“Yes; and I will thank you to have it made immediately, and let my baggage be taken up.”
He closed the book, after I had written my name, and returned to his seat at the stove, leaving me standing, and immediately engaged in conversation, without paying any attention to my request. I waited some time, during which a negro came into the room, and went out again. I then repeated my request, necessarily aloud, and in such a way as to be understood, not only by the boy, but by all the company. Immediately all conversation ceased, and every head was turned to look at me. The lad paused a moment, spit upon the stove, and then—
“Want a room to yourself?”
“Yes, if convenient.”
No answer and no movement, all the company staring at me as if at a detected burglar.
“Perhaps you can’t accommodate me?”
“Want a fire made in your room?”
“Why, yes, if convenient; but I should like to go to my room, at any rate; I am very tired.”
After puffing and spitting for a moment, he rose and pulled a bell; then took his seat again. In about five minutes a negro came in, and during all this time there was silence.
“What’ll you drink, Baker?” said the lad, rising and going to the bar, and taking no notice of the negro’s entrance. A boozy man followed him, and made some reply; the lad turned out two glasses of spirits, added water to one, and drank it in a gulp.[26]