Read Online The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Helene Hanff
Ads: Link
conference accompanied by a scrubbed young vicar. Ladies all complained they didnât sleep a wink for the noise, the motorcars go by in the street just-all-NIGHT. Quietest place I ever slept in. They should try tucking up over Second Avenue, where the trucks start rolling at 3 A.M.
Lots of Russian and Czech tourist families here, with blasé well-behaved children. Several parties of German tourists, middle-aged to make it worse. (The young ones you donât mind: they-didnât-do-it.) The tourist parties alleat with one eye on the clock; theyâve all signed up for some bus tour and the buses leave the hotel at nine sharp. At two minutes to nine thereâs a heavy Russian-Czech-German bustle and a ponderous exodus to the lineâwhere the Czechs gesticulate wildly at signs they canât read and the German tour leader bawls, âAchtung!â and, âHalte!â to get everybody lined up. The Russians just stolidly find the bus and get on it.
The only Americans here besides me turned up at breakfast this morning for the first time: three California college girls, blond, tanned, radiantly healthy, conferring anxiously on whether Full English Breakfast meant you could order everything, itâs all free with the room? I asked the waitress for more coffee and when they heard my American accent one of them came over to my table to ask about what you can order and Are you supposed to tip. I said No, the management adds 12 per cent to your bill for tips. Alvaro was scandalized when I tried to tip him the first day. No, No! he said, It is all cared for!
Will now retire to my room with last weekendâs newspapers and their fiendish crossword puzzles and spend the morning âenjoying poor health,â as my mother used to say.
Crime Note
From Saturdayâs evening paper:
£50 FINE FOR TEACHER
WHO ASSAULTED GIRL
AT WIMBLEDON
A 54-year-old teacher of statistics at London University . . . appeared in court today charged with insulting behavior at Wimbledon tennis championships.
He was fined £50 after admitting indecent assault in the standing area of No. 1 Court.
Temporary Det. Con. Patrick Doyle told Wimbledon magistrates that [the defendant] put an arm around an 18-year-old girl and held her breasts.
[The defendant], who is married, said:
âI suffered a temporary lapse of commonsense.
âIt is ridiculous that a man in my position should do such a thing.â
A Wimbledon umpire . . . aged 66, was also accused of insulting behavior at Wimbledon. Altogether 10 men appeared, charged with insulting behavior.
The sixty-year-old umpire was extra lucky, they put his picture in the paper.
Hereâs a help-wanted ad for you:
----
BUCKINGHAM PALACE. Vacancy in the central wash-up of the main kitchen, for female applicants only. Non-residential. . . . Apply in writing to Master of the Household, Buckingham Palace, London SW 1
----
Wouldnât you like to take that job for one day, just to listen to the gossip?
11 p.m.
Leo Marks phoned up from the lobby at seven, I went down to meet them in my silk-dress-and-coat, red nose and watery eyes, and Leo, who is dark-haired and good-looking, said:
âHow dâyou do, weâre very glad you could come, go back upstairs and get a coat, itâs chilly and itâs raining.â
I came up and got my old blue coat, went down and told him:
âYouâve made me ruin the effect of my whole costume.â
And Enaâhis wife, very small and blondâsaid earnestly:
âYou can take the coat off when we get to the restaurant, weâre dining at a hotel, you can take it off in the lobby!â and peered at me anxiously to see if that was all right.
She ought to look delicate but doesnât, you get a sense of wiry strength. She might be a small blond athlete but sheâs a portrait painter. She paints under her own name, Ena Gaussen. Leo told me sheâs done portraits of Hayley Mills and Pamela
Lots of Russian and Czech tourist families here, with blasé well-behaved children. Several parties of German tourists, middle-aged to make it worse. (The young ones you donât mind: they-didnât-do-it.) The tourist parties alleat with one eye on the clock; theyâve all signed up for some bus tour and the buses leave the hotel at nine sharp. At two minutes to nine thereâs a heavy Russian-Czech-German bustle and a ponderous exodus to the lineâwhere the Czechs gesticulate wildly at signs they canât read and the German tour leader bawls, âAchtung!â and, âHalte!â to get everybody lined up. The Russians just stolidly find the bus and get on it.
The only Americans here besides me turned up at breakfast this morning for the first time: three California college girls, blond, tanned, radiantly healthy, conferring anxiously on whether Full English Breakfast meant you could order everything, itâs all free with the room? I asked the waitress for more coffee and when they heard my American accent one of them came over to my table to ask about what you can order and Are you supposed to tip. I said No, the management adds 12 per cent to your bill for tips. Alvaro was scandalized when I tried to tip him the first day. No, No! he said, It is all cared for!
Will now retire to my room with last weekendâs newspapers and their fiendish crossword puzzles and spend the morning âenjoying poor health,â as my mother used to say.
Crime Note
From Saturdayâs evening paper:
£50 FINE FOR TEACHER
WHO ASSAULTED GIRL
AT WIMBLEDON
A 54-year-old teacher of statistics at London University . . . appeared in court today charged with insulting behavior at Wimbledon tennis championships.
He was fined £50 after admitting indecent assault in the standing area of No. 1 Court.
Temporary Det. Con. Patrick Doyle told Wimbledon magistrates that [the defendant] put an arm around an 18-year-old girl and held her breasts.
[The defendant], who is married, said:
âI suffered a temporary lapse of commonsense.
âIt is ridiculous that a man in my position should do such a thing.â
A Wimbledon umpire . . . aged 66, was also accused of insulting behavior at Wimbledon. Altogether 10 men appeared, charged with insulting behavior.
The sixty-year-old umpire was extra lucky, they put his picture in the paper.
Hereâs a help-wanted ad for you:
----
BUCKINGHAM PALACE. Vacancy in the central wash-up of the main kitchen, for female applicants only. Non-residential. . . . Apply in writing to Master of the Household, Buckingham Palace, London SW 1
----
Wouldnât you like to take that job for one day, just to listen to the gossip?
11 p.m.
Leo Marks phoned up from the lobby at seven, I went down to meet them in my silk-dress-and-coat, red nose and watery eyes, and Leo, who is dark-haired and good-looking, said:
âHow dâyou do, weâre very glad you could come, go back upstairs and get a coat, itâs chilly and itâs raining.â
I came up and got my old blue coat, went down and told him:
âYouâve made me ruin the effect of my whole costume.â
And Enaâhis wife, very small and blondâsaid earnestly:
âYou can take the coat off when we get to the restaurant, weâre dining at a hotel, you can take it off in the lobby!â and peered at me anxiously to see if that was all right.
She ought to look delicate but doesnât, you get a sense of wiry strength. She might be a small blond athlete but sheâs a portrait painter. She paints under her own name, Ena Gaussen. Leo told me sheâs done portraits of Hayley Mills and Pamela
Similar Books
