The array of stores seemed to change, like the city of New York itself, at a bewildering rate. As people moved uptown, so department stores followed, with both the ladies’ outfitter Lord & Taylor and the jeweller Tiffany’s, known as the palace of jewels, in the process of building new premises. The pace at which New York and New Yorkers moved filled Margaret with a mixture of excitement and awe. New buildings seemed to appear overnight, every one of them more imposing than its neighbour. Her neck hurt from craning it to look upwards at the stores built of iron and glass, Crystal Palaces on a towering scale, flaunting their wares in a manner that the staid London shops would consider vulgar. The welcome they extended was very different, too. Every customer was treated identically, greeted with an enthusiasm that would appal a London shopkeeper eager to disdainfully look down his nose at those he deemed unworthy of his emporium.

At Fourteenth Street Margaret left Broadway to head over to Sixth, and Macy’s with its distinctive red star beside the name. She dallied in front of the window display, marvelling that such mundane items as sheets and towels and blankets could be made to look so attractive. One window, set out like a child’s nursery complete with a large cradle and a doll’s house, made her think of Julia, who had been alone at Powerscourt since Margaret left. Her last letter had been full of her plans for the gardens, which, she had written, she could at least be reasonably sure would bloom. Julia, whose linen cupboards were a hymn to domesticity, would thoroughly enjoy a shopping trip in New York. Resolving to recount it for her in detail, and mindful of how much she had to acquire on the budget she had worked out with Marion’s help, Margaret entered the store.

Two hours later, she headed for A. T. Stewart’s on Broadway between Ninth and Tenth Streets, just five minutes from Washington Square, to complete her shopping. Known as the Iron Palace, each of the floors and galleries of this magnificent dry goods store were filled with light from the huge windows and the glass dome which soared above the central atrium. After another extensive bout of purchasing, during which Margaret reckoned she must have walked several miles between the various departments, her feet were beginning to protest.