His modest platinum name badge said
he was Mr. William Armond.
"Billy," Greta said, pausing one step before proceeding past him,
"there's something I'd like to see in the Houston collection."
"Of course," Mr. Armond said, trailing her. He glanced at his
associate, Ms. Olson, whose territories were the Lalique and
Baccarat rooms. Reluctant to catch his eye, she pursed her lips
and busied herself at her desk, addressing small, golden
catalogs.
Greta Locke was Mr. Armond's best customer, one of Gump's best
customers, and everyone who worked there knew it. She had spent
several hundred thousand dollars at Gump's in the two years Mr.
Armond had had the good fortune of knowing her. Last year she had
arranged a deal between Gump's and Wallaby, Incorporated, to
purchase corporate gifts at a special quantity discount. A
discount of five percent can be quite sizable, she noted to her
husband, when he purchased eight Steuben flower vases last year
as Christmas presents for the wives of the Wallaby board members,
at four hundred dollars apiece.
She removed her sunglasses and studied the curves and artwork of
a large bowl displayed in the glass case. She'd had her eye on it
for some time now. It was a James Houston original, engraved with
painstaking detail. Circling the bowl's rim were salmon swimming
against an invisible current, surrounded by tiny air bubbles.
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