Diary of a Yuppie

Authors: Louis Auchincloss

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“The old lady wanted us both to be with her as much as possible, and she asked us for weekends at the great white glistening villa on the dunes in Southampton, transporting us painlessly thither in her little jet, but she also wanted me to lunch with her alone, and she took to telephoning me at the office to relay bits of gossip she had just heard or funny stories that were often quite unclean. Sylvia showed not the slightest jealousy; on the contrary she encouraged our intimacy. She put me in m...ind of Kate Croy, in James's Wings of the Dove, nurturing Merton Densher's romantic friendship with the dying heiress, Milly Theale, in order that he might inherit her fortune and share it with Kate. But surely Sylvia was not planning to marry me to Mrs. Low! Ethelinda was splendidly preserved, but, judging from the few biographical facts I had gleaned, she had to be eighty.
I was getting to know her pretty well. She had great qualities, but she had weaknesses, too. If she ran her establishments as tautly as naval vessels, with ashtrays emptied almost as the first cinder fell, with cushions plumped up the moment a sitter rose, if she remembered the favorite dish and conversational topic of every guest of honor, if she studied her city politics and contributed to every honest candidate, if she toured slums and hospitals to check the effects of her bounty, she had also an avid ear for scandal and a near terror of loneliness.MoreLess Read More Read Less