would be dozens and dozens of other calls for afternoon teas, garden parties, boarding-school scenes and dance halls.

That evening when Minnie signed the voucher slip and was given three dollars and a half for her day's work, she paid a dollar and a half on account to Eleanor.

"I feel as if I was cheating you to get that classy dress for fifteen dollars," she said. "I never dreamed of owning anything like it. I'll take it home and show the folks. Bet it'll be an eye-opener for them, too."

Minnie's name was on the callboard for the following morning.

"That makes seven dollars in two days," she figured, "and I've been slaving for a whole week in that rotten basement for only nine dollars."

She thought of what a contrast Eleanor was to the girls she'd been going with; Elsie Bicker and her friends of the basement. Not that she'd throw over her old friends because she had found new ones, but they could never interest her again. They didn't know anything, when she compared them to Eleanor who had been everywhere, who had seen so much of life and had known so many of its experiences. For Eleanor had traveled to California and back; she had gone up to Maine on a picture, and had been out on ocean boats many times. And how wise she was, how well she knew men. Eleanor had had a flat with three nigger servants in it. She was also going