supervised everything.

"Well," observed Hephzy, with a sigh of content, "I feel better
satisfied every minute. When we were in the hack--cab, I mean--I
couldn't realize we weren't ridin' through an American city. The houses
and sidewalks and everything--what I could see of 'em--looked so much
like Boston that I was sort of disappointed. I wanted it to be more
different, some way. But this IS different. This may be a hotel--I
suppose likely 'tis--but it don't seem like one, does it? If it wasn't
for the Henry and that Richard and that--what's his name? George--and
all the rest, I should think I was in Cap'n Cyrus Whittaker's
settin-room back home. The furniture looks like Cap'n Cy's and the
pictures look like those he has, and--and everything looks as stiff and
starched and old-fashioned as can be. But the Cap'n never had a Henry.
No, sirree, Henry don't belong on Cape Cod! Hosy," with a sudden burst
of confidence, "it's a good thing I saw that Lord Erskine first. If I
hadn't found out what a live lord looked like I'd have thought Henry
was one sure. Do you really think it's right for me to call him by his
Christian name? It seems sort of--sort of irreverent, somehow."

I wish it were possible for me to describe in detail our first days at
Bancroft's. If it were not for the fact that so many really important
events and happenings remain to be described--if it were not that the
most momentous event of my life, the event that was the beginning of the
great change in that life--if that event were not so close at hand, I
should be tempted to linger upon those first few days. They were strange
and wonderful and funny to Hephzibah and me. The strangeness and the
wonder wore off gradually; the fun still sticks in my memory.

To have one's bedroom invaded at an early hour by a chambermaid who,
apparently quite oblivious of the fact that the bed was still occupied
by a male, proceeded to draw the curtains, bring the hot water and fill
the tin tub for my bath, was astonishing and funny enough, Hephzibah's
comments on the proceeding were funnier still.

"Do you mean to tell me," she demanded, "that that hussy was brazen
enough to march right in here before you got up?"

"Yes," I said. "I am only thankful that I HADN'T got up."

"Well! I must say! Did she fetch the water in a garden waterin'-pot,
same as she did to me?"

"Just the same."

"And did she pour it into that--that flat dishpan on the floor and tell
you your 'ba