“I don’t,” said a lady with greater honesty. “But pray, don’t attempt to define it. I never try to find out the meaning of a word since I once looked in Johnson’s dictionary and found that network was ‘anything reticulated or decussated with interstices between the intersections.’”
“I thought that the proprietor of a boarding-house also had the right of detaining the goods of their lodgers for their charges,” remarked the seediest of the company who looked as if he had had practical experience in such matters.
“Not generally; although in some States the legislatures have conferred the right upon them to the same extent as an innkeeper has at common law. This they have, for instance, in New York, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin;[409] and in Connecticut they have not only the right to retain the property until the debt is paid, but in case of non-payment they can sell it to recoup themselves after a certain time.”[410]
“Suppose,” said the student, “as is the case here, one who keeps boarders occasionally entertains travelers for a night or so—would she be considered an hotel-keeper in respect to those stray sheep?”
“No,” I replied.
“How would it be if a man agreed to go to a boarding-house and then backed out and went elsewhere?” asked my vis-a-vis at the table.
“Well, where a man of the name of Stewart agreed by word of mouth with one who took boarders to pay £100 a year for the board and lodging of himself and servant and the keep of his horse, and then failed to take up his quarters at the house, the court considered that the bargain was not a contract concerning land within the Statute of Frauds and so did not require to be in writing, and that Stewart was liable to pay for the breach of his agreement.”[411]
“What is that in front of you, sir?” was queried of me.
“Pork chops, apparently,” I replied. “Will you take one?”
“No, thanks; I am a Jew as far as pork is concerned. In fact, although not so bad as Marshal d’Albert, who was always taken ill whenever he saw a roast sucking-pig, I am like the celebrated Guianerius—pork always gives me a violent palpitation of the heart.”