Chapters XVII and XVIII Summary

Chapter seventeen shows Ray, new in New York and not able to pay for his room, but he gets a bed in a room with other male lodgers. At this point, the landlady Ma Lawton moves out of her big room and gives the big room to a couple, Jerco Jones and Ms. Rosalind Whicher. The woman is tall with smooth skin and in the winter is always wearing a mink coat. The couple seems to have a lot of money and takes Ray out to eat. Ray gets a job at the free-lunch counter in the saloon under Ma Lawton's apartment. Then Jerco and the white man are joined by Rosalind, later going up to their room. The implication is that Jerco is Rosalind's pimp. The two elevator men that sleep in the same room as...