There is only one New York. And perhaps the most interesting part of it is that which shows how real people live there.
“I wonder who’s cooking there now,” misquoted Tavia, as she got a peek into an open door that seemed to lead to nowhere in particular.
“Can you imagine people living in such closed-in quarters?” Dorothy remarked, “I should think they would become—canned.”
“They don’t live there,—they only sleep there,” Tavia disclosed, with a show of pride. “I do not believe a single person along here ever eats a meal in his or her house. They all go out to hotels.”
“But they can’t take the babies,” said Dorothy. “I often wonder what becomes of the babies after dark, when the parks are not so attractive.”
“Do you really suppose that people do live in those vaults?” musingly asked Tavia. “I should think they would smother.”
“We can’t see the back yards,” Dorothy suggested.
“Perhaps New York is like ancient Rome—all walls and back yards.”
“But the fountains,” exclaimed Tavia, “where are they?”
“There are sunken gardens behind those walls, I imagine,” explained Dorothy, “and they must be there.”
For some moments neither spoke further. The ’bus rattled along and as they neared Thirty-fourth Street stops were made more frequently.
“We will get off at the next corner,” Dorothy told Tavia, “I know of one big store up here.”
They climbed down the narrow, winding stairs and with a bound were in the midst of the Fifth Avenue shopping crowd.
Dorothy shivered under her furs. “Where,” she asked, “do all the flowers come from? No one in the country ever sees flowers in the winter, and here they are blooming like spring time.”
“Do you feel peculiar?” demanded Tavia, stopping suddenly.
“Why, no,” answered Dorothy innocently; “do you?”
“I feel just as if I needed a—nosegay,” said Tavia, laughing slily. “We’re not at all as dashing as we might be!”
They purchased from a thinly-clad little boy two bunches of violets, sweetly scented, daintily tasseled—but made of silk!
“The silkiness accounts for the always fresh and blooming violets,” Dorothy said ruefully. “Now, we look just like real New Yorkers.”
“Now where is that store?” said Dorothy, looking about with a puzzled air. “I’m sure it was right over there.”