‘Have you got a hat you can lend me? Or I’ll buy it from you.’
‘A hat, ma’am?’
‘Yes, a hat,’ I repeated impatiently. And I flushed. ‘I must go out at once, and I’ve—I’ve no hat And I can’t—’
It is extraordinary how in a crisis one’s organism surprises one. I had thought I was calm and full of self-control, but I had almost no command over my voice.
‘I’ve got a boat-shaped straw, ma’am, if that’s any use to you,’ said the girl kindly.
What she surmised or what she knew I could not say. But I have found out since in my travels, that hotel chambermaids lose their illusions early. At any rate her tone was kindly.
‘Get it me, there’s a good girl,’ I entreated her.
And when she brought it, I drew out the imitation pearl pins and put them between my teeth, and jammed the hat on my head and skewered it savagely with the pins.
‘Is that right?’
‘It suits you better than it does me, ma’am, I do declare,’ she said. ‘Oh, ma’am, this is too much—I really couldn’t!’