Ladies’ Club

Abstract

When last at Chaney’s, I felt I couldn’t progress much more [though, in contrast to Club Kincaid, they’d have had me back], because Moreau [last chapter] dominated every move. I was never alone; he was always there. I never could draw the women into discussions, yet they seemed to want to talk freely with me and almost did so. I couldn’t ask questions, couldn’t work spontaneously. He dampened my usual interviewing enthusiasm. [Now, five years later, we talk—in my office—several hours a month. Moreau is lively, wry, expansive, less wary, as full of facts and anecdotes as ever. He really wants to be in the book.] There’s no way that I can ask questions to amplify or bring into question his philosophy. So my wanting to get below the surface of his explanations was thwarted.