The Rich Are Different by Susan Howatch Read Free Book Online Page A

unusual features which you think would either enhance or detract from its real estate value. I shall expect both reports on my desk by six o’clock tonight.’
    Her eyes were round as saucers but she spoke up as confidently as if she produced such reports every day. ‘Yes, Paul.’
    ‘I shall, of course, want to inspect the property and I suggest we motor down on Saturday morning and lunch at Norwich where I shall look at the Cathedral. I’ll call for you at six-thirty sharp. On Friday at eleven you will see a certain Dr Westfield at Harley Street who will save you from the dangers of playing the brand of Russian roulette we discussed last night. Kindly keep the appointment and take his advice. Do you have any money?’
    ‘Yes. Three and fourpence three-farthings.’
    I rang the bell. O’Reilly entered.
    ‘O’Reilly, Miss Sladeis to have five pounds immediately. Debit her account.’
    O’Reilly took out his wallet, extracted five one-pound notes, handed them to Dinah and made a notation in a small black book. Dinah went pink and crammed the money awkwardly into her purse.
    ‘Your personal account is not with the bank but with me,’ I said as O’Reilly left the room. ‘I shall always tell you if I give you money as a gift, but if I say nothing you may assume it’s part of a loan to be repaid at a rate of three per cent. I would advise you for your own sake to keep careful accounts and not run up unnecessary bills.’
    ‘Yes, Paul.’
    ‘It’s very important that we establish our business relationship right from the start and that it exists independently of our personal relationship – whatever that relationship may be. I certainly hope we can improve on last night’s fiasco, but if this proves impossible you should know that I won’t withdraw my financial backing. I keep my business and my pleasure in watertight compartments, and although they may occasionally stand side by side they never mix. As far as business goes I shall treat you exactly as I treat all my other protégées – and how do you suppose I treat my protégées, Miss Slade?’
    ‘Brutally?’
    ‘Sensibly. I don’t give second chances. I don’t tolerate failure. And I don’t give free rides. If you use your brains and work till you drop we can do business. If not you’re on your own. Do you have any further questions?’
    ‘No, Paul.’
    I rang the bell. ‘O’Reilly, take Miss Slade to her desk and see she has all the stationery she requires. Good-day, Miss Slade.’
    ‘Good-day, Mr Van Zale,’ she said subdued, and then just as I was thinking I had put the fear of God into her she winked at me before O’Reilly showed her from the room.
    [2]
    The reports were on my desk at six. I read them on the way home to Curzon Street and without comment handed them to O’Reilly to file. The report on her proposed business reflected her ignorance of the world of commerce, but I was more convinced than ever that her ideas were promising. That day I had looked still further into the burgeoning chaos of the cosmetics industry and it seemed obvious that any smart operator, large or small, stood a chance of extracting gold from such a largely unworked mine. The time was right for a mass-market in cosmetics, as right as it was for a mass-market in automobiles, radios and phonographs. Warpaint for women, canned noise and gasoline-powered mechanical horses! ‘What a century!’ I said in disgust to O’Reilly as we went home that night. ‘“O
tempora! O mores!
”’ But O’Reilly, whose memories of the nineteenth century were necessarily dim, merely looked at me politely and refrained fromcomment. I could well imagine him thinking how tiresome the older generation could be.
    Dinah’s other report displayed her talents to better advantage. By the time I had finished reading her summary of Mallingham’s attributes I was convinced her property was an inspired combination of the Garden of Eden, the Promised Land and all seven wonders of the