@@@@@ In the lobby the hat-check girl can hear 535
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In the lobby the hat-check girl can hear him phoningHe leans against the wall in danger of supporting himself with his face against the phoneThe line is busy, and for an instant he wants to cry
Hello, Eloise? he asksThe woman's voice crackles at him from the other end
It's more fun being out with the gang from the office on a tear
I tell ya I never saw anything like it, picking up a half dollar like that, why, she just picked it right off the edge of the tableI suppose if it wasn't the place where I saw it you'd have to go to Paris or a nigger whorehouse anyway
It takes all kinds to make a world
Yeh, that's about the way I look at it, there's a lot of things go on in people's heads you don't know nothing about
What do you figure goes on in the Chief's head?
Uh-uh, we ain't talking shop tonight, that's understoodCome on, let's start a round going
They drink up, exhaust the circle of rounds owed
I'm going to tell you men something, Brown says, a lot of people think we might have a soft job selling, but the God's honest truth of it is that we work hard as any man jack, am I right?
None harderNow when I was up at the university before I flunked out, I flunked out I want you to know 'cause I think a man's a goddam fool if he's got false pride, I don't believe in making out you're exactly what you ain'tI'm as ordinary as an old shoe and I'll admit it to anyone who asks me
Brown, you're a good old sonofabitch
Well, now, I'm glad to hear you say that, Jennings, because I know you mean it, and it means a lotA man works his fool ass off and he wants to have some friends, people he knows will trust him and like him, 'cause if he ain't got that what's the point to his working?
That's exactly it
I'm pretty fortunate, I'll say that to any man in his face, but of course I've had my troubles, who the hell hasn't, but we're not here to cry about that tonight, now, are we? I want to tell you men, I got a beautiful wife, now, that's the truth
One of the gang guffawsBrown, I got a beautiful wife too, but I swear after you been married two years a woman might just as well look like a coon dog for all the good it does you
I can't quite agree, Freeman, but there's a point to what you sayHe feels his words dribbling out of his mouth, lost in the babel of glasses and conversation
Come on, let's be goin' over to Eloise's
And the inevitable coming back
