"I will step up to the desk and arrange about rooms," added Lane.
"Thank you."
Crawford Lane left Scott sitting in the reading room, but he returned in five minutes.
"I find," he said, "that the hotel is crowded. I have engaged a single room with two beds. Will that be agreeable?"
Scott felt that he would have preferred to room alone, but he did not know how to make objection, and acquiesced in the arrangement.
"I would like to go upstairs at once," he said, "so that I may wash and change my underclothing."
"Very well."
They were shown up by a bell boy. The room on the third floor was rather small, but contained two single beds.
The place and its furnishings looked dingy, and even dirty, but Scott was not disposed to make any unnecessary complaint.