Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Rich Relation

Tonight's tie is a rich mahogany textured silk accented by closely-gathered gold pinstripes, each sheaf of six appearing as a stripe on its own.  The last room Burke escorted him into was the library.  "Many of these volumes are First Editions and very rare, sir," he intoned.  "Your grandfather was a great lover of books, and he insisted upon the finest quality and workmanship.  If you would like, I myself can--" but the younger gentleman waved him impatiently into silence as he took a volume from the shelf.  Its cover was embossed, fine-grained leather, and the gilt-edged pages gleamed.  Part of Grandfather's personal library, the book's binding had been custom-made, and the grandson could not help but note the irony in the title he had randomly selected:  Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned.  And even before he opened it to its frontispiece, he knew it would be signed and dedicated to Grandfather by the Jazz Age raconteur himself.