The Lily Rowan idea was of course mine, since she was my friend, not Wolfe's. My first suggestion, Monday evening after dinner, was that I would phone the ROCC office, speak with the executive director, Thomas Henchy, and tell him that Wolfe was considering making a substantial contribution, that he would like to discuss it, and that in my opinion the best person to see him would be Miss Susan Brooke because I had heard that she made a good impression with men. That was vetoed by Wolfe on the ground (a) that he would feel committed to a substantial contribution, at least a grand, and (b) that with an attractive young woman I would get farther sooner if he wasn't present. Of course the real ground was that she was a woman. There are many things he likes about the old brownstone on West 35th Street, which he owns: the furniture and rugs and books and soundproofing; the plant rooms on the roof; Fritz Brenner, the chef; the big kitchen; Theodore Horstmann, the orchid nurse; and me, the man and the muscle. But what he likes best is that there is no woman in it, and it would suit him fine if one never crossed the doorsill.
So I suggested Lily Rowan, to whom a grand is peanuts, and that was satisfactory. When I rang her, that evening, she said she didn't like to discuss dirty work on the phone so I had better come in person, and I went, and got back to 35th Street and to bed at a quarter past two. Since I take a full eight hours short of murder, I didn't get to the office Tuesday morning until after Wolfe had come down from his two hours in the plant rooms-nine to eleven. Around noon Lily phoned. Miss Brooke would be there tomorrow for lunch at one o'clock, and I might come earlier for more briefing.
The two miles crosstown and up to 63rd Street is one of my favorite walks, but that Wednesday it took plenty of man and muscle. When it's twenty above and at every corner a snowy blast that has been practicing ever since it left Hudson Bay lowers your chin and clamps your mouth shut and bends you nearly double, you have to grit your teeth to go on by all the handy doors to shops and bars and hotel lobbies. When I finally made it, shook the snow off of my coat and hat under the canopy and in the lobby, took the elevator and left it at the top and pushed the button, and Lily opened the door, I said, 'The nearest bed.'
She raised a brow, a trick I taught her. 'Try next door,' she said. She let me by and shut the door. 'You didn't
'Sure. You could call it walking.' I put my hat and coat in the closet. 'If they walked up Everest, I walked here.'
We linked arms and entered the living room, with its 19-by-34 Kashan rug, a garden pattern in seven colors, its Renoir and Manet and Cezanne, its off-white piano, and its glass doors to the terrace, where the wind was giving the snow a big play. When we sat she poked her feet out, the shins parallel, and muttered, 'Antelope legs.'
'In the first place,' I said, 'that was many years ago. In the second place, what I said was that you looked like an antelope in a herd of Guernseys. In a crowd you still do. We will now discuss Miss Brooke, though she probably won't make it in this weather.'
But she did, only ten minutes late. Lily let the maid admit her but met her at the arch to the foyer. I stood in the middle of the Kashan and was introduced as Mr. Goodwin, her business adviser.
The description that Whipple had given us of her had been biased. She wasn't skinny. She was small, a couple of inches shorter than Lily, who came up to my nose, with smooth fair skin, brown hair and eyes, and hardly any lipstick on her wide full mouth. Her handshake was firm and friendly without overdoing it. Lily told me afterward that her brown woolen dress was probably Bergdorf, two hundred bucks. She didn't want a cocktail.
I left it to Lily. At lunch-mushroom chowder, lobster souffle, avocado salad, pineapple mousse-she stuck to ROCC: people, record, policy, program. Susan Brooke knew it all and knew how to tell it. It was a good pitch for almost anybody this side of Governor Wallace or Senator Eastland.
The question whether Lily should give her a check or stall was for Lily to decide, but the further question, whether to give it to her before getting personal or after, had been left to me. Lily made her decision before we left the table; she rubbed her eye with her middle finger. Yes, on the check. I considered my question. Would she be a better quiz prospect while she was still wondering if she had made a sale, or after it was in the bag? My understanding of attractive young women wouldn't tell me, so I fingered in my pocket for a quarter, slipped it out, and glanced at it. Heads. I rubbed my left eye and saw that Lily got it.
Back in the living room, when coffee had been poured, Lily excused herself and left us. In a minute she returned, went to Miss Brooke, and handed her a little rectangle of blue paper. 'There,' she said. 'It won't get me into heaven, but it may help a little. Green pastures.'
Susan Brooke looked at it-not just a glance, a full look. 'The lovely lunch and this too,' she said. She had a nice soft voice but ran her words together some. 'Many-many thanks, Miss Rowan, but of course they're not just from me, they're from all of us. Is it all right to list you as a patron?'
Lily sat. 'Certainly, if you want. My father made that money building sewers with one hand and playing politics with the other.' She picked up her coffee cup and sipped. 'Since you can afford to donate your time, I suppose your father knows how to make money too.'
'Yes, he did.' She closed her bag with the check inside. 'Not building sewers, real estate. He died six years ago.'
'In New York?'
'No, Wisconsin.'
'Oh. Omaha?'
Lily was showing me how smart she was. We had driven across Nebraska on the way to Montana. Miss Brooke politely didn't smile. 'No, Racine,' she said.
Lily sipped coffee. 'I suppose I'm being nosy, but to me it's-well, you're fascinating. I'm not lazy or stingy, I'm merely useless. I simply don't understand you. Do you mind if I try to?'
'No, of course not.' She tapped her bag. 'Your money isn't useless, Miss Rowan.'
Lily flipped a hand. 'Tax-deductible. But your time and energy aren't. Have you been doing this ever since you came to New York?'
'Oh no. Only two years-a little more. There's nothing fascinating about me, believe me. When I finished college-I barely made it, I'm Radcliffe 'fifty-nine-I went home to Racine and got good and bored. Then something happened, and-Anyway, my father was dead and only my mother and me in a big house, and we came to New York. My brother was here and he suggested it. But you didn't ask for my autobiography.'
