nd taste, but Josie found the food no
better than the one meal she had eaten at Mrs. Pete's in Dorfield. Mrs.
Pete's cabbage and the accompanying corned beef had been excellent,
although the table had been covered with a red cloth, the crockery of
the thickest, unbreakable variety and a large toothpick holder the only
ornament. Miss Denton always had flowers on the table and her china was
what remained in the family after the administration of the hundred
slaves. It did not match but it was all good, some thin porcelain with
a gold band, some Canton whose blue made Josie homesick for the
Higgledy-Piggledy Shop and the little breakfast set, a gift from Mary
Louise.

The great difference between 126 East Centre and the Elberta Inn lay in
the type of boarders. A wider gulf existed between the clientele of the
two places than that between a red table cloth and a fine damask one,
or Canton china and Mrs. Pete's heavy stone crockery, or a vase of
roses and a toothpick holder.

Most of the boarders were permanent ones and while it was a rule of the
house to resent transients, they were secretly welcome because of the
added zest they gave to the humdrum of everyday life. The permanent
guests of Elberta Inn knew only too well all about each other and it
was a relief to have outsiders to pick on in spite of the ignominy of
having to sit down to meals with persons whose antecedents might be
doubtful. Elberta Inn was of the old South. The inroad of Western and
Northern capital had not touched the Maison Denton. To be sure the
transients who occasionally bore down upon them were often northerners
or westerners but they did not represent much capital or they would
have put up at a first-class hotel. This the boarders who called
Elberta Inn home year in and year out well understood and so it was all
transients were more or less looked down upon. They were not rich or
they would not be there and they were hardly well born, since they were
not born in the South. Of course they sympathized with Miss Oleander in
wanting to rent her rooms and the fact that a much higher board was
charged transients than permanents made transients somewhat desirable
if too long intervals did not elapse between their goings and comings.

All of the foregoing Josie gathered at her first dinner. She was
introduced with great eclat by her hostess. The party was seated as she
came into the dining room and down one side of the table and up the
other Miss Olean