Julie nodded. “That’s the one. He gave me ten bucks as soon as he got in the room”she put her hand over her mouth and spluttered with laughter“in an envelope. Can you tie that? He was so genteel he gave it to me in an envelope.”
Even Fan smiled.
“Well, go on,” Lulu said. “What was he like?”
Julie shook her head. “He didn’t do anythin’. When I started to undress he nearly had a fit. What he thought he’d come up there for I can’t guess. He said, all embarrassed, that he just wanted to talk to me. And would I put on a wrap as he thought it was tough for a girl like me to sit around as I was. Believe me, you could have knocked me over with a mangle.”
“Yeah?” Fan said bitterly. “I guess I’d sooner sleep with a guy than listen to him talk. A guy who likes talkin’ about it can go on for ever.”
“Oh, he talked about all kinds of things. He was ever so interestin’,” Julie said stoutly. “I liked the guy. He didn’t once ask me why I lived here, or if I liked it, or any of the other crap guys always ask.”
Fan got bored. “Gee! I thought you were goin’ to tell us somethin’ worth listenin’ to,” she said.
“Didn’t I tell you she’d got a dirty mind?” Lulu chimed in triumphantly.
Just then the door opened and Carrie came in. Carrie was a tall, thin, muscular mulatto. Her face was cut in hard, etched lines. Glittering black eyes, like glass beads, gave her a look of cold, calculated suspicion and cruelty. Her broad flat nose disfigured what would have been an otherwise strikingly handsome face.
“Time you girls were in bed,” she said sharply. “Break it up. Go on, get off to bed.”