"Nope--mad because they hadn't found him!"
"Those hussies," Hellwig went on. "How do you do, they acted as if they didn't know what clothes are for, running around with hardly a stitch on."
"He's a old prude," Grandma whispered.
"You mean to say, when Grant went in there to get you, they didn't have much on?" I asked fiercely.
"No, they were dressed then. But earlier, when they first came, they took showers and then they just ran around with nothing on. Then finally they began getting dressed. But they stuck a quarter in the radio and how do you do, they danced all around while they got dressed. It was the most disgusting thing I ever saw."
"But how did you know what they were doing? I thought the door between the rooms was locked," I interposed.
A dull red began to creep up from Hellwig's wrinkled neck to his face, surrounding his faded eyes. "Well," he said, "I--I just glanced through the keyhole to see what was going on."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
OUR MOTEL HAS always had a high average, in comparison with other motels, of repeat business. Part of our success in drawing customers back again and again has been due to the fact that our motel is new and that we make a point of keeping it spotless; part of our success in this direction has been due to the deluxe service rendered by Grant, who acts the part of general handyman par excellence. The goodwill of the customers, that intangible thing so vital to any business, we make a special effort to capture. The customers are legion for whom Grant has fixed minor mechanical defects in their cars or traveling equipment, or whose cars he has pushed down the highway until they would start. I often think he is so helpful more from a spirit of natural kindness than from a mercenary sense of good business. One time the occupants of a car, after learning our rates, declined to stay. Their car, however, declined to leave. After the driver had tried for several minutes to start the motor, muttering beneath his breath curses that seemed directed toward the battery, Grant good-naturedly got into our car and pushed them around off the driveway, onto the highway and on the road to our competitors.