“Nope—some of the girls objected to her and raised such a row she left. She’s got a place of her own in Harlem—she’s married now and Francine don’t know it but a lot of these swells go all the way up there to get Miss Lawrence to do their clothes. Francine would throw a fit or two if she found it out.” …
Mimi liked her work. She started at fifteen dollars a week but before many months had passed her pay was increased. The hours were not as long as they seemed and she learned to like Sylvia more and more as each day brought forth some new sign of the determination and keen intelligence that lay back of Sylvia’s rather slangy and disrespectful manner. With Mimi there was none of the subtle antagonisms Sylvia felt towards the other girls. This hostility was born of Sylvia’s contempt for their greater polish and worldly cleverness, their air of distinction with which they aped the manners of the patrons of Francine’s whom they watched when the girls walked on the Avenue during the lunch hour. Sylvia would never have admitted it, but there was, too, envy in her heart of these among whom