"I do not know. I will ask at the office;" and I was left alone.
The boy came back and said:
"Yes, Mrs. Clarke is here. Do you want to see her?"
"Yes."
"Well, just walk round there. She is down here now."
I did not know where "round there" exactly was, but I concluded to go forward.
I stopped, however, thinking that the lady might be in the parlor with company; and pulling out a card, asked the boy to take it to her. She heard me talking, and came into the hall to see herself.
"My dear Lizzie, I am so glad to see you," she exclaimed, coming forward and giving me her hand. "I have just received your note"—I had written her that I should join her on the 18th—"and have been trying to get a room for you. Your note has been here all day, but it was never delivered until to-night. Come in here, until I find out about your room;" and she led me into the office.
The clerk, like all modern hotel clerks, was exquisitely arrayed, highly perfumed, and too self-important to be obliging, or even courteous.