Page:Manhattan Transfer (John Dos Passos, 1925).djvu/70

58 "Look here, I've got to go call on a lady friend."

"Oh that's what's eating you is it? I always said you was a wise guy Emile."

"Look, here's my address on a piece of paper in case you forget it: 945 West 22nd. You can come and sleep there if you're not too pickled, and dont you bring any friends or women or anything. I'm in right with the landlady and I dont want to spoil it Tu comprends."

"But I wanted you to come on a swell party Faut faire un peu la noce, nom de dieu! "

"I got to work in the morning."

"But I got eight months' pay in my pocket

"Anyway come round tomorrow at about six. I'll wait for you."

"Tu m'emmerdes tu sais avec tes manières;" Congo aimed a jet of saliva at the spittoon in the corner of the bar and turned back frowning into the inside room.

"Hay dere sit down Congo; Barney's goin to sing de Bastard King of England."

Emile jumped on a streetcar and rode uptown. At Eighteenth Street he got off and walked west to Eighth Avenue. Two doors from the corner was a small store. Over one window was over the other  In the middle of the glass door white enamel letters read Emile Rigaud, High Class Table Dainties. Emile went in. The bell jangled on the door. A dark stout woman with black hairs over the corners of her mouth was drowsing behind the counter, Emile took off his hat.

"Bonsoir Madame Rigaud." She looked up with a start, then showed two dimples in a profound smile.

"Tieng c'est comma ça qu'ong oublie ses ami-es," she said in a booming Bordelais voice. "Here's a week that I say to myself, Monsieur Loustec is forgetting his friends."

"I never have any time any more."

"Lots of work, lots of money, being?" When she laughed her shoulders shook and the big breasts under the tight blue bodice.