“Up to a point. If this truly is serious, they have to provide sensible, calm information. If not, then I suggest everyone in America cut their cable contract, shut down Facebook. People need to know the truth.”
“Yes.” O.J. thought for some time. “If it’s spreading, as that fellow said, then we’re in for it.”
“I hope not, but you’re going to have to decide. I wouldn’t hit the red button yet but you may have to cancel the meet.”
“Oh, dear.” O.J. was crestfallen.
“You’ll know what to do,” Catherine reassured her.
“I don’t see how anything good can come out of this,” O.J. fretted.
That depends on one’s definition of good. If one is a murderer or thief or both, a coronavirus pandemonium could provide opportunities.
CHAPTER 26
March 6, 2020 Friday
“I told Buddy you would make him a better deal than anyone in Philadelphia.” Carter sat at a table at Franklin Printing Company examining paper colors and weights.
“We’ll certainly try.” Betty sat next to him.
In the next room, door shut, they could hear the printing press.
“If he is going to attract the right kind of client, then he has to send out a proper card, and believe me, in southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Cecil County, Maryland, they know.” Carter rubbed a fine grade of paper between his fingers. “Right weight. If it’s too heavy then it’s like a recipe card.”
Betty smiled. “Well, it’s not that bad, and heavier paper is now the thing for note cards. I wouldn’t use it, but I see the point. Doesn’t wrinkle or bend. This is to invite people to see the new collection? The stuff he bought from the Rittenhouse townhouse?”
“All four floors.” Carter picked up another paper sample. “I like laid bond, not for a card, of course.”
“One could trace history through papyrus, vellum, the advances in creating papers. Well, don’t get me on that. Let me make a suggestion. Everyone deals with an avalanche of white paper. Buddy would do well to use a cream, light gray, or even a medium shade of tan. Something to stand out when the recipient puts the invitation in the ‘to answer’ pile. Another option would be a thin strip, a border, and that could be in, say, a more youthful color. Can’t do black. And gray, imminently respectable, can be drab. If he has the moxie, go for something a little flashy, a hot aqua, or if that’s too much, a rich burgundy. Did he give you any instructions?”
Carter sighed. “No. He dumped it on my lap. He said I was better with color than he, plus I’m gay, so therefore I have innate artistic abilities.”
“Carter, you aren’t gay.” Betty burst out laughing.
“I know. He’s just trying to tweak me into it. Buddy can be a devil. Well, being a Cadwalder, he can get away with murder. So, if I pick a color, can I use white for the paper?”
“You can but I still counsel cream at the least. It’s hard to go wrong with cream; for one thing, it’s warm. Cream and a hunter green border, although that’s a combination used a lot by hunt clubs.”
“Why?” Carter’s eyebrows raised.
“So many of them have green in their colors because since medieval time green is the color for hunting. Another beloved hunt-club color is blue, blue facings. For instance, Glenmore over the mountain uses a marvelous Yale blue. So I say, go for it. Even metallic orange or a hot bronze. Metallic borders are fabulous.”
“I had no idea what I was getting into.”
“Carter, I can see that. That’s why I’m here. And you say he wants five hundred?”
“He does. These are his richest customers, obviously. Given where he lives, he has a wide base. Something I can only dream about but he will be introducing me to his base. Along the way I have met others when we were on horses together, he for furniture, me for jewelry.”
“You have a lot of ladies…and men, too, I guess.”
“I try to travel to at least two hunts per month. Jewelry tends to be an emotional purchase. If I’m called to another state, a big city, I go. I go because it is so emotional people can change their minds in a heartbeat.” He laughed.
“Typeface.” Betty got back to business.
“Oh God.” Carter’s expression nearly curdled.
“Script is always proper for a formal invitation and it should be in black. Traditional script, not brush script or anything with an unnecessary flourish. Script flows as it is. So you pick an ivory card, script, and then a little pizzazz, say with a border, and given that his people for this list know the minutiae of etiquette anyway, I’d not stray far from a deep blue or a burgundy. If it were just for me, I’d use bronze. But that might be too much for the Main Line.”
Relief flooded Carter’s face. “I could never have done this by myself.”
“People don’t think through what paper grades, fonts, and colors truly mean. Tells you a great deal about the sender.”
“Well, you are right. I have never received a piece of stationery from a man with his name in script at the top or even his initials.”
“There you have it.” Betty smiled.
“Did you know that Philadelphia was the largest English-speaking city in the middle of the eighteenth century, larger than London?” Carter asked.
“No. I knew the British took it over and our capital had to move to the other side of the Susquehanna. To York, I think. I’ll give our public schools credit, when I was there they actually taught us history, and civics, too.”
“Mmm,” Carter mumbled. “If people don’t know their history or the history of the world, at least in broad terms, think how much easier they are to manipulate. All that those who wish to part us from our money, or our freedoms, have to do is twist things, arouse emotions. Done throughout the centuries. Look at Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany. Nothing new about this, I guess. And think of the fabulous jewelry stolen or hocked. Can you think of a grand duchess’s fabulous jewelry? Sold or stolen, all of them.”
Betty exhaled. “Okay, back to business here. Burgundy, blue, or hunter green?”
“Burgundy, a deep burgundy.”
“And script in black?”
He nodded. “Maybe a paper color a touch darker than ivory, a true cream.”
She pulled a sample from the pile. “This?”
“Good. Say, have you ever hunted up there? You know, Radnor, Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Hounds, Fair Hills? They can all fly.”
“No, but I did hunt once with Green Spring Valley in Carroll County. Beautiful territory, fabulously managed. If I can ever stop working so hard, I’d like to hunt the Midwest and West; you know, Red Rock.”
“Ah, I would, too. They’ll spend big bucks in Reno and Las Vegas.”
Betty slid the papers together then turned them on their side to tap them all into place. “Have you ever seen any Munnings up there? Given the thefts, it occurred to me that there’s enough money in Pennsylvania and Maryland for someone to own a Munnings or even an earlier Stubbs.”
“I have only ever seen a Stubbs in a corporate office where the president was a passionate foxhunter. But Munnings…” He paused. “I think Buddy once mentioned to me that the late Jack Young owned one. Hmm, Penelope Tree on a Dappled Grey. The Trees were once powerful in England. The times change. Now if someone makes piles of money they buy a sheep preserved in alcohol. No art but hot wheels. Then again, I wouldn’t mind a Maserati.”
“Oh, talk to Sister. She goes through cars like popcorn.”
“She does,” Carter agreed. “She beats them to death.”