Viewing page 37 of 117

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

- 133 -

Affairs and now I have a  good excuse for going as I am." He was wearing a well-tailored business suit. 

He took me to a small French restaurant in the Fifties. (I was to discover that he abhorred large, fashionable places.) In fluent French, he consulted with the maitre d'hotel about a number of dishes and ordered a delicious dinner with a fine wine. He was a connoiseur [[connoisseur]] of wine, although he was too modest to use that term, and he described the wine cellar he had built up over the years in his apartment in San Francisco. He then went on to the Horse Show in Madison Square Garden. It was typical of him to say he had"tickets" [[had "tickets"]] to it. In fact, we sa[[strikethrough]]y[[/strikethrough]]t in a box, two rather drab figures, I thought, amid the diamonds and sables, white ties and top hats. Now I learned that Leon was a passionate horseman. He rode nearly every day when he was in California and he had played polo. He looked at the horses in the show with an experienced eye, explaining to me some technical