Adam's Daughter Read Online Free PDF

months’ pay. He glanced at Bickford, focusing on his gold collar pin, and thought about the hidden safety pin holding his own collar erect.
    But it wasn’t feelings of inferiority that made him uncomfortable. It was Lilith. She had been acting strangely possessive, as if she considered him a birthday gift delivered by Daddy.
    He glanced at her. She was babbling about the opera star Luisa Tetrazzini, who had married a man twenty years her junior.
    " Quel scandale !” Lilith said. “But then, what can one expect of Italians, after all.”
    Her mother nodded sympathetically.
    Adam took a bite of the dry white cake and with a discreet glance at Mrs. Bickford’s plate carefully set his little fork, tines up, across his own plate. The room was overheated and was making him drowsy. He tried to look interested in the conversation, but his mind kept wandering.
    Yesterday, Bickford had told him that the city editor position was coming open soon and that there were only two candidates: Adam and another man named Rogers. Adam knew he had proved himself yet Bickford was still dangling the job in front of him like a carrot. Was Lilith part of the package?
    The conversation had deteriorated into local gossip. Adam caught Bickford’s eye and saw the man’s weary resignation. He felt a little sorry for Bickford in that second, caught as he was between two insipid women.
    There was a lull as Lilith paused to drink her coffee and Adam jumped in, “So, sir,” he said to Bickford. “What did you think of the Dempsey-Tunney fight?”
    Bickford brightened. “Dempsey’s nose is like glass. Couldn’t hold up after he had it rebuilt for the moving pictures, you know.”
    Adam listened as Bickford went on about the fight, offering an occasional comment. The conversation moved on to the upcoming World Series, and Lilith and her mother sat in silence, sipping their coffee. Adam felt a slight distaste for resorting to the ingratiating ploy with Bickford, but he was beginning to accept the evening for the opportunity it was. After all, it was he -— not Rogers —- who had been invited.
    “What do you think, Adam?” Bickford asked. “Can the Cards finally beat the Yankees?”
    “They’ve got the talent,” Adam said.
    Bickford laughed. “It’ll take more than talent. It’ll take plenty of luck!”
    Adam felt Lilith’s eyes on him. “Yes,” he said. “A little bit of luck never hurts.”
    “Spoken like a true Irishman,” Bickford said. He rose, patting his belly. “A fine dinner, Catherine,” he said to his wife. “How about a cigar in the library, Adam?”
    “Sounds fine to me, sir.”
    “It’s time we drop this ‘sir’ stuff,” Bickford said. “It’s just plain ol’ Bick.”
    Adam smiled and allowed himself to be led out of the dining room. “If you insist, Bick.”
    During the next two months, Bickford invited Adam to the house often. It became clear to Adam that the promotion was forthcoming. And that Lilith was, indeed, part of the deal. He began to see her occasionally, just enough to appease everyone. Then, one afternoon, Adam was called up to Bickford’s office. Lilith was sitting there.
    “Bryant, do you have a dress coat?” Bickford asked.
    "A dress coat?”
    “I thought not,” Bickford said with a grunt. “Well, here’s some money. Go over to Tilton’s and rent yourself a dinner jacket. You’re going to cover the opening of the Mark Hopkins tonight.” He smiled at Lilith then at Adam. “We’ll have a grand time.”
     
     

    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    It rose nineteen stories, a brick monolith on the crest of Nob Hill where the rail baron Mark Hopkins’s mansion had stood before the earthquake.
    Every inch of it glittered with the most dazzling decor and furnishings the outrageous five-million-dollar price could buy. Yet beneath the splendor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel was a skeleton of metal braces engineered to withstand any fire or earthquake. It was an ingenious building. Steel and silk. The perfect