And of course refinement.
Ill borrow some. I decided she needed a little comfort. Dont worry, Mrs Robilotti, I understand the set-up and you can count on me clear through to the coffee and even after. Relax. I am fully briefed. Tact, discretion, refinement, black tie, seven oclock .
Then Ill expect you. Please hold the wire. My secretary will give you the names of those who will be present. It will simplify the introductions if you know them in advance.
Miss Fromm got on again. Mr Goodwin?
Still here.
You should have paper and pencil.
I always have. Shoot.
Stop me if I go too fast. There will be twelve at table. Mr and Mrs Robilotti. Miss Celia Grantham and Mr Cecil Grantham. They are Mrs Robilottis son and daughter by her first husband.
Yeah, I know.
Miss Helen Yarmis. Miss Ethel Varr. Miss Faith Usher. Am I going too fast?
I told her no.
Miss Rose Turtle. Mr Paul Schuster. Mr Beverly Kent. Mr Edwin Laidlaw. Yourself. That makes twelve. Miss Varr will be on your right and Miss Turtle will be on your left.
I thanked her and hung up. Now that I was booked, I wasnt so sure I liked it. It would be interesting, but it might also be a strain on the nerves. However, I was booked, and I rang Byne at the number he had given me and told him he could stay home and gargle. Then I went to Wolfes desk and wrote on his calendar Mrs Robilottis name and phone number. He wants to know where to reach me when Im out, even when we have nothing important on, in case someone yells for help and will pay for it. Then I went to the hall, turned left, and pushed through the swinging door to the kitchen. Fritz was at the big table, spreading anchovy butter on shad roes.
Cross me off for dinner, I told him. Im doing my good deed for the year and getting it over with.
He stopped spreading to look at me. Thats too bad. Veal birds in casserole. You know, with mushrooms and white wine.
Ill miss it. But there may be something edible where Im going.
Perhaps a client?
He was not being nosy. Fritz Brenner does not pry into other peoples private affairs, not even mine. But he has a legitimate interest in the welfare of that establishment, of the people who live in that old brownstone on West Thirty-fifth Street , and he merely wanted to know if my dinner engagement was likely to promote it. It took a lot of cash. I had to be paid. He had to be paid. Theodore Horstmann, who spent all his days and sometimes part of his nights with the ten thousand orchids up in the plant rooms, had to be paid. We all had to be fed, and with the kind of grub that Wolfe preferred and provided and Fritz prepared. Not only did the orchids have to be fed, but only that week Wolfe had bought a Coelogyne from Burma for eight hundred bucks, and that was just routine. And so on and on and on, and the only source of current income was people with problems who were able and willing to pay a detective to handle them. Fritz knew we had no case going at the moment, and he was only asking if my dinner date might lead to one.
I shook my head. Nope, not a client. I got on a stool. A former client, Mrs Robert Robilottisomeone swiped a million dollars worth of rings and bracelets from her a couple of years ago and we got them backand I need some advice. You may not be as great an expert on women as you are on food, but you have had your dealings, as I well know, and I would appreciate some suggestions on how I act this evening.
He snorted. Act with women? You? Ha! With your thousand triumphs! Advice from me? Archie, that is upside down!
Thanks for the plug, but these women are special. With a fingertip I wiped up a speck of anchovy
butter that had dropped on the table and licked it off. Heres the problem. This Mrs Robilottis first husband was Albert Grantham, who spent the last ten years of his life doing things with part of the three or four hundred million dollars he had inheritedthings to improve the world, including the people in it. I assume you will admit that a girl who has a baby but no husband needs improving.
Fritz pursed his lips. First I would have to see the girl and the baby. They might be charming.
Its not a question of charm, or at least it wasnt with Grantham.
His dealing with the problem of unmarried mothers wasnt one of his really big operations, but he took a personal interest in it. He would rarely let his name be attached to any of his projects, but he did with that one. The place he built for it up in Dutchess County was called Grantham House and still is. Whats that youre putting in?
Marjoram. Im trying it.
Dont tell himandsee ifhespotsit. When the improved mothers were graduated from Grantham House they were financed until they got jobs or husbands, and even then they were not forgotten. One way of keeping in touch was started by Grantham himself a few years before he died. Each year on his birthday he had his wife invite four of them to dinner at his home on Fifth Avenue , and also invite, for their dinner partners, four young men. Since his death, five years ago, his wife has kept it up. She says she owes it to his memorythough she is now married to a specimen named Robert Robilotti who has never been in the improving business. Today is Granthams birthday, and thats where Im going for dinner. I am one of the four young men.