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"She won’t do it," Theta said

"I say she will"

"Fine Let’s up the ante on it Ten dollars"

Ten dollars was a princely sum, but Evie wasn’t about to back down

"Done!"

They shook on it and put their faces back to theInside, Mabel sat in the barber’s chair and let hi to buy the swankiest stockings with your ten dollars, Theta"

Theta sripped the padded armrests of the barber’s chair as he puht his scissors toward Mabel’s hair Her eyes widened and she jumped from the chair, thren the apron, and bolted for the door, setting the bell over it tinkling like Santa’s sleigh

"Ah, applesauce!" Evie hissed

Theta held out her pals, Evil"

"I’irls made their way toward Tiht I’d faint!"

"It’s all right, Mabesie Not everybody can be a Zelda," Evie said, linking ar to win Jericho, I have to win him as I am"

"And you shall!" Evie reassured her "Somehow"

At Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue, they waved to the policelass enclosure atop the traffic toith its red, green, and yellow signals He tipped his hat and the girls laughed, buoyed by the crowds crossing amid the h sewer grates, as if the city and its bustling people were but part of a great mechanism powered by unseen ed man in a rickety wheelchair rattled his tin cup at thes werebelow the knees "A bit of charity for one who served," he rasped

Evie reached into her coin purse and retrieved a dollar, which she stuffed into his cup "There you are"