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Back The Shoe Queen Save as PDF
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. “And may I say, those shoes are adorable.”
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. ( I )
  7. ( one )
  8. ( two )
  9. ( three )
  10. ( four )
  11. ( five )
  12. ( six )
  13. ( seven )
  14. ( eight )
  15. ( nine )
  16. ( ten )
  17. ( II )
  18. ( eleven )
  19. ( twelve )
  20. ( thirteen )
  21. ( fourteen )
  22. ( fifteen )
  23. ( III )
  24. ( sixteen )
  25. ( seventeen )
  26. ( eighteen )
  27. ( nineteen )
  28. ( IV )
  29. ( twenty )
  30. ( twenty-one )
  31. ( twenty-two )
  32. ( twenty-three )
  33. ( twenty-four )
  34. ( V )
  35. ( twenty-five )
  36. ( twenty-six )
  37. ( twenty-seven )
  38. ( twenty-eight )
  39. ( twenty-nine )
  40. VI
  41. ( thirty )
  42. ( thirty-one )
  43. ( thirty-two )
  44. ( thirty-three )
  45. ( thirty-four )
  46. ( VII )
  47. ( thirty-five )
  48. ( thirty-six )
  49. ( thirty-seven )
  50. ( thirty-eight )
  51. ( thirty-nine )
  52. ( forty )
  53. ( forty-one )
  54. ( forty-two )
  55. ( VIII )
  56. ( forty-three )
  57. ( forty-four )
  58. ( forty-five )
  59. ( forty-six )
  60. ( forty-seven )
  61. ( forty-eight )
  62. ( forty-nine )
  63. ( fifty )
  64. ( fifty-one )
  65. Acknowledgments
  66. Acknowledgments
  67. Questions for Discussion

“I expect he listens to you, doesn’t he? I should think if you were to explain to him just how much I need these shoes, he’d get on with it. Wouldn’t he? I expect you’d benefit from an extra dollar or two, eh?”

“Madame…”

“How about five? Ten?”

“Keep your dollars, Mrs. Shelby King. You may need them later.”

“Did you know that new shoes bring good luck, Olga? In England during the last century, people used to give each other miniature wooden or china shoes as lucky charms. Tiny shoe-shaped snuffboxes. Have you heard the stories about girls putting a clover leaf in their shoe when they wanted to meet a man? Children putting their shoes on the windowsill at Christmas, hoping they’ll be filled with presents in the morning? It’s all true, Olga. I’ve read the books. I know about these things. And then there’s the fairy tales—Cinderella’s glass slippers, Puss in Boots, The Elves and the Shoemaker. Why do you think we’re so obsessed with shoes, Olga? If not because they’re genuinely magical?”

“Good-bye, madame.”

“Would you at least ask him for me? If I only knew for certain…”

“Perhaps you should buy yourself one of those lucky charms, madame. Shaped like a shoe.”

The big day arrived. Genevieve had summoned Lulu to come and help with the final preparations.

Lulu protested. “I’ll be no use to you, chérie. I’m no society woman. What do I know about organizing parties? I am the party.”

“I need your moral support, Lulu. I need you to turn up in the morning and sweet-talk the artists and hold my hand through the day.”

“Morning? You need me in the morning? Oh, no, chérie. Not this girl.”

But Genevieve was not to be refused. She collected Lulu in the Bentley at 8:30 a.m. (only four hours after Lulu had gotten to bed) to go over to Count Maurice Duvel’s mansion on the Rue Cambon, where the party was to take place. Fernand Léger was already there when they arrived, looking in his flat cap and baggy trousers like any old removal man as he helped to unload his specially commissioned creations—monumental three-dimensional versions of his own paintings made from perforated metal plates, girders and grids. Sonia Delaunay was there too, hanging her gaudy fabric collages from the high balconies in Duvel’s ballroom. The colors were so bright for Lulu’s early morning eyes that she felt compelled to slip the maid a few centimes to add a shot of vodka to her coffee.

Genevieve would not stop fretting. “I should have thrown this party months ago, before the Exposition opened.”