CHAPTER NINE
Peacock Blue
GAMADGE MOUNTED the high stoop and pulled a bronze knob. He then entered the vestibule, and stood, already a trifle depressed, in contemplation of walnut double doors; their upper halves were of glass, ornamented with a ground-glass pattern—birds and flowers.
After a considerable wait he was admitted by an elderly parlormaid in a long black alpaca dress, a long white apron, and a fluted cap. She took his card, left him standing in the front hall, and went upstairs.
Gamadge laid his hat on a marble-topped console, and looked about him. Walnut folding doors shut him off from the drawing room; the huge mirror above the console sprouted hooks on either side of it, and umbrella stands below; beside the stairs a narrow hallway ended in another glassed door, through
