"This is the dress I wore the night we met, Al," she said, forcing a lukewarm sentimentality.
"That's so. So it is. Well, I'd put it away in moth-balls if I were you, honey, and keep it for a souvenir."
Minnie stared at him for a moment, then flung at him: "Listen, Al, that kind of stuff don't go very far with me. I'm onto you. I know what's the matter. You're ashamed of me. You're ashamed of the way I look. You think I'm a fright."
Al was a little disconcerted. "Fishing," he said with forced pleasantness, "but I've got no time for that now, honey. Come on. We might as well go down and have Letcher look you over."
"I can't come now. I've got to wait for somebody."
"Who, for heaven's sake?"
"Eleanor Grant. She was awful nice to me, Al. Loaned me a lot of things. She said if you didn't have time she'd introduce me around the studio."
Al welcomed the chance to escape.
"Eleanor's a great girl," he said. "She can do the honors better than I can, honey, so I'll toddle along as soon as she gets here."
When Eleanor opened the door and came out into the hall Minnie gasped. She thought she had never seen anything so beautiful in all her life. A green velvet dress was draped gracefully over her thin body. Décolletée, the bodice was held up by straps of rhinestones. Rhinestones sparkled in the hollow of her throat. Rhinestones swayed like pendulums from her ears. Set low on her forehead a wide band of rhinestones and pearls held in place a spray of black aigrettes. On her hands were many rings, imitation pearls and opaque diamonds the size of canary eggs. She carried a jewel-handled
