The Regent

ot more than a couple of miles, and he had had nothing else to preoccupy him after lunch, he had spent some three hours in the business of transferring himself from the portals of the on

rk of scouting he rightly wished to be unhampered by impedimenta; moreover, in case of repul

sill-not only of the hotel, but of nearly every mighty house in the Square-there were boxes of bright blooming flowers. These he could plainly distinguish in the October dusk, and they were a wonderful phenomenon-say what you will about the mildness of that particular October! A sublime tranquillity reigned over the scene. A liveried keeper was locking the gate of the garden in the middle of the Square as if

quare seemed like a homeless cat

by seizing the vile brass handle of its door. He bowed to Edward Henry and assisted him to alight on to a crimson carpet. The driver of the taxi gl

he driver, who was evidently a ribal

ed at Edward Henry for support

?" said Edward Henry, raised no

me, you didn't,

ture, wafted the taxi-cab away into so

y ceremonies of deference, and Edward Henry stood at length in the hall of Wilkins's. The sanctuary, th

sired nothing but their own privileged society in order to be happy in a hotel. A hip-bath on a blanket in the middle of the bedroom floor richly sufficed them, provided they could be guaranteed against the calamity of meeting the unelect in the corridors or at table d'h?te. But the rising waters of democracy-the intermixture of classes-had reacted adversely on Wilkins's. The fall of t

red 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 chamberlain at its portico and an assortment of pages to prove to its clients that they were incapable of performing the simplest act for themselves. Nevertheless, the difference between

otel it was

word "Reception" shining over it in letters of gold. Behind this grille, and still further protected by an impregnable mahogany counter, stood three young dandies in attitudes of grac

he dandy in the middle

u got in the

have recognized its "card," its character, its mirror of aplomb and i

andy

ant a sui

in fact, rather rudely! A habitué would not have so savagely hurled back

Edward Henry's [70] sudden arrogance, and consulted

into the air and fall back on his head. But in the i

he thing was as simple as the alphabet. You just walked

s's, i

enter a lift. And when he emerged from the lift another dandy-in a frock-coat of Paradise-was awaiting him wi

ait of His Majesty of Spain on the walls), a large bedroom with two satin-wood beds, a small bedroom an

y that he had seen better. Then the dandy produced a note-book and a pencil and im

nd added: "Alderman Machin." After all, wh

smiled very cordially, thoug

"We have long [71] wished for the high patronage of thi

of Wilkins

near to another door in the main corridor. These trunks gave him a terrible shock. He shut out the rest of the hotel and retired into his private corridor to reflect. He perceived only too plainly that his luggage, now at the Majestic, never could come into Wilkins's. It was not fashionable enough. It l