Prompted by these bad conditions, and to some degree by the then
critical housing famine, with its records of some thousands of
families having no place at all to go and some thousands of families
being compelled for the sake of mere shelter to pay two and three
times what they could afford for a few poor rooms, and with its
records of profiteering landlords, Larry began to make notes for a
plan which he intended later to elaborate--a plan which he
tentatively entitled: "Suggestions for the Development of Sherwood
Real-Estate Holdings." Larry, knowing from the stubs of Miss
Sherwood's checkbook what would be likely to please her, gave as much
consideration to Service as to Profit. The basis of his growing plan
was good apartments at fair rentals. That he saw as the greatest of
public services in the present crisis. But the return upon the
investment had to be a reasonable one. Larry did not believe in
Charity, except for extreme cases. He believed, and his belief had
grown out of a wide experience with many kinds of people, that
Charity, of course to a smaller extent, was as definitely a source of
social evil as the then much-talked-of Profiteering.
In the meantime he was seeing his old friend, Joe Ellison, every day;
perhaps smoking with Ellison in his cottage after he had finished his
day's work among the roses, perhaps walking along the bluff which hung
above the Sound, whose cool, clear waters splashed with vacation
laziness upon the shingle.
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