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"You onderful," Evie exclaimed a short while later, as the four of them--Evie, Mabel, Theta, and Henry--walked the tree-shaded, narrow bend of Bedford Street in Greenwich Village on their way to a party one of the girls was hosting

"Yeah ‘Second girl froe left’ is my specialty," Theta deadpanned

Henry took her arht be ‘first girl froht you were the duck’s quack," Evie said "Mabel and I noticed you right away Didn’t we, Mabesie?"

"And how!"

"You’re sweet to say so, kid This is the joint, here"

They’d stopped at a redbrick building The party had spilled out onto the stoop, where a girl in a feather boa, a long cigarette holder angled between two fingers, was already drunk She blocked their ith her leg "What’s the password?"

"Long Island," Henry said

"You have to say it like this: Lawn Guy-land," she instructed

"Lawn Guy-land," they all said

"Entrez!" The girl let her leg drop with a thump and the four of thehts of stairs dotted with birdlike clusters of people till they came to an apartment whose door was propped open by an ice bucket Inside, the radio played a jazzy number The hostess shimmied past the into another roo an unseen tide There was a lamp on the floor, and a bust of Thoazed at the four of them from one of the burners on the tiny kitchen’s even tinier stove A fella crooned "I’ll Take Manhattan" for a few of the chorus girls and their friends, who sat at his feet singing along

Mabel tugged on Evie’s sleeve "I’ we can’t fix with a little sh, she removed her rhinestone headband with the peacock feathers and placed it on Mabel’s head "Here, you go, Mabesie You look like the Christmas s at Gimbels And who doesn’t love those?"

"Thanks, Evie"

"Botto them each a drink