steam irons, and small Eastern-looking men with tape-measures and mouthfuls of pins plying their mysterious craft. He explained his organization system to me, though I wasn’t able to follow it very well, and then escorted me back through the vestibule down a little passage to a sort of foyer, which had doors into the showroom, the hall of the office block, and a beautiful little sitting-room.
“The secret to my success, milord ,” he smiled, presenting the incredibly frilly pink-and-white room, where an elderly maid stood guard over a long dressing-table, his voice taking on a conspiratorial tone, “This ladies’ room has performed the office of a spider’s web for me; knowing that there is a lounge and washroom for ladies draws them in, and they so frequently make a purchase on the way out. Not to be indelicate, but ladies do need to ‘powder their noses’ more frequently than gentlemen do.”
“What a wonderful idea,” I enthused. I hadn’t had a great deal of experience with feminine company, but what little experience I did have was that ladies seemed forever to be scurrying off in groups whenever they were in a restaurant or an hotel; and when they weren’t in a restaurant or hotel, they were always pestering fellows to take them to one.
“I am gratified you think so, milord ,” he beamed at me.
“So, who’s upstairs? Are you acquainted with any of your neighbours in the offices?”
“I am not acquainted with many of them,” he looked up toward the ceiling as if he could see them all up there, “Most of the offices are occupied by family solicitors, I believe. There is an importer I have had occasion to visit, and an architect who has a large studio on the top floor. Many of the offices are empty.”
“Do you think they’d be offended if I went poking around? I’m terrifically curious what’s on the other side of my sitting-room wall. It’s thirty-eight feet up, so I suppose it’s the second or third floor of this building.”
“ Milord is very precise,” he smiled at me in amusement, “I do not believe there would be any objection to your explorations. The street door is not kept locked, people come and go as they please all day.”
“Well, thank you so much for your indulgence, M. Alcide. I’ll stop back in when I’m done, I want to have a look at some jewelry I noticed in your case. And I expect I’ll want to open an account.”
“ Milord is too amiable,” he bowed again, “I will have an account prepared against your return.”
“Thanks!” I shook his hand as he opened the door into the office-block’s entrance hall for me, “I’ll be back shortly.”
Using my marked walking-stick, I discovered that the steps were exactly six inches high, which made my reckoning very easy: I just had to walk up seventy-six steps, and I’d be on a level with my own rooms. This brought me twelve steps past the second-floor landing, not quite half-way to the third floor, so my cupboard must be just above the heads of whoever had been speaking. Descending back the second floor, I walked toward the opposite end, where I had determined the axis through the center of Hyacinth House intersected Carfax Yard House; arriving there, I found a door with a frosted glass upper panel, in the center of which was fixed a large brass letter D. There was nothing else written on or around the door, so I assumed it must be one of the empty offices M. Alcide had mentioned.
Of course the door would be locked, which stopped me in my tracks. I stood there for a minute, wondering what to do: I considered knocking on the door across the corridor, which was marked ‘Private: Enter Room A,’ leading me to believe it was part of a larger complex of offices facing the street; I could follow the instructions and enter Room A to inquire there about the empty office, but it seemed unlikely they’d know anything; or I could go back downstairs and ask M. Alcide to give me the name of
“The secret to my success, milord ,” he smiled, presenting the incredibly frilly pink-and-white room, where an elderly maid stood guard over a long dressing-table, his voice taking on a conspiratorial tone, “This ladies’ room has performed the office of a spider’s web for me; knowing that there is a lounge and washroom for ladies draws them in, and they so frequently make a purchase on the way out. Not to be indelicate, but ladies do need to ‘powder their noses’ more frequently than gentlemen do.”
“What a wonderful idea,” I enthused. I hadn’t had a great deal of experience with feminine company, but what little experience I did have was that ladies seemed forever to be scurrying off in groups whenever they were in a restaurant or an hotel; and when they weren’t in a restaurant or hotel, they were always pestering fellows to take them to one.
“I am gratified you think so, milord ,” he beamed at me.
“So, who’s upstairs? Are you acquainted with any of your neighbours in the offices?”
“I am not acquainted with many of them,” he looked up toward the ceiling as if he could see them all up there, “Most of the offices are occupied by family solicitors, I believe. There is an importer I have had occasion to visit, and an architect who has a large studio on the top floor. Many of the offices are empty.”
“Do you think they’d be offended if I went poking around? I’m terrifically curious what’s on the other side of my sitting-room wall. It’s thirty-eight feet up, so I suppose it’s the second or third floor of this building.”
“ Milord is very precise,” he smiled at me in amusement, “I do not believe there would be any objection to your explorations. The street door is not kept locked, people come and go as they please all day.”
“Well, thank you so much for your indulgence, M. Alcide. I’ll stop back in when I’m done, I want to have a look at some jewelry I noticed in your case. And I expect I’ll want to open an account.”
“ Milord is too amiable,” he bowed again, “I will have an account prepared against your return.”
“Thanks!” I shook his hand as he opened the door into the office-block’s entrance hall for me, “I’ll be back shortly.”
Using my marked walking-stick, I discovered that the steps were exactly six inches high, which made my reckoning very easy: I just had to walk up seventy-six steps, and I’d be on a level with my own rooms. This brought me twelve steps past the second-floor landing, not quite half-way to the third floor, so my cupboard must be just above the heads of whoever had been speaking. Descending back the second floor, I walked toward the opposite end, where I had determined the axis through the center of Hyacinth House intersected Carfax Yard House; arriving there, I found a door with a frosted glass upper panel, in the center of which was fixed a large brass letter D. There was nothing else written on or around the door, so I assumed it must be one of the empty offices M. Alcide had mentioned.
Of course the door would be locked, which stopped me in my tracks. I stood there for a minute, wondering what to do: I considered knocking on the door across the corridor, which was marked ‘Private: Enter Room A,’ leading me to believe it was part of a larger complex of offices facing the street; I could follow the instructions and enter Room A to inquire there about the empty office, but it seemed unlikely they’d know anything; or I could go back downstairs and ask M. Alcide to give me the name of
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