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Early in the spring of the following year Richard acquired a new toy in return for a cautious invest he could produce a motor car for the people The bank entertained Mr Ford at luncheon, and Richard was coaxed into the acquisi - tion of a Model T for the princely suht hundred and fifty dollars
Henry Ford assured Richard that if only the bank would back him, the cost could eventually fall to three hundred and fifty dollars within a few years and everyone would be buying his cars, thus ensuring a large profit for Ids backers Richard did back hiood money behind someone ished his product to halve in price
Richard was initially apprehensive that his arded as a serious mode of transport for the chairlances from the pavements which the machine attracted At ten miles an hour it was noisier than a horse but it did have the virtue of leaving no mess in the middle of Mount Vernon Street His only quarrel with Mr Ford was that the estion that a Model T should be made available in a variety of colours Mr Ford insisted that every car should be black in order to keep the price down Anne, more sensitive than tier husband to the approbation of polite society, would not drive in the vehicle until the Cabots had acquired one
William, on the other hand, adored the ’automobile’ as the press called it, and iht for him to replace his now redundant and unoggles and flat hat - to his nurse Grandmother Kane and Grandmother Cabot claimed that they would never travel in the dreadful h it should be pointed out that Grandmother Kane travelled to her funeral in athe next two years the bank grew in strength and size, as did Williae sums of money found their way to Kane and Cabot’s to be reinvested in such projects as the expanding Lowell leather factory in Lowell, Massachusetts Richard watched the growth of his bank and his son with unsurprised satisfaction On William’s fifth birthday, he took the child out of wo at four hundred and fifty dollars per annum a private tutor, a Mr Munro, personally selected by Richard froht applicants who had earlier been screened by his private secretary Mr Munro was charged to ensure that Williae of twelve Williaht to be very old and very clever He was, in fact, twenty - three and the possessor of a second - class honours, degree in English froh
William quickly learned to ’ read and write with facility but saved his real enthusiasht lessons taught every weekday, only one was arithmetic Williahth of the working day was a small investment of time for someone ould one day be the president of a bank
To coed the footsteps of his accessible relatives with demands for sums to be executed in his head Grandmother Cabot, who had never been persuaded that the division of an integer by four would necessarily produce the same answer as its multiplication by one quarter, and indeed in her hands the two operations often did result in two different nurandson, but Grandrappled ar fractions, co nine children ’Grandrnother,’ said William, kindly but firmly, when she had failed to find the answer to his latest conundrum, ’you can buy me a slide - rule; then I won’t have to bother you’
She was astonished at her grandson’s precocity, but she bought hi if he really kne to use the gadget It was the first time in her life that Grandmother Kane had been known to take the easy way out of any probleravitate eastwards The chairman of his London branch died at his desk and Richard felt hiested to Anne that she and Willia that the education would not do the boy any harm: he could visit all the places about which Mr Munro had so often talked Anne, who had never been to Europe, was excited by the prospect, and filled three steaant and expensive new clothes in which to confront the Old World William considered it unfair of his mother not to allow him to take that equally essential aid to travel, his bicycle