Mary hesitated. “We just checked in and I’m—”
“It will only take five minutes. I really just wanted to say hello.”
“Well, I—I suppose—”
“I’m on my way up.”
Ben Cohn was short and stocky, with a muscular body and the battered face of a prizefighter. He looks like a sports reporter, Mary thought.
He sat in an easy chair across from Mary. “Your first time in Washington, Mrs. Ashley?” Ben Cohn asked.
“Yes.” She noticed that he had no notebook or tape recorder.
“I won’t ask you the dumb question.”
She frowned. “What’s ‘the dumb question’?”
“How do you like Washington? Whenever a celebrity steps off an airplane somewhere, the first thing they’re asked is, How do you like this place?”
Mary laughed. “I’m not a celebrity, but I think I’m going to like Washington a lot.”
“You were a professor at Kansas State University?”
“Yes. I taught a course called Eastern Europe: Today’s Politics.”
“I understand that the President first learned about you when he read a book of yours on Eastern Europe and several of your magazine articles.”
“Yes.”
“And the rest, as they say, is history.”
“I suppose it is an unusual way to—”
“Not that unusual. Jeane Kirkpatrick came to President Reagan’s attention in the same way, and he made her ambassador to the UN.” He smiled at her. “So you see, there’s precedent. That’s one of the big buzzwords in Washington. Precedent. Your grandparents were Romanian?”
“My grandfather. That’s right.”
Ben Cohn stayed for another fifteen minutes, getting information on Mary’s background.
Mary asked, “When will this interview appear in the paper?” She wanted to be sure to send copies to Florence and Douglas and her other friends back home.
Ben Cohn rose and said evasively, “I’m going to save it for now.” There was something about the situation that puzzled him. The problem was that he was not sure what it was. “We’ll be talking again later.”
After he left, Beth and Tim came into the living room. “Was he nice, Mom?”
“Yes.” She hesitated, unsure. “I think so.”
The following morning Stanton Rogers telephoned. “Good morning, Mrs. Ashley. It’s Stanton Rogers.”
It was like hearing the voice of an old friend. Maybe it’s because he’s the only person in town I know, Mary thought. “Good morning, Mr. Rogers. Thank you for having Mr. Burns meet us at the airport, and for arranging our hotel.”
“I trust it’s satisfactory?”
“It’s lovely.”
“I thought it would be a good idea if we met to discuss some of the procedures you’ll be going through.”
“I would like that.”
“Why don’t we make it lunch today at the Grand? It’s not far from your hotel. One o’clock?”
“Fine.”
“I’ll meet you in the downstairs dining room.”
It was starting.
Mary arranged for the children to have room service, and at one o’clock a taxi dropped her off at the Grand Hotel. Mary looked at it in awe. The Grand Hotel is its own center of power. Heads of state and diplomats from all over the world stay there, and it is easy to see why. It is an elegant building, with an imposing lobby that has Italian marble floors and gracious columns under a circular ceiling. There is a landscaped courtyard, with a fountain and an outdoor swimming pool. A marble staircase leads down to the promenade restaurant, where Stanton Rogers was waiting for her.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Ashley.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Rogers.”
He laughed. “That sounds so formal. What about Stan and Mary?”
She was pleased. “That would be nice.”
Stanton Rogers seemed different somehow, and the change was hard for Mary to define. In Junction City there had been an aloofness about him, almost a resentment toward her. Now that seemed to have completely vanished. He was warm and friendly. The difference is that he’s accepted me, Mary thought happily.
“Would you like a drink?”
“Thank you, no.”
They ordered lunch. The entrees seemed very expensive to her. It’s not like the prices in Junction City. Her hotel suite was $250 a day. At that rate, my money’s not going to last very long, Mary thought.
“Stan, I don’t want to seem rude, but can you tell me how much an ambassador is paid?”