About Schmidt - Louis Begley [87]
Well, that’s quite a proposal! What do they do with that capital? I suppose it pays for the apartment, and they no longer need to borrow from you and Myron—unless you were planning to make a gift.
She sidestepped the nature of the Riker-to-Riker transaction.
It depends on the value of the house. Jon said he doesn’t know whether you have already had it appraised. Yes, they would use the money for the apartment, but there is something they might do in addition. We have always rented in the summer, but now we are looking at a property upstate, near Claverack. Do you know where that is?
Yes.
There is an adorable little farmhouse adjacent to it. They thought it might be exactly right for them. There are skiing areas nearby they would enjoy.
Schmidt nodded and lit a cigarillo.
Schmidtie, you do understand the tax business, don’t you? Jon explained it, but it has gone out of my head.
Those are details. The real question is whether I can afford to keep the house once I have given away or spent all that cash. I had counted on buying a small house that wouldn’t be so expensive to run. I am fairly certain I will do what Jon and, I assume, Charlotte want. Let me think about it for a day or two.
You are a very good and generous man. If the house is too big, couldn’t you sell it after you have bought Charlotte out?
That isn’t exactly what Mary had in mind. I do have to think about it. Do I give the answer to you?
They’ll be thrilled to speak to you, Schmidtie.
I am sure. What about the wedding? I take it they are still getting married—to each other—somewhere!
That’s not funny. I don’t think you realize how much they are in love. They would like to have a wedding in New York. Not in a hotel, of course, and our apartment is really too small. They were thinking of one of those nice new places downtown.
I don’t know anything about them. I’ll stay out of it then. That should make everyone’s life simpler. You are the lady who has been listening to the tape. Didn’t I say something about that?
You said very generously that you would pay for the wedding even if it wasn’t in Bridgehampton.
And so I will. You may reassure Charlotte.
But we’ll be more than happy to chip in—after all, it’s going to be a modern party!
Thanks. That will not be necessary. The new plan may end up saving me money. Don’t go yet, he added, seeing that she was putting the disdained cassette in her pocketbook. You have already told me so much, but there is one thing more. I was quite surprised by Charlotte’s remarks about my bad reputation at Wood & King. It’s odd that no one has warned me. I can’t square them with some of the things that you have said, how Jon and his contemporaries hold me in such high regard. I realized that you were exaggerating, but were you saying the exact opposite of the truth?
I was hoping that you had put what Charlotte had said on that subject out of your mind.
How could I?
The dining room had emptied. She looked around and asked, Don’t the waiters all wish we would leave?
Doubtless.
He was going to add something like, Don’t worry about it, they aren’t supposed to make members uncomfortable if a conversation is prolonged, when he thought of Carrie, and how fatigue showed in her eyes and in the way that from one moment to the next her head would seem to droop.
Instead he said: Good try, but I won’t let you get away. Let’s go downstairs, to the reading room.
More coffee? he asked when they sat down again. You might want to have a brandy. I shouldn’t, since I’m going to drive back.
Thank you, Schmidtie. Nothing at all. I think you should recognize that these remarks were what I described as Charlotte’s aggressive behavior. She knew your feelings were going to be hurt by what she and Jon had decided about the wedding and the house, that made her feel guilty and unhappy, and the only solution was to attack, to hurt your feelings even more. You handed her the opening, when she