regularly had to give cocktail parties and dinners, subtly making sure certain directors and major clients were always given the chance to catch the private ear of William to seek his advice or voice their own opinions.
Kate handled all situations with great charm, and William was eternally grateful to the liquir dation department of Kane and Cabot for supplying his greatest asset. When she informed William that she was going to have another baby, all he could ask was 'When did I find the timeT Virginia~ was thrilled by the news, not fully understanding why Mummy was getting so fat, and Richard refused to discuss it.
Within six months the clash with Peter Parfitt was a thing of the pas% and William had become the undisputed chairman of Lester's bank and a figure to be reckoned with in New York financial circles. Not many more months had passed before he. began to wonder in which direction he should start to set himself a new goal. He had achieved his life's ambition by becoming chairman of Lester's at the age of thirty - three although, unlike Alexander, he felt there were more worlds still to conquer, and he had neither the dme nor the inclination to sit down and weep.
Kate gave birth to their third child at the end of Willianes first year as chairman of Lestees, a second girl, whom they named Lucy. VVilliam taught Virginia, who was now walking, how to rock Lucy's cradle; while Richard, now almost five years old and due to enter kindergarten at T'he BucIdey School, used the new arrival as the opportunity to talk his father into a new baseball bat.
In William!& first year as chairman of Lester's the bank's profits were slightly up and he was forecasting a considerable improvement in his second year.
Then on I September 1939 Hitler marched into Poland.
One of WillianYs first reactions was to think of Abel Rosnovski and his new Baron on Park Avenue, already becoming the toast of New York. Quarterly reports from Thomas Cohen showed that Rosnovski went from strength to strength although his latest ideas for expansion to Europe looked as if they might be in for a slight delay. Cohen continued to find no direct association between Henry Osborne and Abel Rosnovski, but he admitted that it was becoming increasingly difficult to ascertain all the facts he required.
William never thought that America would involve herself in a European war, but nevertheless he kept the London branch of Lester's open to show clearly which side he was on and not for one moment did he consider selling his twelve thousand acres in Hampshire and Lincolnshire. Tony Simmons in Boston, on the other hand, informed William that he intended to close Kane and Caboes London branch. William used the problems created in London by the war as an excuse to visit his beloved Boston and have a meeting with Tony.
The two chairmen now met on extirmely easy and friendly terins since they no longer had any reason to see themselves as rivals. In fact, each had come to use the other as a springm board for new ideas. As Tony had predicted, Kane and Cabot had lost some of its more important clients when William became the chairman of Leste2s, but William always kept Tony fully informed whenever an old client expressed a desire to move his account and he never solicited a single one. When they sat down at the comer table of Locke - Ober's for lunch, Tony Simmons lost little time in repeating his intent to close the London branch of Kane and Cabot.
'My first reason is simple,' he said as he sipped the imported burgundy, apparently not giving a momenes thought to the strong likelihood that German boots were about to trample on the grapes in most of the vineyards in France. 'I think the bank will lose money if we don't cut our losses and get out of England., 'Of course, you will lose a little money,' said William, 'but we must support the British!
'Why?' asked Tony. 'We're a bank, not a supporters'club.'
'Brita&s not a baseball team, Tony; it's a nation of people to whom we owe our entire heritage ... I Tou should take up politics,' said Tony. 'I'm beginning to think your talents are wasted in banking. Nevertheless, I feel theres a far more important reason why we should close the branch. If Hitler marches into Britain the way he has into Poland and France - and I'm sure that