CHAPTER NINE
1.
New York welcomed Jill, as she came out of the Pennsylvania Station
into Seventh Avenue, with a whirl of powdered snow that touched her
cheek like a kiss, the cold, bracing kiss one would expect from this
vivid city. She stood at the station entrance, a tiny figure beside
the huge pillars, looking round her with eager eyes. A wind was
whipping down the avenue. The sky was a clear, brilliant tent of the
brightest blue. Energy was in the air, and hopefulness. She wondered
if Mr Elmer Mariner ever came to New York. It was hard to see how
even his gloom would contrive to remain unaffected by the
exhilaration of the place.
Yes, New York looked good . . . good and exciting, with all the
taxi-cabs rattling in at the dark tunnel beside her, with all the
people hurrying in and hurrying out, with all this medley of
street-cars and sky-signs and crushed snow and drays and horses and
policemen, and that vast hotel across the street, towering to heaven
like a cliff. It even smelt good. She remembered an old picture in
Punch, of two country visitors standing on the step of their railway
carriage at a London terminus, one saying ecstatically to other:
"Don't speak! Just sniff! Doesn't it smell of the Season!" She knew
exactly how they had felt, and she approved of their attitude. That
was the right way to behave on being introduced to a great
metropolis. She stood and sniffed reverently. But for the presence of
the hurrying crowds, she could almost have imitated the example of
that king who kissed the soil of his country on landing from his
ship.
She took Uncle Chris' letter from her bag. He had written from an
address on East Fifty-seventh Street. There would be just time to
catch him before he went out to lunch. She hailed a taxi-cab which
was coming out of the station.
It was a slow ride, halted repeatedly by congestion of the traffic,
but a short one for Jill. She was surprised at herself, a Londoner of
long standing, for feeling so provincial and being so impressed. But
London was far away. It belonged to a life that seemed years ago and
a world from which she had parted for ever. Moreover, this was
undeniably a stupendous city through which her taxi-cab was carrying
her. At Times Square the stream of the traffic plunged into a
whirlpool, swinging out of Broadway to meet the rapids which poured
in from east, west, and north. On Fifth Avenue all the automobiles in
the world were gathered together. On the sidewalks, pedestrians,
muffled against the nipping chill of the crisp air, hurried to and
fro. And, above, that sapphire sky spread a rich velvet curtain which
made the tops of the buildings stand out like the white minarets of
some eastern city of romance.
The cab drew up in front of a stone apartment house; and Jill,
getting out, passed under an awning through a sort of mediaeval
courtyard, gay with potted shrubs, to an inner door. She was
impressed. The very atmosphere was redolent of riches, and she
wondered how in the world Uncle Chris had managed to acquire wealth
on this scale in the extremely short space of time which had elapsed
since his landing. There bustled past her an obvious millionaire--or,
more probably, a greater monarch of finance who looked down upon mere
millionaires and out of the goodness of his heart tried to check a
tendency to speak patronisingly to them. He was concealed to the
eyebrows in a fur coat, and, reaching the sidewalk, was instantly
absorbed in a large limousine. Two expensive-looking ladies followed
him. Jill began to feel a little dazed. Evidently the tales one heard
of fortunes accumulated overnight in this magic city were true, and
one of them must have fallen to the lot of Uncle Chris. For nobody to
whom money was a concern could possibly afford to live in a place
like this. If Croesus and the Count of Monte Cristo had applied for
lodging there, the authorities would probably have looked on them a
little doubtfully at first and hinted at the desirability of a
month's rent in advance.
In a glass case behind the inner door, reading a newspaper and
chewing gum, sat a dignified old man in the rich uniform of a general
in the Guatemalan army. He was a brilliant spectacle. He wore no
jewelry, but this, no doubt, was due to a private distaste for
display. As there was no one else of humbler rank at hand from whom
Jill could solicit an introduction and the privilege of an audience,
she took the bold step of addressing him directly.
"I want to see Major Selby, please."
The Guatemalan general arrested for a moment the rhythmic action of
his jaws, lowered his paper and looked at her with raised eyebrows.
At first Jill thought that he was registering haughty contempt, then
she saw what she had taken for scorn was surprise.
"Major Selby?"
"Major Selby."
"No Major Selby living here."
"Major Christopher Selby."
"Not here," said the associate of ambassadors and the pampered pet of
Guatemala's proudest beauties. "Never heard of him in my life!"
