She said nothing.
"You need money?" I asked.
She still said nothing.
"Here!" I said.
I pulled out my check-book and wrote out a check for a thousand dollars payable to cash.
"This is for you," I told her. "Take it and do whatever you want to do. The check's good."
The girl looked at me, took the check, studied it. Then she rose, in complete silence, looked at me again and left me. She shrugged her way through the dancers and the waiters to the rear of the room and disappeared. I did not know her name and I never saw her again.
A high-ochre girl came over.
"Change yo' luck?" she asked, bending over so that I could see down the front of her scant-cut dress.
"My luck's done changed," I told her. "Give me a drink and here's a ten-spot for yourself. And I'll be on my way."