“All through,” replied her companion. “Have a good time?”
“Grand. I never knew there could be so many beautiful shops in such a small area. Come on now. I want to ride a subway.”
“I’ll have to change clothes,” said Janet.
“Never mind changing for a subway trip. We’ll go down to the Battery. I inquired the way at the desk.”
Janet slipped on a light brown coat and followed Helen down and across to the Times Square subway station where they found themselves engulfed in the crowd and the noise. Helen dropped two nickels in the turnstile and they went through the gate, Helen still in the lead and striding along as though she were the veteran of many a ride in the subway instead of a rank beginner.
A train roared out of the darkness of the tube and Janet saw a sign, “South Ferry,” on the windows.
“This is our train,” cried Helen, shoving her companion ahead of her and into one of the seats. Other passengers piled in, the doors clanged and they were roaring through the tunnel far under the street level. Their train was an express and occasionally they shot past a slower local. The air was close with an odor that is peculiar to a subway, but Janet enjoyed the ride, watching the crowd in the car. It was evident that most of them were accustomed to using the subway several times a day and they were either visiting or reading evening papers, which they had folded so they would take up the least possible room.
At the South Ferry station they walked up to the street levels and entered Battery park. Janet paused a moment, struck by the beauty of the harbor in the late afternoon. Beyond the Battery was the Statue of Liberty and even further the tidewater flats of Jersey.
Several freighters, which had cleared their docks a few minutes before, were going down the harbor and Janet and Helen, standing along the Battery wondered for what distant port they might be bound.
They walked past the Aquarium. On another afternoon they would come back and spend several hours going through that fascinating building.