Bildungsromans; Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; Domestic fiction; Fathers and daughters -- Fiction; Gamblers -- Family relationships -- Fiction
“Chuck it. Do something that will bring you quick results. This isn’t an
age of waiting. Suppose, twenty years from now, you do plan a grand
Gothic office building to grace this new and glorified Michigan
Boulevard they’re always shouting about! You’ll be a middle-aged man
living in a middle-class house in a middle-class suburb with a
middle-class wife.”
“Maybe”—slightly nettled. “And maybe I’ll be the Sir Christopher Wren
of Chicago.”
“Who’s he?”
“Good G——, how often have you been in London?”
“Three times.”
“Next time you find yourself there you might cast your eye over a very
nice little structure called St. Paul’s Cathedral. I’ve never seen it
but it has been very well spoken of.”
They turned in at the gates of Stormwood. Though the trees and bushes
were gaunt and bare the grass already showed stretches of vivid green.
In the fading light one caught glimpses through the shrubbery of the
lake beyond. It was a dazzling sapphire blue in the sunset. A final turn
of the drive. An avenue of trees. A house, massive, pillared, porticoed.
The door opened as they drew up at the entrance. A maid in cap and apron
stood in the doorway. A man appeared at the side of the car, coming
seemingly from nowhere, greeted Paula civilly and drove the car off. The
glow of an open fire in the hall welcomed them. “He’ll bring up your
bag,” said Paula. “How’re the babies, Anna? Has Mr. Storm got here?”
“He telephoned, Mrs. Storm. He says he won’t be out till late—maybe ten
or after. Anyway, you’re not to wait dinner.”
Paula, from being the limp, expert, fearless driver of the high-powered
roadster was now suddenly very much the mistress of the house, quietly
observant, giving an order with a lift of the eyebrow or a nod of the
head. Would Dirk like to go to his room at once? Perhaps he’d like to
look at the babies before they went to sleep for the night, though the
nurse would probably throw him out. One of those stern British females.
Dinner at seven-thirty. He needn’t dress. Just as he liked. Everything
was very informal here. They roughed it. (Dirk had counted thirteen
servants by noon next day and hadn’t been near the kitchen, laundry, or
dairy.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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