walked to the right, and in five minutes she was knocking on Friedlander’s front door.
Larry opened the door.
“Is it all right, ma’am?” he asked, standing aside to let her in.
“It’s all right.” She walked into the shabby living-room, feeling the heat seeping through her. “How long do you think we will have to wait?”
“I don’t know, ma’am.” He closed the door and leaned against it, his big hands thrust into the pockets of his jeans. His jaw moved rhythmically as he chewed.
She took off her coat and hung it over a chair, then she sat down. “We can’t hope to go further today in this blizzard. We’d better find an hotel.”
“We can go on if you want to, ma’am. I’m used to driving in the snow.”
She looked at her watch. The time was 15.15. She yearned for the luxury of the Adlon hotel. She longed to sink into a hot, relaxing bath and then rest on a bed until dinner time. She realized she couldn’t take Larry to the hotel, looking the way he did and without luggage. She was well known there. Then she remembered passing a store on her way to the bank.
She made an instant, impulsive decision.
“Listen, Larry, I don’t want to go on. I want to rest. You can’t come with me to an hotel, dressed as you are.” She opened her bag and took out some Swiss money. “There is a store at the end of the street: turn right as you leave here. I want you to buy yourself a dark suit, a white shirt and black tie. You will also need a lined mackintosh and shoes. You will come to the hotel as my chauffeur. Please take this money and buy these things. Will you also change at the store? Put what you have on in a suitcase.”
He was staring blankly at her.
“But I can’t do that, ma’am. It wouldn’t be right. I…”
“Oh, for God’s sake do as I ask!” Her voice had become waspish. “I’m tired! There’s the money… do what I say!”
Startled by the note in her voice, he picked up the money, pulled at the peak of his cap, then went out. She heard the front door slam.
She drew in a long breath, then with unsteady hands, she lit a cigarette. She waited, aware of the uncanny silence that hung over the building. She was getting more and more involved, she thought, but this was something that had happened before in a different way. In her present mood, she accepted risks.
In an hour or so, she thought, she would be at the hotel where the service was perfect. She imagined getting into the bath, resting in the bed and then, drinking her first vodka martini. The hotel would accept Larry as her chauffeur, but she would have to be careful. He would have to eat on his own and this she regretted - how bored she was eating meals alone in luxury restaurants, but she knew the hotel would raise its eyebrows and remember if Mrs. Herman Rolfe took dinner with her chauffeur. But after dinner, when she was in the seclusion of her bedroom, she would telephone to Lam’, telling him to come to her. He was almost certain to be a clumsy, selfish lover, but she would control him. Her heart began to hammer as she imagined the moment when he took her roughly in his arms.
The door opened, startling her and Friedlander came in. He looked around, his cunning little eyes puzzled.
“Where’s Larry?”
“He’ll be back. Have you got it?”
“Of course.” He edged into the room, closing the door. “It’s a beautiful job.”
“Let me see it.”
He hesitated, then coming over to her, he handed her the passport. It looked genuine enough and was just worn enough to be acceptable. The name on the passport was Larry Sinclair. Profession: Student. Larry a student? She shrugged. The word Student meant nothing these days: a smoke screen behind which so many young people hid as the word Model was used as often as a smoke screen for a whore.
The photograph was poor, but the stamp looked authentic.
“Yes… it is good.”
“It is a work of art,” Friedlander said peevishly. “It is worth more than three thousand. Be fair, dear… give me another five hundred. That’s not being unreasonable.”
She opened her bag and without taking the roll of money from the bag, she stripped off three one thousand franc bills and dropped them on to the table. Then she put the passport in her bag and closed it.
“If you want more, talk to Larry,” she said.
He picked up the bills and put them in his pocket.
“Don’t make mistakes, dear… so easy to make mistakes.” He stared at her. “Meanness always comes home to roost.”
She eyed him with contempt.
“Go away! You and your filthy breed bore me!”
His small eyes turned baleful.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He backed to the door. “I’d rather be what I am than what you are/ and he flounced out of the room.
She sat still, furious, and men after thinking, she suddenly became sick of herself. His parting shot had hurt.
Twenty minutes later, Larry returned. She heard him tap on the front door and she went to open it. He came in out of the falling snow and into the light of the shabby room. She scarcely recognized him. Cone was the gum chewing hick American. The black tie and the white collar completely changed his appearance. The black trench coat was as formal as a uniform. He looked like tfie chauffeur of the wealthy owner of a Mercedes 300SEL. He was carrying a cheap plastic suitcase and he looked anxiously at her, seeking her approval.
“Wonderful, Larry,” she said, smiling at him. “You look splendid.”
He grinned boyishly.
“I got what you told me, ma’am.”
“Yes… I have your passport… let’s go.”
“I picked up the car, ma’am.” He eyed her a little doubtfully. “It’s right outside. Excuse me for the liberty… I didn’t think you would want to walk all that way to the parking lot.”
She stared at him.
“But how could you? I have the ignition key!”
He automatically reached for the peak of his cap, then finding he wasn’t wearing the cap, he rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand.
“I’m used to cars, ma’am. I don’t need ignition keys. Excuse me if I did wrong.”
“But the car was locked!”
“Yes… that’s right. I just thought I’d save you the walk. It’s snowing pretty hard out there.”
A feeling of fear ran through her. It passed in a moment as she realized how she would have hated to have trudged through the thick snow to the car. He’s clever! she thought. Not only clever, but considerate!
“Thank you for being so thoughtful,” she said and smiled at him. She opened her bag and handed him the ignition key. “In spite of your cleverness, perhaps you better have this.”
He opened the front door and together they went to where he had parked the car. He opened the off-side door and she slid in. Then he went around to the driver’s seat, paused to shake the snow off his new black shoes, then dropped into the driver’s seat.
She told him how to get to the Adlon hotel.
“You gave me too much money, ma’am,” he said as he edged the car out of the courtyard. “I have the change.”
“That’s all right, Larry. You’ll need some spending money… keep it.”
He shook his head.
“No, ma’am, thank you. I explained before… I don’t accept money.”
She smiled at him.
“All right, Larry… I understand. We’ll settle up when we get to the hotel.”
She relaxed back, thinking: He is really rather sweet.
As he drove with the traffic, the wipers swishing away the snow, she looked searchingly at his profile, lit by
