CHAPTER FOURTEENOut of Place, Out of Time
“We sound like a herd of elephants,” said Gamadge.
“I’ll say we do.” Nordhall eyed him quizzically through the dusk.
“It’s one thing the old gentleman never did,” said Norah, descending by putting both feet on each step each time, and holding to the banisters. “When the old carpet wore out he wouldn’t renew. ‘Leave it for our lifetime, Norah,’ he’d say; he thought in those days he’d be willing the house to people that would only sell it or pull it down. Those institutions. ‘I’ll break my neck,’ I’d tell him.”
They went into one of those long basement rooms with a barred window and wainscoting, the kind of room that New Yorkers of moderate income used to take their meals in. It now contained a covered pool table, markers, and a rack of cues. Aga
