"We dress for dinner" Gloria added as she rose to go change and leave.
I spent the rest of the day loafing about the apartment, sorting through old magazines which I probably should have gotten rid of a long time before. Ann occupied herself watching a video of an old Bette Davis movie and then reading. We speculated about what Gloria might have been referring to, but neither of us knew. I did not know that much about Ronald and Gloria. Ann had befriended Gloria as she saw her from time to time in our l obby and, similarly, I knew Ronald well enough to pass a few words about the weather but not much more. We had gotten to know Gloria a little better today, however.
That evening, as Ann and I were introduced to Davenport, we realized how little we really knew about Ronald and Gloria.
Ann and I interpreted, it turned out correctly, Gloria's comment that "we dress for dinner" to reflect a suggestion that we wear formal dress. I wore a dinner jacket which was not particularly remarkable. Ann chose her attire with more thought. Her outfit was based on a very dressy one piece pants suit. The pants part were of a billowy white material which, when Ann stepped in front of a light source gave a gauzy view of the outline of her legs. The top was of the same material which gathered almost halter-style around her neck. The effect was to accentuate Ann's height and gave her a regal bearing, although the bob and wobble of Ann's unrestrained breasts under her top gave a hint of Ann's personality.
Precisely at eight, we rode down in the elevator, to Gloria and Ronald's apartment two floors below ours. Ronald answered the door and showed us in to their living room. Ronald was wearing a dark-red dinner jacket, edg ed in black satin over black trousers. The apartment was furnished with a consistent theme. The walls in the hallway leading to the living room were covered with dark mahogany. The living room continued the mahogany th eme, with brown-toned tapestries hanging on the walls. The furnishings were suggestive of what one might imagine an english clubroom to look like.
The lighting in the apartment was subdued with a vaguely yellowish cast attributable to the lampshades covering the various lamps which were the only source of illumination. Gloria joined us in the living room, walking in with a tray on which glasses of wine were arrayed. I took immediate notice of Gloria's dress. She was wearing a blood red, ankle length gown which was supported by two thin straps at her shoulder. The dress itself was extremely low-cut. Gloria's breasts were not encased by the top of her dress, rather they appeared to rest in them. The dress was cut so low, that the top third or so of each nipple was left peeking above the fabric of the dress.
After offering each of us some wine, Gloria asked to be excused so that she could attend to the completion of her preparations for dinner. Ann and I remained in the living room for about ten minutes where we continued o ur basic pointless small-talk. Finally Gloria invited us in to the dining room for dinner.
There was a long, formal dining table of a highly polished wood with four places set near one end. There were three chairs, however, and in front of the fourth placesetting, a type of furnishing I had never before seen.
It consisted of a small upholstered cushion set on a very low bench with short wooden rails that were about two to three feet above the level of the cushion. Its purpose and function became clear to us as Ann and I wer e directed to our seats, and Ronald took his. For her part, Gloria knelt on the cushion, and I saw that she was to eat her meal in this kneeling position. Neither Ann nor I made any comment about this.
Ronald, for at least the first part of the dinner took charge of steering the conversation from one innocuous topic to another. He tried to draw me out about my business, but I merely left it as "investments" without mo re explanation. Ronald told me that he had been trained as a physician, but that like me, he had found the day to day grind not to be as rewarding as he had hoped. Instead, he found himself more intrigued by the busines s of medicine, so he founded a business that purchased patient receivables from his client practitioners for a 20 % discount, and he used his staff to complete forms, handle the paperwork and collect the full fee.
Finally, at the end of dinner, Ronald addressed what was really on our minds: "You want to know about Davenport."
Ann and I exchanged glances and nodded encouragement for Ronald to continue.
"It's not something for which we want public attention or scrutiny. In fact public attention is the antithesis of the Davenport concept" he explained.
"Initially, when Gloria told me that you were asking questions about Davenport, I wondered what raised the subject with you. Then Gloria explained how it was that you happened to see her "D" and all that you were doing during that ostensible workout, so I concluded that we should meet and I would have a better idea whether Davenport is something that we could not share with everybody."
"Now that we have gotten to know you a bit better, I don't mind introducing the concept of Davenport to you."
Ann and I were both very curious know about just what Davenport was. Ronald explained: "Davenport is both a name and a concept. 'Davenport' is the name of an estate our group purchased in the upper Adirondack mountain s. There is a compound consisting of a main hall, a detached servants quarter and associated buildings."
That did not tell us much, but Ronald continued: "Davenport was purchased six years ago by a group of likeminded people. I was part of that initial purchasing group. After we completed the renovations, we then hired our administrator to run Davenport."
He went on: "You see Davenport is the place where we send those who are to be in-service to us for training and skills development. We have the highest quality people who work at Davenport and they know just how to trai n their wards to be all the more exciting and stimulating."
"I sent Gloria there only last month and she has returned from Davenport all the more compliant and suited to my expectations. And the "D" you noticed, well that is the only sort of graduation degree we give to our stud ents."
"By the way" Ronald explained, " the fee for a six week schedule… and I would venture that for someone in your position they would charge $25,000 or so. The only problem would be if you wanted to watch Ann's traini ng, for which you would have to pay an additional $5,000 so that things could be set up so that you could observe her training without being a source of distraction."
"In many ways, it is the re-education of one partner to find new and different ways to please the other party to the relationship. It operates by stripping away barriers to communication and other inhibiting qualities.
The graduates of Davenport are taught that their gift is the ability to listen to and to obey their partners with enthusiasm and inspiration. I'll show you what I mean."
At that Richard took a banana that was in a bowl of fruit that was on the dining room table and told Gloria to "use it." Without further direction or prodding, Gloria took the banana and insinuated it between her legs.
She then bunched up her dress to show that the banana, to the extent of at least a third, was now impaled within her.
That bit of show and tell was the end of our discussion that evening concerning Davenport. As Ann and I bade Gloria and Ronald farewell, we both knew, without ever giving voice to the thought, that Ann would be going to
Davenport.
Davenport – December 1988 – January 1989
"I want to go to Davenport" Ann acknowledged without being asked as we returned to our apartment from Ronald and Gloria's.
"I know. I'll pursue it." I answered.
After checking with Ronald by telephone the next day, I found out that the next step was to arrange for an interview with the Administrator of Davenport. Ronald expedited the arrangements for that interview which were to be conducted at Davenport's New York City office the following week. The Administrator called and gave me a brief set of instructions.