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For awhile I was very much teed off at Maurice for getting us into such a jam although he didn’t appear to be at all concerned about what time he got home. Later I forgave him, realizing that he had been tryinq to do someone a good turn--in fact, it seems to me as I look back on the affair, that he thought he knew the boy, Neil, somehow--had met him somewhere, perhaps at the plant. At any rate, he was determined that he was going to protect Neil come hell or high water that night. He sure wasn't protecting me very well. We had to wait around for another half hour trying to get Neil in shape to leave. In the meantime Claudette continued to attempt my seduction but I resisted her successfully. It was a rather sordid business the farther it went. Claudette's lushed up escort finally got a dance with another girl he'd had his eye on but had to wait until her boyfriend got so stewed he didn't care anymore. While he was dancing, Claudette touched her cigarette to the other girl's balloon at her table, it exploded, and the girl hurled a torrent of oaths at her and then got maudlin because she fancied that some of the guests had insulted her. Meanwhile the escort got too ardent with his new partner as they danced, she fought him off and finally left him standing bleary-eyed in the middle of the dance floor. Finally Claudette threw caution to the winds as far as I was concerned, looked at me seductively, smiled and jerked her head toward the door, her eyes dancing. But I pretended not to know what she meant. When she and her companions were ready to leave, she asked me to kiss her goodbye. She was pretty enough, alluring enough, but at that point, the past broke through and said NO and nothing would have induced me to do it. And yet I liked her. She seemed like a healthy, good—hearted, fairly intelligent kid. So I just patted her cheek and told her I’d always remember she looked like Claudette Colbert and could dance beautifully. She laughed and pulled away in an old Nash. I was sure I'd seen her before and wondered if I'd ever see her again. As far as I know, I never did.

Finally Maurice and Neil and I took off for North East where we waited an hour in the lunch room at the busy corner for the other boys to show up for Neil. We woke up the lunch room attendant and got coffee. Neil sobered gradually. The cop came in, a nice old fellow accompanied by a faithful dog named "Handsome" whose life he'd once saved. We got away from North East about 5 a.m. I was desperately worried about Willie. The sun was rising. Willie was almost beside herself when I reached home about 5:30. But when I got up from my 1½ hours of sleep at 7 a.m. she had forgiven me. I told her how it all happened and how I tried to do what I thought would be the best thing as far as she was concerned--but I concluded that I’d been wrong and it would have been a lot better if I'd phoned her when I saw how things were shaping up. But it was an experience in living although once was enough. Never since then have I cared for "divey" kinds of places. I've been in a few more but not really by choice.