Mafia Romance
JMOthis damned thirst for survival
's rejoicing increased a year after her daughter's nuptials with the arrival of her first grandchild, a girl. Arlyne - Billie thought it was very fancy spelled that way - was a chubby baby. She wasn't exactly beautiful, but from the moment of her birth, her tiny maze of mirrored features were full of vitality. Ida proudly paraded the creature around Broadway, where she was known as "little Arlyne" or "Princess Arlyne." By the time she was four years old, the child had been instilled with the conviction that the most important thing in life was to dress well. Her grandmother had never bought a ready-made garment. And neither had her mother, whose closet, down to the bathrobes, was entirely ma