As the party left the church, Leo said, "In 1786, the Kings of France and
Spain contributed to the erection of the first cathedral church, St.
Peter's, in New York." The Harrises having invited Leo to dinner, said
good-bye to him, and in their carriage returned to the Waldorf for lunch.

While the colonel waited near the reception-room, he chanced to look at
the stained-glass window over the entrance to the Garden Court. Here was
pictured the village of Waldorf, the birthplace of the original John
Jacob Astor. This pretty little hamlet is part of the Duchy of Baden,
Germany, and has been lovingly remembered in the Astor wills. Here
formerly lived the impecunious father of John Jacob Astor and his
brother. Both gained wealth, very likely, because the value of money was
first learned in the early Waldorf school of poverty. It was not an ill
north wind that imprisoned young Astor for weeks in the ice of the
Chesapeake Bay, as there on the small ship that brought him from Germany,
he listened to marvelous tales of fortunes to be made in furs in the
northwest. Shrewdly he determined first to acquire expert knowledge of
skins, and on landing he luckily found employment in a fur store in New
York at two dollars per week. This knowledge became the foundation of the
vast fortune of the Astor family. The colonel was told that the Waldorf
occupies the site of the town-house of John Jacob Astor, third of the
name, and was erected by his son, William Waldorf, ex-minister to Italy.

It was two o'clock when the Harrises entered the main dining-room for
their lunch. The colonel led the party, Alfonso conducting his sister
Lucille, the light blue ribbon at her throat of the tint of her
responsive eyes. Mrs. Harris came with Gertrude. The mother wore a gray
gown, and her daughter a pretty silk. This first entrance of the family
to the public dining-room caused a slight diversion among some of the