Ida paused as she saw the gin bottle, and held it to her lips while the hot liquid poured down her throat.

“Oh,” she moaned then, “what’ll Ah do? What’ll Ah do? She up dere wid mah man now. Oh, she’s wid mah man!”

Liza took the gin bottle and locked it in the closet.

“Who’s up dere wid yo’ man?” she asked. “Whutcha all takin’ on about, woman?”

After some minutes, Liza succeeded in calming Ida down. But Ida dragged a chair up by the hall door and sat with the door ajar, watching the stairs, waiting for Babe to come down. She laid the black-jack in her lap and every once in a while she’d pick it up and make wild passes at an imaginary foe, or else caress its leaden head affectionately.

Money Johnson had been watching for Babe, and at her knock he opened the door of the flat immediately. He forgot for a moment what Willis had told him about her dining in some club with a handsome white man.

The three months in the jail-house had told on him. He grabbed Babe in his arms like a savage and started kissing her. It all happened so quickly that Babe could hardly get her breath. She wasn’t exactly in the mood for this sort of love-making.

She had become quite used to Baldwin’s more sophisticated brand of passion. And she had lost her interest in this big dinge. Yes—it was just too bad that he had to carryon this way.

“What’s the idea of bringin’ me to this dump?” Babe snapped at him.

Johnson was taken aback.

“Why, honey, this is just a little hideaway o’ mine, where Ah can have mah baby to mahself. Oh, how Ah wanted yo’. In dat mean ol’ jail-house Ah couldn’t sleep nights thinkin’ about yo’. Oh, honey, how I missed messin’ round with you.”

He glanced down at her as he said it and noticed she had too many clothes on to suit him.

“Come on, take all dese dresses off. Take dat stuff off.”

Babe pushed him away.

“I can only stay a little while, Money. I got to go.”

She stood up and went over to the dresser and powdered her nose in the mirror. “My God! The way I look! You’ve got me lookin’ a sight. Just look at my hair. Look at the lip-rouge all over my face. Goddam it, get me a towel, hurry!”