"Be sensible, darling, and face the facts. You don't like Shore Acres, or the people who come
to it. You want to live in France."
"But I've never asked for a palace!"
"You want your friends about you, and you want to do things for them. All your life you've
taken it for granted that somebody will do the entertaining, and you enjoy the benefits. You're
delighted to go to Sept Chenes and meet intellectual and cultivated people. You hear famous
musicians, you hear poets read their work —and apparently you think that kind of pleasure grows
on trees, you don't even have to pick the fruit, it comes already cut up in little cubes and served
on ice! Hasn't it occurred to you that Emily's health is failing? And some day you won't have
your mother, or Sophie, or Margy—you'll be dependent on what your wife has learned."
He saw that she had thought it all out, and he guessed that she had consulted the other
ladies. Naturally, they would approve, because it would provide good fun for them. "You'll be
taking a heavy load on your shoulders," he objected, feebly.
"It won't be so easy in a foreign country; but I'll get help, and I'll learn. It will be my job, just
as it has been Emily's."
"What will you do with Shore Acres?"
"Let's try this place for a year. If we like it, perhaps we can buy it, and sell Shore Acres; or if
mother wants to go on living there, she can cut down on the staff. If this depression goes on,
they'll be glad to work for their keep, and that'll be fair."
"But suppose your income goes on dropping, Irma!"
"If the world comes to an end, how can anybody say what he'll do! Anyhow, it can't do us any
harm to have a lot of friends."
VIII
It was a compromise she was proposing; she would live in France, as he desired, but she
would live according to her standards. In order to stop her, he would have to say a flat no, and
he didn't have the right to say that. It was her money, and all the world knew it.
There was nothing very novel to Lanny Budd in the idea of living in Paris. He had spent a
winter here during the Peace Conference, and another during the period of his
Marie de Bruyne. Paris offered every kind of art and entertainment, and it was centrally
situated; roads and cars had been so improved that you could reach London or Geneva or
Amsterdam in a few hours. They could step into their car in the morning and be in Bienvenu by
nightfall. "Really, it'll be about the same as commuting," said Irma.
What astonished him was the zest with which she set to work, and the speed with which she put
the job through. She was the daughter of J. Paramount Barnes, and all her life she had been used
to hearing decisions made and orders given. As soon as Lanny gave his consent she seated herself
at the telephone and put in a call for Jerry Pendleton in Cannes. "How's business?" she asked,
and when the familial cheery voice informed her that it was dead and buried, she asked if he
would like to have a job. He answered that he would jump for it, and she said: "Jump for the
night express, and don't miss your hold."
"But darling!" objected Lanny. "He doesn't know anything about running a palace!"
"He's honest, he's lived in France for fifteen years, and employed some help. It won't take
him long to learn the ropes."
When the red-headed ex-lieutenant from Kansas arrived, she put it up to him. He would
become steward, or perhaps
of side," she advised, "and be taken at your own valuation." He would engage a first-class major
domo and a butler who would know what was done and what wasn't. He would be paid enough
so that he could have his own car, and run down to see his family now and then.
Jerry Pendleton had once undertaken to tutor Lanny Budd without any preparation, and now
he was taking another such chance. No time even to read a book on the duties of a
what she wanted when she wanted it. The elaborate inventory of the contents of the palace was
made and checked and signed on every page; the lease was signed, the money paid, and the keys
delivered. Emily's butler had a brother who was also in the profession, and knew everything there
was to know about Paris society. Also he knew servants, enough for an emergency staff, and
they came and took off the dust-covers and got things ready with American speed.
Irma and her prince consort and her
was but a few hours before the newspapers had got word of it, and the doorbell was ringing and
the flashlight bulbs of the photographers exploding. Lanny saw that his wife was once more
getting her money's worth; they were back in cafe society, with the spotlight centered upon
them. Paris was going to have a new hostess, a famous one. The marble steps of the palace were
worn by the feet of chauffeurs and lackeys leaving calling cards with distinguished names on
