cember in New York is like spring in Congress. I don't know as I care for such a warm winter."
Lucy, licking off the chocolate, looked at her mother in dismay. "Don't you like New York?"
"Of course—but I guess I got used to living in a house. I think we ought to get an apartment anyway so I can weigh your food and keep you on a balanced diet."
"Let's," Lucy agreed enthusiastically, "it will be more like we're here to stay if we have our own place."
The week after Easter, during Intermission, Joe Samuels brought to her dressing room a tall youngish man with a heavy-chinned long face, cold narrow-set eyes, thin blond hair and full too-smooth lips, so shiningly groomed he seemed to have been polished with a nail buffer. There always was an assortment of men who came backstage but this was the first time Joe Samuels had escorted one to her dressing room. She could tell from Joe's voice that Lyle Bigelow was rich and important. What impressed her more was that the man asked Mother's permission to take "Miss Claudel" to a party at the home of a friend. Mae had blushed, not quite knowing how to answer a gentleman who looked and acted as she had pictured a Prince Charming come for darling. Lucy, reluctant to break the comfortable routine of going home to their rooms off Eighth Avenue where Peggy would be waiting with sandwiches and the day's gossip, replied she would let him know after the show if she could break a date. Standard brush-off.
"I think you should go, you haven't been out at all," Mae urged.
"I guess I will, you know I've been dying to see the inside of one of those rich houses. Besides, it seems a shame not to wear my white chiffon after all those nights you sat here sewing on beads. My first formal evening dress. I think I'll open this Mitsuoko. Twenty-five dollars! Aunt Mabel would have a fit. But I haven't an evening wrap."
"Oh dear!" Mae pursed her lips, distressed. "Of course, it's mild out. I know what—I'll make you one from your third scene drape. I'll double it and tie two loops for your arms. Then you can tie the ends around your waist in a big bow on your hip. It will look real chic."
Lucy giggled. "I'll sneak out so Mrs. O'Flaherty doesn't see me.
