Part 11 (1/2)

”Done!” said Edward Henry

”When will you go?”

”Either to-day or to-o to the Majestic first, because I've ordered a room and so on”

”Ha!” hurtled Brindley, as if to insinuate that Edward Henry was seeking to escape froht to have knoard Henry He did knoard Henry

And he hoped to lose his half-crown On his face and on the faces of the other tas the cheerful adreat local card, at Wilkins's--if he succeeded in getting in--would be cheap at half-a-crown

Porters cried out ”Euston!”

II

It was rather late in the afternoon when Edward Henry arrived in front of the facade of Wilkins's He cah the distance from the Majestic to Wilkins's is notelse to preoccupy him after lunch, he had spent so himself from the portals of the one hotel to the portals of the other Two hours and three-quarters of this period of tie e behind hio and spy out Wilkins's; in the perilous work of scouting he rightly wished to be unhampered by impedimenta; moreover, in case of repulse or accident, he must have a base of operations upon which he could retreat in good order

He now looked on Wilkins's for the first time in his life, and he was evenabout it in the vestibule of the Majestic It was not larger than the Majestic; it was perhaps slass and sculptured cornice than the Majestic But it had a demeanourand it was in a square which had a demeanour In every -sill--not only of the hotel, but of nearly every ht bloouish in the October dusk, and they were a wonderful phenomenon--say what you will about the mildness of that particular October! A sublined over the scene A liveried keeper was locking the gate of the garden in the middle of the Square as if potentates had just quitted it and rendered it for ever sacred

And between the sacred shadowed grove and the inscrutable fronts of the stately houses there flitted automobiles of the silent and expensive kind, driven by chauffeurs in pale grey or dark purple, who reclined as they steered, and ere supported on their left sides by footrandeur of existence

Edward Henry's taxi-cab in that Square see-show

At the exact instant, when the taxi-cab came to rest under the loves bravely soiled the gloves by seizing the vile brass handle of its door He bowed to Edward Henry and assisted hiht on to a crilanced with pert and candid scorn at the chamberlain, but Edward Henry looked demurely aside, and then in abstraction mounted the broad carpeted steps

”What about poor little me?” cried the driver, as evidently a ribald socialist, or at best a republican

The chalanced at Edward Henry for support and direction in this crisis

”Didn't I tell you I'd keep you?” said Edward Henry, raised now by the steps above the driver

”Between you and me, you didn't,” said the driver

The chaesture, wafted the taxi-cab away into soe opened a pair of doors, and another page opened another pair of doors, each with eighteen century cereth in the hall of Wilkins's The sanctuary, then, was successfully defiled, and up to the present nobody had demanded his credentials! He took breath

In its physical aspects Wilkins's appeared to him to resemble other hotels--such as the Majestic And so far he was not mistaken Once Wilkins's had not resembled other hotels For nize that even the nineteenth century had dawned, and its nificent antique discomfort had been one of itsbut their own privileged society in order to be happy in a hotel A hip-bath on a blanket in the middle of the bedroouaranteed against the cala the unelect in the corridors or at _table d'hote_ But the rising waters of democracy--the intermixture of classes--had reacted adversely on Wilkins's The fall of the Eiven Wilkins's sad food for thought long, long ago, and the obvious general weakening of the monarchical principle had most considerably shaken it Came the day when Wilkins's reluctantly decided that even it could not fight against the tendency of the whole world, and then, at one superb stroke, it had rebuilt and brought itself utterly up-to-date

Thus it resembled other hotels (Save, possibly, in the reticence of its advertisements! The Majestic would advertise bathroo-houses had not possessed bathrooms for the past thirty years Wilkins's had superlative bathroo about them Wilkins's would as soon have advertised two hundred bathrooms as two hundred bolsters; and for the new Wilkins's a bathroom was not more modern than a bolster) Also, other hotels resembled Wilkins's The Majestic, too, had a chaes to prove to its clients that they were incapable of perfor the simplest act for themselves Nevertheless, the difference between Wilkins's and the Majestic was enormous; and yet so subtle was it that Edward Henry could not immediately detect where it resided Then he understood The difference between Wilkins's and the Majestic resided in the theory which underlay itsits walls was of royal blood until he had adht

Edward Henry self-consciously crossed the illuures He knew not whither he was going, until by chance he saw a golden grille with the word ”Reception”

shi+ning over it in letters of gold Behind this grille, and still further protected by an i dandies in attitudes of graceful ease He approached them

The fearful enuinely frightened Abject disgrace ht be his portion within the next ten seconds