But this was not the deeper reason for Mimi’s refusal nor was even she aware of the cause of her abstention from all relations other than those of her work and school. As a girl Mimi had had a fragile, flowerlike beauty. The hardships she had undergone—the agonies of flesh and spirit—had not coarsened or embittered her. Instead they had given her an air of hard brilliancy like the glistening surface of porcelain, beautiful, alluring but chilling to the touch—and as impenetrable. Men instinctively turned and looked at her again as they passed her on the street. She was, of course, not unaware of these attentions nor did they altogether displease her. But her experiences with men, the disastrous one with Carl, the unpleasant ones in Germantown and New York, had made her frankly sceptical of men and their motives. She was frankly repelled by the contacts she had had with men and she had definitely vowed that she would concentrate on her work and Jean’s future to the exclusion of everything else. She was strengthened in this vow by the realization that she would never be able to give up Jean and that his existence with the necessity of explanation of his existence would mean almost inevitably the rupture of any friendship other than a most casual one which she might form.
So year after year Mimi went ploddingly along the way she had laid out for herself. One by one girls left Francine’s employ, some to get married, some to work elsewhere, some because they were discharged. Yet others, usually very pretty ones who had served as mannequins or in other ways had come in contact with men who had accompanied customers to Francine’s, left mysteriously. Some of these paid visits later at Francine’s as customers themselves or visited the workrooms clad in expensive furs and gowns, wearing beautiful jewels. Sylvia too left in time to open a shop in upper Broadway, somewhere in the Nineties. “I’ll start in the K.W. neighbourhood—there’s more money there when you’re beginning,” she told Mimi. “I wish you’d come along as I begged you and go in partnership with me.” But Mimi preferred to stay on at Francine’s where she was sure of putting aside each week money for Jean.