She turned into a drug store and from a phone booth called Cokey Jenny, and arranged to see a motion picture with her. Babe longed for the gorgeous trapping of romance that she saw pictured on the silver screen, and she dreamed that some day all the pleasure and refinements of luxury would be hers. She saw herself in the future, the adored mistress of a handsome, aristocratic young god, who possessed all the wealth of Crœsus.

V THE MODEL

THAT night, Babe went to bed early for the first time in months. She had come to a decision. For a short period she had been a model for Goldstein, in his cloak and suit house on West 36th Street. She had been Goldie’s star model, and when she had left him to seek an easier life in the dusk-till-dawn existence of Harlem, he had mourned her loss.

Now she wanted to play safe. She meant to concentrate on holding the Bearcat, who she thought would soon be champion, and as such would command large slices of heavy gate receipts. To be on the safe side, she would chuck Harlem and drinking and. late hours and men, so that neither Charlie nor the Bearcat could point a finger at her. She decided to go back to work for Goldstein. It meant getting to the shop at ten o’clock every morning. But she would be drawing a regular salary, could dress better, and move to more attractive quarters. Besides, having a job would give her, in the Bearcat’s eyes, the appearance of respectability, which that unsophisticated young man thought essential in a girl, that is, his own particular girl.

At nine o’clock Monday morning Babe entered Goldstein’s establishment. She went into his private office without knocking. Goldie looked up from his desk and stared. Then he threw up his hands.

“Good God! Babe!” he cried, in genuine astonishment.

“Hello, Goldie,” she said with a winsome smile.

He came around his desk and pumped her arm up and down. He seemed tickled to see her. He had always held a soft spot in his heart for her.

“Dis is a surprise,” he said, his fat face beaming. “So what are you doing now?”

“Nothing,” Babe replied. “Nothing at all. And I’m tired of doing it. Thought I’d drop in and see if you had any models I could buy cheap.”

“Sure, sure,” said Goldie. “We got plenty, and a new line we just made up. Come, I show you.”

They went into the salesroom and Goldie showed her all sorts of smart models in suits and dresses. She tried on one of the latest in dresses and Goldie raved over her.