The Mandie Collection (19 page)

The carriage door opened and the driver announced, “The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, missus.”

Mrs. Hamilton led the way out of the vehicle, and the girls followed.

“You mean we are going to stay in this huge building?” Mandie
questioned in disbelief as she still tried to see the top from where she stood clutching Snowball.

“Yes, this is the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel,” Mrs. Hamilton told her as the driver began unloading their baggage. “It has one thousand rooms and is the largest hotel in the world.”

“One thousand rooms!” Mandie exclaimed as she and Celia followed Mrs. Hamilton into the building. “How will we ever find our way around?”

Mrs. Hamilton looked at her and smiled as she said, “Don't worry about that. We'll manage. I've been here before.” She went to the desk in the lobby to check in.

A hotel employee in a neat red uniform with lots of braid on it took them and their baggage up to their rooms on the fifth floor. Mandie's stomach almost turned over when they stepped inside the elevator and it began moving upward. She held her breath until the thing stopped and the man opened the door. Rushing out into the hallway, she exhaled and held tightly to Snowball.

“Oh!” she exclaimed to herself.

“I didn't like the ride, either,” Celia confided as the two girls followed Mrs. Hamilton and the man down the long hallway to their rooms.

Once they were inside one of the rooms, Mrs. Hamilton said, “You girls will share this room, and I will be right next door.” She directed the man with the luggage. He left the girls' things in that room, then Mrs. Hamilton showed him where to take hers.

The girls followed her through a bathroom and into another bedroom.

“Everything is so fine,” Mandie remarked, looking at the furniture and draperies.

The man left, and as soon as the door closed behind him, Mrs. Hamilton said, “I had already asked for a sandbox for your cat, Amanda, so you should go see if there's one in your room. I do hope Snowball won't damage anything. And, girls, get your dresses out of your trunks and freshen up after that long train ride. As soon as y'all change your clothes, we'll go down to the dining room and find something to eat.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie replied.

“We'll hurry, Mother,” Celia promised, “ 'cause I'm awfully hungry.”

As the girls rushed back into their room, Mandie said, “You know, I don't believe any of those hotels we stayed in last summer in Europe were this big or this nice.” She saw a sandbox in a corner and set her cat in it.

“I know,” Celia agreed as she opened her trunk. “But then Mother just said this is the largest hotel in the world.”

Mandie went over to her trunk and opened it. “I wish Grandmother could have come with us,” she said, taking out a dress and shaking it. “But for some reason she didn't want me to come, much less her.”

Celia straightened up as she unpacked and said, “I think there's something wrong somewhere, somehow, between Jonathan's father and your grandmother. She never wants to associate with the man, and she knew very well that if we came to New York we would certainly go visit Jonathan.”

“I agree,” Mandie said, pausing to look at her friend. “I've been puzzled about that, and I can't figure out what it's all about.”

“Maybe Jonathan knows. We can ask him,” Celia said as she slipped off her brown traveling suit and hung it up in the huge wardrobe.

Mandie removed her navy suit and hung it next to Celia's. “Has your mother decided when we'll go to see Jonathan and his father?” she asked.

“No, all she has said is that we will visit them,” Celia said.

“I want to see Dr. Plumbley, too,” Mandie told her as they continued hanging up their clothes. “He will be surprised to see us all the way up here in New York.”

“I hope you brought his address,” Celia said.

“I have it in my purse,” Mandie replied, picking up the small drawstring bag she had laid on the bed.

“Do you think Jonathan's father will invite us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them Thursday?” Celia asked as she took clean stockings from her trunk.

“I hope so,” Mandie said. “But we'll have to let him know we're here pretty soon so he can have time to get the meal prepared if we're going.”

“Well, today's just Monday. I'm sure he has plenty of servants to cook and all that,” Celia told her.

Mrs. Hamilton called through the closed door to the bathroom, “Hurry up, girls. I'm finished in here now.”

“Yes, Mother,” Celia replied.

A few minutes later the three of them went back downstairs. Mandie left Snowball shut up in the bathroom, and Mrs. Hamilton led the way to the dining room. A man in uniform standing by the door took Jane's name and led them to a table by a window that was partially obscured by tall potted plants.

Mandie looked around as she sat down in the plush-seated chair. Lots of well-dressed people were seated throughout the room, and the fragrance of the food made her realize she was about to starve. She was delighted to find the hotel had fried chicken on the menu. She had been secretly afraid that the food in New York would be something strange.

After they had all ordered and while they waited for the waiter to return with their food, Mrs. Hamilton told them her plans. “As soon as we eat, I'll call Jonathan's house and you girls can decide when you want to get together with him,” she said.

“Call?” Mandie questioned. And then she quickly added, “Oh, of course, there are telephones in this hotel, aren't there?”

“Yes, quite a few, and I imagine Jonathan's father has a telephone in his house. You see, this city is so far ahead of everything back home,” Mrs. Hamilton replied.

“But we have telephones in Franklin,” Mandie said. “And Grandmother says she's going to have a telephone installed in the school where Celia and I go and also in her house. Then she won't have to ride over to the school so much. She'll be able to talk to Miss Prudence and Miss Hope on the telephone.”

“They have telephones in Richmond, too,” Mrs. Hamilton replied. “But we're so far out in the country, we'll have to wait for them to run the lines out there from Richmond. I do hope it will be soon. Telephones are a great convenience, just like motorcars are becoming.”

“Do you think we might buy a motorcar some day, Mother?” Celia asked.

“Yes, one day, when they've improved the roads. Right now there are not enough roadways to make a motorcar worthwhile,” Celia's mother told her. “Not only that, your aunt Rebecca and I would have to learn to steer the thing, and someone would have to know what to do if it quit going.”

“In other words, it would be an enormous undertaking to own
one,” Mandie remarked. “I like carriages better. They're not so complicated.”

“Yes, just feed and take care of the horses, hitch up the carriage any time you get ready, and drive down all those muddy, bumpy roads we have back home,” Celia agreed with a laugh.

“Now here's our food,” Mrs. Hamilton said as the waiter rolled a cart holding trays of steaming meats and vegetables up to their table. “Let's make short work of this meal so we can use the telephone.”

Mandie and Celia were both hungry and anxious to contact Jonathan, so they devoured their food. In no time at all, they were following Mrs. Hamilton to a telephone on a small table in the lobby of the hotel. She picked it up, putting the tall piece to her mouth and the cylinder attached on a cord to her ear.

“Number please,” the girls could plainly hear a voice coming over the telephone.

“I don't have the number, but would you please ring Mr. Lindall Guyer, that is, Mr. Jonathan Lindall Guyer, the second? He lives on Fifth Avenue,” Mrs. Hamilton explained.

“Thank you,” the voice came over the telephone again, then a loud buzzing noise was heard.

Suddenly another voice sounded on the telephone. “This is Mr. Guyer's residence,” a man said with a British accent.

“Is Mr. Guyer at home, please? This is Mrs. Hamilton from Richmond, Virginia, and I am calling from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel,” Jane told him.

“He is not here at the moment, mum, but he should be returning soon. I will give him your name,” the man said.

“Also, please give him my daughter's name, Celia, and her friend Amanda Shaw, who are with me. Thank you,” she replied.

“Righto, mum, that I will,” the man said and broke the connection.

Mrs. Hamilton hung up the phone and looked at the two girls. “Maybe Mr. Guyer will telephone us when he returns home,” she said as she walked toward a sofa on the other side of the lobby.

“I hope so,” Celia said.

“So that's all you do to call up someone else's telephone,” Mandie remarked as she and Celia followed Mrs. Hamilton to the sofa where they all sat down.

“It's not hard at all, and think of the time it saves when you want to get in touch with someone,” Mrs. Hamilton said.

“Provided the person you want to talk to has a telephone,” Celia added.

“I think maybe the telephone is a good idea,” Mandie said, smiling. “When Grandmother gets hers, I'll ask Mother to get one. Then I won't have to go all the way home from school in Asheville to talk to her.”

“Yes, and maybe Mr. Chadwick's School will get one, too, and we can call the boys over there,” Celia said with a big grin.

“And maybe Joe Woodard's father will get one, too. After all, he's a doctor and should have one,” Mandie added thoughtfully. “I just don't know about Uncle Ned. He might not want a telephone.”

Uncle Ned was Mandie's father's old Cherokee friend. The year before, Jim Shaw had died and Uncle Ned had promised her father that he would watch over Mandie. He kept his promise and almost always turned up wherever she went.

“Oh, but, dear, you have to have telephone lines to connect your telephone, and I don't imagine there would be any lines way out there in Deep Creek where Uncle Ned lives,” Mrs. Hamilton explained.

“Well, he probably wouldn't get one anyway,” Mandie decided.

They got into a deep conversation about telephones and time flew by. Suddenly Mandie was startled to see Jonathan Guyer and his father coming toward them across the lobby. She quickly grabbed Celia's hand.

“Celia, here comes Jonathan!” she cried, excitedly jumping up from the sofa.

Celia also rose and uttered a loud “Jonathan!”

Jonathan ran ahead of his father and quickly tried to embrace both girls at one time. “Mandie! Celia!” he exclaimed. “You didn't let us know you were coming.”

Mandie looked up into his mischievous black eyes and said, “But we did let you know we were here.”

“It would have been TB for you if you hadn't,” Jonathan replied, squeezing her hand.

“TB? What does that mean?” Mandie asked.

Jonathan looked at her in surprise and said, “Why, it means
too bad
. Oh, I forgot y'all come from down in the country and are probably behind with New York slang.” He grinned.

Lindall Guyer approached the sofa, and Jane Hamilton rose.

“My, my, what are you doing in a hotel when I have such a big house? I must insist you check out of here immediately and come home with us,” he told Mrs. Hamilton as he squeezed her hand.

She looked up at the smiling man and said, “Oh, but we couldn't impose on you. You see, we have plans for so many things in the short time we'll be here.”

“Never mind excuses,” Mr. Guyer said. “Seems like I remember you were always making up excuses long years ago when we first met. Now, let's get your things. I have my carriage waiting outside.”

The three young people had been listening to the conversation. Mandie was aware that her grandmother knew Jonathan's father, and it was evident that Celia's mother did, as well. But then when you were as wealthy and well known as Lindall Guyer, it was no surprise that everyone seemed to be acquainted with the man.

“Please, Mother,” Celia spoke up.

“Please, Mrs. Hamilton,” Jonathan added.

Mrs. Hamilton looked at the dark young man and said, “Jonathan, I am pleased to finally meet you. Celia and Amanda have talked about you so much since they met you on the trip to Europe back in the summer that I feel as though I already know you.”

“I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs. Hamilton,” Jonathan replied, and then with a big grin he added, “But we could all get better acquainted if you just move on over to our house.”

“Yes, let's get someone to bring down your luggage,” Mr. Guyer told Mrs. Hamilton as he glanced around the lobby.

“We will have to go up and repack a little first,” Mrs. Hamilton replied.

“And get Snowball! Goodness, I almost forgot about him. He hasn't even been fed yet,” Mandie told them, suddenly realizing her cat must be awfully hungry by now.

“So you brought that white cat with you,” Jonathan teased. “Remember all the trouble he caused on that ship going to England? But he won't be any trouble at our house. We have lots of rooms for him to roam in.”

While Mandie and the Hamiltons went to their rooms to repack, Mr. Guyer and Jonathan went outside to get their driver to help the hotel employee bring the luggage down and stack it in the Guyers' huge,
rich-looking carriage. Finally they were all on their way to Jonathan's house.

The three young people excitedly reminisced about their adventures on the journey to Europe. Mrs. Hamilton listened to them and smiled. Mr. Guyer smiled as he watched her.

Before anyone realized it, the driver was turning the carriage into the driveway of Lindall Guyer's house.

CHAPTER TWO

POOR FELLOW

Mandie stared at the huge stone building Jonathan called his home as the carriage came to a halt under a portico. The driver jumped down and opened the door, and another man, evidently the butler, came out of the house to assist with their luggage.