When Peggy, bubbling with her news, returned to the hotel, it was decided to fill the time before lunch with a necessary shopping tour. She needed so much, now that she was to live in New York. Mr. Lane decided to let Peggy and her mother take care of this aspect of the trip, while he visited some old newspaper friends. He arranged to meet them for lunch at the hotel in two hours, kissed them fondly, and boarded a bus downtown.
Rockport was never like this, Peggy thought, as she and her mother walked along looking in shop windows. They were so excited just deciding which stores to shop in and what things she needed, that before they had a chance to actually buy anything, it was time for lunch.
“At least we had a chance to find out where all the nice stores are,” Mrs. Lane said. “And it doesn’t matter that we didn’t get you your things. You’ll probably have more fun going shopping by yourself or with some of your new friends when you come back here to live. Besides, we won’t have to bring things home and then carry them all the way back to New York again.”
Peggy agreed that it made sense, and at the thought of her “new friends” and of buying her own things in New York’s world-famous stores, she got a little thrill of pleasure and anticipation.
After lunch, made memorable by Mr. Lane’s new collection of newspaper stories picked up from his old friends, it was time to travel downtown to meet May Berriman and see where Peggy would be living.
As their taxi took them downtown from the hotel, Peggy noticed how the city seemed to change character every few blocks. The types of buildings and the kinds of stores changed; the neighborhood grew progressively more shabby; there were more trucks in the streets and fewer taxis. Peggy wondered what sort of neighborhood May Berriman’s place was in. Mrs. Lane, too, looked a bit concerned and whispered to Mr. Lane, “Are you sure we’re going the right way?”
He nodded and said, “You don’t know New York. Wait and see.”
In the middle of what appeared to be a district of warehouses and office buildings, the cab turned a corner, and a swift change again overtook the city. Suddenly there were well-kept apartment houses and residential hotels and then, with another turn, it was as if time itself had been turned back!
The street ended in a beautiful old-fashioned park surrounded by a high wrought-iron fence in which were set tall gates. The street around the park was lined with old, mellow brick mansions whose steps led up to high doors fitted with gleaming brass knobs, knockers, and hinges. Peggy almost expected to see top-hatted gentlemen emerge from them to descend, swinging slim canes, to waiting carriages.
“This is Gramercy Park,” her father said. “It’s still one of the most fashionable and beautiful parts of the city. May’s house is just off the park, and she tells me she has park rights for herself and the girls who live with her.”