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 On her way home she met Jimmy and imparted the news to him, emphasizing the importance of Eleanor's visit.

"You can't tell what may come of this friendship," she repeated over and over again. "I've certainly been lucky to meet a girl like her. She knows everybody in the business. You ought to see the way Bacon treats her. None of that upstage stuff around Eleanor. Think of it, Jimmy, he used to be workin' for her; when she was a star in the company out West he was only the director and she got more money than he did."

"Like to cop off a girl like that myself," said Jimmy banteringly. "Glad you brought her home with you."

They walked in silence a few moments, then a sharp outcry from Minnie brought them to a sudden halt. She seized hold of Jimmy's arm dramatically. "Jimmy," she said solemnly, "swear to me on everything holy that you won't forget one thing at the dinner table tonight."

Jimmy raised his right hand.

"Don't ask for any soup! I only got a can and it's tomato, the kind you can't thin out so well."

Eleanor wasn't astonished at the neighborhood in which the Flynns lived, but from Minnie's description she had visualized better surroundings than The Central. When she walked up the dingy, winding stairway the hot, fetid odor of the unaired lightwell assailed her nostrils.

Minnie met her in front of the Flynn apartment and tittered nervously an excuse for the dark hallway.

"All apartment halls are dark," said Eleanor to make her feel comfortable. "I paid two hundred dollars for a flat once and the hallways were terrible."