and would be there in
a minute. The Buttons brought him--a Yankee of browbeating presence
in plain clothes--almost before they had time to exchange a frightened
whisper in recognition of the fact that there could be no doubt of the
steam heat and elevator in this case. Half stifled in the one, they
mounted in the other eight stories, while they tried to keep their
self-respect under the gaze of the superintendent, which they felt was
classing and assessing them with unfriendly accuracy. They could not,
and they faltered abashed at the threshold of Mrs. Grosvenor Green's
apartment, while the superintendent lit the gas in the gangway that he
called a private hall, and in the drawing-room and the succession of
chambers stretching rearward to the kitchen. Everything had, been done
by the architect to save space, and everything, to waste it by Mrs.
Grosvenor Green. She had conformed to a law for the necessity of turning
round in each room, and had folding-beds in the chambers, but there her
subordination had ended, and wherever you might have turned round she
had put a gimcrack so that you would knock it over if you did turn. The
place was rather pretty and even imposing at first glance, and it took
several joint ballots for March and his wife to make sure that with the
kitchen there were only six rooms. At every door hung a portiere from
large rings on a brass rod; every shelf and dressing-case and mantel
was littered with gimcracks, and the corners of the tiny rooms were
curtained off, and behind these portieres swarmed more gimcracks.
The front of the upright piano had what March called a short-skirted
portiere on it, and the top was covered with vases, with dragon
candlesticks and with Jap fans, which also expanded themselves bat wise
on the walls between the etchings and the water colors. The floors were
covered with filling, and then rugs and then skins; the easy-chairs all
had tidies, Armenian and Turkish and Persian; the lounges and sofas had
embroidered cushions hidden under tidies.

The radiator was concealed by a Jap screen, and over the top of this
some Arab scarfs were flung. There was a superabundance of clocks. China
pugs guarded the hearth; a brass sunflower smiled from the top of either
andiron, and a brass peacock spread its tail before them inside a high
filigree fender; on one side was a coalhod in 'repousse' brass, and on
the other a wrought iron wood-basket. Some red Japanese bird-kites were
stuck about