At fifty-three, Grand had a thick trunk and a large balding bullet-head; his face was quite pink, so that in
certain half-lights he looked like a fat radish man - though not displeasingly so, for he always sported well-cut clothes and, near the throat, a diamond the size of a nickel... a diamond now that caught the late afternoon sun in a soft spangle of burning colour when Guy stepped through the soundless doors of Grand’s and into the blue haze of the almost empty street, past the huge doorman appearing larger than life in gigantic livery, he who touched his cap with quick but easy reverence.
"Cab, Mr. Grand?"
"Thank you no, Jason," said Guy, "I have the car today." And with a pleasant smile for the man, he turned adroitly on his heel, north towards Worth Street.
Guy Grand‘s gait was brisk indeed — small sharp steps, rising on the toes. It was the gait of a man who appears to be snapping his fingers as he walks.
Half a block on he reached the car, though he seemed to have a momentary difficulty in recognizing it; beneath the windshield wiper laid a big parking ticket which Grand slowly withdrew, regarding it curiously.
"Looks like you‘ve got a ticket, bub!" said a voice somewhere behind him.
Out of the corner of his eye Grand perceived the man, in a dark summer suit, leaning idly against the side of the building nearest the car. There was something terse and smug in the tone of his remark, a sort of nasal piousness.
"Yes, so it seems," mused Grand, without looking up, continuing to study the ticket in his hand. "How much will you eat it for?" he asked then, raising a piercing smile at the man.
"How‘s that, mister?" demanded the latter with a nasty frown, pushing himself forward a bit from the building.
Grand cleared his throat and slowly took out his wallet — a long slender wallet of such fine leather it would have been limp as silk had it not been so chock-full of thousands.