6.5 The Cocoa Works

Trebitsch took his address and wrote. A month later he was invited to the Cocoa Works in York, upon request. Boiling sugar and panned chocolate laced the air. Men in hygiene masks stirred giant steel pots; carters lifted boxes; a woman directed him to Rowntree’s office.  They chuckled and shook hands. An effort had been made at tidiness but it was a studied-in room.

“We never know when to stop buying books do we?” asked Trebitsch.

“If only books offered the shelter of bricks and cement,” said...