“For a year I’ve been planning to come here. Bach week I put aside a little of my pay, so that I would have enough money. I wanted to live one week like a rich lady. I wanted yo get up in the morning when I wished. I wanted to be served by waiters. I wanted to have the best of everything. Now I’ve done it, and I’ve been happier than I ever was before. And now I’m going back to work.
“I wanted to tell you about it, Mr. Farrington, because I-I thought you liked me, and I-I liked you. This week I’ve told you many things that weren’t true. I told you things I’ve read about. They never happened to me. I’ve been living in a story. It wasn’t real I wanted you to think I was a great lady.
“This dress I’m wearing-it’s the only pretty dress I own. I haven’t paid for it yet. I’m paying for it a little at a time.
“The price was seventy-five dollars. It was made for me at O’Dowd and Levinsky’s shop. I paid ten dollars first, and now I have to pay a dollar a week untilit’s all paid.
“And that’s all I have to say, Mr. farrington, except that my name is Mamie Siviter, and not Madame Beaumont. Thank you for listening to me. This dollar is the dollar I’m going to pay for my dress tomorrow. And now I’ll go up to my room.”
As Harold Farrington listened, his face had not changed. When she had finished, he took out a small book and began to write in it. Then he pulled out the small page with his writing on it, and gave it to her. And he took the dollar from her hand.
“I go to work too, tomorrow morning,” he said. “And I decided to begin now. That paper says you’ve paid your dollar for this week. I’ve been working for O’Dowd and Levinsky for three years. Strange, isn’t it? We both had the same idea. I always wanted to stay at a good hotel. I get twenty dollars a week. Like you, I put aside a little money at a time, until I had enough. Listen, Mamie. Will you go to the pleasure park on Coney Island with me on pay day?
The girl who had been Madame Heloise D’Arcy Beaumont smiled.
“I’d love to go, Mr. Farrington. Coney will be all right, although we did live here with rich people for a week.”
They could hear the night noises of the hot city. Inside the Hotel Lotus it was cool. The waiter stood near, ready to get anything they asked for.
Madame Beaumont started up to her room for the last time.
And he said, “Forget that ‘Harold Farrington,’ will you? McManus is the name-James McManus. Some call me Jimmy.”
“Good night, Jimmy,” said Madame.