Wodehouse, P.G.: Piccadilly Jim

THE residence of Mr. Peter Pett, the well-
known financier, on Riverside Drive is one of
the leading eyesores of that breezy and expensive
boulevard. As you pass by in your limousine, or
while enjoying ten cents worth of fresh air on top
of a green omnibus, it jumps out and bites at you.
Architects, confronted with it, reel and throw up
their hands defensively, and even the lay observer
has a sense of shock. The place resembles in almost
equal proportions a cathedral, a suburban villa, a
hotel and a Chinese pagoda. Many of its windows
are of stained glass, and above the porch stand two
terra-cotta lions, considerably more repulsive even
than the complacent animals which guard New
York's Public Library.