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"Maybe you could be Sig theain

"That’s terrible," Henry drawled between laughs His cheeks had the slightest flush It made him look like a debauched altar boy

"Alpha Beta! Delta Upsilon! Phi Beta Kappa! Delta Theta!"

"Wait--as that last one?" Theta had asked

"Theta," the college boy said, and his coious drunken happiness

"Theta," she’d said, liking the feel of it on her tongue "Theta it is"

She insisted on Knight for her last na and bold A name of armor For she would defend herself in this new life

"To Miss Theta Knight," the boys toasted, and Theta drank to her new na, they’d danced in a circle under a chandelier that bathed theht would never end

A week later, Theta woke Henry so early that the daylight was nothem both of color Her eyes were puffy and red, her cheeks stained with tears It had been two months since she’d left Kansas and Roy, since he’d hurt her for the last time

Henry pushed himself up onto his elbows His voice was thick with sleep "What’s the matter, darlin’?"

She told hi not to sob until toward the end She’d been so light these past feeeks, as if she’d been rescued fro current of a rain-sodden river and had warmed herself on the bank under a hot sun, only to wake later and find that the river had risen in the night, pulling her back out and under

Henry had listened soberly When she’d finished, he’d scooped her close and held her against his bare, smooth chest "I’ll marry you, if you want," he’d said

She kissed his palht them to her face "I can’t have this baby, Hen"

Henry nodded slowly "I know soht be able to help us out"

He’d said it like that--us And Theta knew then that they’d never part, that they’d always be like this, two halves of the same whole, the best of friends

They had the name of a htly in Theta’s pal as they threaded their way down an alley and into a shabby building where twoscared, and then hts of stairs, past closed doors behind which children squalled and were shushed The odor of cooking fish wafted down a long, dark hallway, turning Theta’s stomach, and she had to will herself not to vomit, and then finally they reached the top floor and knocked at the plain brown door of an apartly of Lysol A wiryarea with three ht was a bathtub half-filled with bloody water and a collection of carving knives Behind a drape, a woht she’d break it off The wiry man pointed to a cot with a sheet and told her to undress and lie down The wo stairs and out into the soggy alley, not caring that she was getting soaked

"It’s okay," Henry said when he caught up He was out of breath "We’ll find the money"

Henry sold his piano and they found another doctor, expensive but clean After it was done, Theta lay on Henry’s bed, craet hi she did Henry squeezed her hand and she drifted into sleep Teeks later she’d gotten the job in the chorus at the Follies She’d had to lie about her nae, but everyone did It hat she loved about the city--you could be anybody you wanted to be When their rehearsal accoested they hire Henry With the extra ton, posing as brother and sister, which was laughable, really, their appearances being as different as their souls were alike And every week, Theta put a dollar in an old coffee can ht it would just go on like that forever, Theta and Henry, neither belonging to anyone but the Mee syh No, it was Me with hih the idea of their being together seemed completely hopeless And if Flo ever found out, she’d be banned from his show