, beginning only with a few dollars and
waiting till they mounted up, and he hoped so, too. But he has had to
put himself in the hands of the band who advise us, and they do not
approve the roulette. It is too often raided by the police; and then you
do not win quite always.

Larry is too much the charmer for a good man of affairs, and I do not
know what would have become of us two if it had not been for this band.
It was they who thought of the hotel. At least, it was one--a man. I
cannot tell you all about him now, it would take too long a time. And,
besides, what can you tell of a man when you know nothing of him unless
that he makes every one march as he chooses either with some word or
some look of the eyes, though he is the poorest of all and has taken
work as secretary? He is named Storm. For a man he is young, though for
you and me it would be an age--thirty or thirty-two, Mrs. Winston
thinks. Captain and Mrs. Winston are of the band. He is Captain the
Honourable. That is the way the English put their titles with the
soldier part in the front. They spell it "Honble" on letters or the
lists of passengers, but you do not call them by it at all, which is
odd; because if not, what is its use? Mrs. Shuster (that is another of
the band) says Captain Winston will be a lord some day. He is wounded
and very handsome, and his wife is a beauty and a darling. I have to
call her Molly and she has made of me a "Patsey." What do you think she
has done, when it burst out that Larry and I were poor as the mice of
churches? She paid the _douane_ for my dresses, those sweet things
Madame la Marquise, your dear mother, troubled herself to choose for me.
Then Molly bought them as I believed for herself, as we are much of the
same form, though she is grander by some centimetres in front and at the
waist. It was only on my birthday that I find they are for me! I said,
"But, dear, dear cabbage, I can never wear all these when I am keeping a
hotel!" She said: "Yes, you can, my cabbagette, for this hotel will be
different. You and Larry are high swells and it will be a favour that
people are let into your beautiful home. They will be glad of the luck
to know you and they will pay for the privilege. The better you dress
and the more proud you act the more will they be content and think they
have the money's worth. Only the richest ones can afford to come."

That is well, perhaps, because we have not enough rooms for a grand
crowd. We hav