The black paint used extensively both inside and out, adds to the old world appearance. in 1864, looks its age in contrast with its sleek wine bar and stylish French bakery neighbors. The historical detail intrigued me, as did the cold beer part for my husband on a hot evening. Pete’s is the oldest continuous bar in New York,” he said. Our son suggested dinner at a tavern down the street from his new place in the Gramercy area of Manhattan. “It’s air conditioned, the beer is cold and the food is pretty good. I was reunited with the story again while visiting New York during a heat wave last summer.

O’Henry saw as she lovingly held her partner’s hand with the watch and raised it to her lips and the author settled on that look as the couple held each other, unaware of him, or anyone else, in the piazza. He watched them wander by and he focused on one pair she with goddess hair that fell down her back he, a handsome man who stopped to take out a watch from his pocket to show her. Perhaps it was a crisp winter afternoon with a dusting of snowflakes that dampened his paper and caused the couples to snuggle together for extra warmth. Visualize him sitting on a park bench watching strolling lovers, moving in no particular destination, stop to kiss and ear-whisper. O’Henry must have witnessed a couple so in love. How wonderful to love so deeply how glorious to be loved so much. Do you remember the first time reading O’Henry’s The Gift of the Magi? Do you recall the lump in your throat when the hero, Jim, sold his only valuable possession, his watch, to buy a set of jeweled combs to decorate Della’s long beautiful hair? And the tears that rolled down your cheeks when you read that she sold the one luxurious thing she had, her magnificent hair, to buy a chain for his watch.

The author of the gift of the magi