The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vertical City, by Fannie Hurst

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Title: The Vertical City

Author: Fannie Hurst

Release Date: June 25, 2004 [EBook #12659]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VERTICAL CITY ***

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THE VERTICAL CITY

By

FANNIE HURST

_Author of_

"GASLIGHT SONATAS"

"HUMORESQUE"

ETC.

1922

CONTENTS

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY

BACK PAY

THE VERTICAL CITY

THE SMUDGE

GUILTY

ROULETTE

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY

By that same architectural gesture of grief which caused Jehan at Agra
to erect the Taj Mahal in memory of a dead wife and a cold hearthstone,
so the Bon Ton hotel, even to the pillars with red-freckled monoliths
and peacock-backed lobby chairs, making the analogy rather absurdly
complete, reared its fourteen stories of "elegantly furnished suites,
all the comforts and none of the discomforts of home."

A mausoleum to the hearth. And as true to form as any that ever mourned
the dynastic bones of an Augustus or a Hadrian.

An Indiana-limestone and Vermont-marble tomb to Hestia.

All ye who enter here, at sixty dollars a week and up, leave behind the
lingo of the fireside chair, parsley bed, servant problem, cretonne shoe
bags, hose nozzle, striped awnings, attic trunks, bird houses, ice-cream
salt, spare-room matting, bungalow aprons, mayonnaise receipt, fruit
jars, spring painting, summer covers, fall cleaning, winter apples.

The mosaic tablet of the family hotel is nailed to the room side of each
door and its commandments read something like this:

One ring: Bell Boy.

Two rings: Chambermaid.

Three rings: Valet.

Under no conditions are guests permitted to use electric irons in
rooms.

Cooking in rooms not permitted.

No dogs allowed.

Management not responsible for loss or theft of jewels. Same can be
deposited for safe-keeping in the safe at office.

* * * * *

Note:

Our famous two-dollar Table d'Hote dinner is served in the Red
Dining Room from six-thirty to eight. Music