A stroke of luck to have found him here. It could not be wasted.
‘Gentry,’ she said, then drew in a breath. ‘I wonder—I’ve done my best with my dear girls, but they need polish, of course. I wonder if you would consider taking them on for a few weeks, for nothing—well, or for just the usual travelling expenses, alone—to gain experience, to be introduced to the profession.’
She had caught his attention. Either his pockets were to let, or his native stinginess was stirring. How much this would cost her, coming and going, she thought she knew.
‘I’m sure we could go farther afield and find paid work, but it’s you, the association with someone of your calibre—oh! I know very well how much good you did me, all those years ago, and I wish that same good for my girls. Can you find it in your heart to blame me?’
‘The thing is, Flora,’ he said, not unkindly, ‘your dainty girls are too refined for this place—it would be cruel. They are not—’
‘They are. I promise you. They are better by far than I.’ Her urgency led her to put a hand on his arm. A small hand in a black cloth glove, it vanished on his black sleeve.
‘Gentry, for old times’ sake—I beg you.’
After a moment, he bowed one last time. ‘Madam, that plea is impossible to refuse. Not today. But bring them here at nine tomorrow, and I will see what can be done.’
She found it hard to look at him, after putting herself so low before him, but busied herself with her music case.
He gestured towards it: ‘Have you a lobby photograph for the girls there?’ He saw from her face that they had none. ‘After your lunch go to Leroy’s Studio on 8th Avenue. They will not overcharge you.’
As Flora went up the aisle, he called after her. ‘What happened to your schoolmaster?’
‘Oh—’ She shrugged and almost smiled. ‘Oh, he died.’ She nodded, and went through the bright doorway.
A Very Quick Service
‘He has offered a tentative booking’ was how Mama put it to the girls. ‘Two weeks’ work with him in the mornings, and he’ll use us as the closer, and see how we get on. No need to tell you what a chance this is, and how we must take prime advantage.’
She did not tell them how she had wangled it. Aurora wondered, but did not pry. The French job haunted her thoughts; but whatever it was, there could not have been time—unless it was a very quick service? Her mind went on down that path for an instant and then she shut it out. You do what you have to do, Mama had said about Sybil.
Mama let the younger girls walk on ahead of her to the train station, where they had left their trunk and boxes, while she and Aurora went to secure rooms. ROOMS UPSTAIRS, she saw again, the sign she’d half noted in the Pioneer Restaurant window on their way to the Parthenon. And beneath it the smaller handwritten sign: WAITRESS WANTED.
They climbed the steps and Mama rang the bell; Aurora tucked her hair more carefully under her hat, tied her scarf tight round her throat, and assumed a modest expression. It was soon enough worked out: they would take the back room on the second floor, two weeks, $10 per if they did for themselves, $12 if they had maid service. They would do for themselves, and no thank you, no meals—working at the Parthenon, they would be unable to do justice to the full board.
They did justice to the luncheon Aurora ordered at the Grandon, the best they’d had in months. Rare-broiled porterhouse steak was the special, and it arrived dressed with boiled potatoes and corn alongside, which the waitress promised them was canned right at the hotel, none of your tinned stuff. Bella and Mama had two helpings of cake.
They made a little stir going through the lobby, three bright-faced well-fed girls on the way to Leroy’s Studio—where a plump, avid young man seemed only too happy to take their photograph, divesting them of their coats with speedy competence and sitting them in a succession of poses against his painted backdrop, Aurora in the centre and the other two in various attitudes around her. He disposed Aurora’s coat tenderly over her shoulders when they were done and looked meaningfully at her, but she contrived to be very concerned about the tying of Bella’s shawl. Three poses, ten prints, to be