said shortly; and added: "Alderman Machin."
After all, why should he be ashamed of being an Alderman?

To his astonishment the dandy smiled very cordially, though always
with profound respect.

"Ah! yes!" said the dandy. It was as though he had said: "We have long
wished for the high patronage of this great reputation." Edward Henry
could make naught of it.

His opinion of Wilkins's went down.

He followed the departing dandy up the corridor to the door of the
suite in an entirely vain attempt to inquire the price of the suite
per day. Not a syllable would pass his lips. The dandy bowed and
vanished. Edward Henry stood lost at his own door, and his wandering
eye caught sight of a pile of trunks 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
lacked elegance. The lounge-suit that he was wearing might serve, but
his luggage was totally impossible. Never before had he imagined that
the aspect of one's luggage could have the least importance in one's
scheme of existence. He was learning, and he frankly admitted that he
was in an incomparable mess.

III

At the end of an extensive stroll through and round his new vast
domain, he had come to no decision upon a course of action. Certain
details of the strange adventure pleased him--as, for instance, the
dandy's welcoming recognition of his name; that, though puzzling,
was a source of comfort to him in his difficulties. He also liked the
suite; nay, more, he was much impressed by its gorgeousness, and such
novel complications as the forked electric switches, all of which he
turned on, and the double windows, one within the other, appealed
to the domestic expert in him; indeed, he at once had the idea of
doubling the window of the best bedroom at home; to do so would be
a fierce blow to the Five Towns Electric Traction Company, which, as
everybody knew, delighted to keep everybody awake at night and at dawn
by means of its late and its early tram-cars.

However, he could not wander up and down the glittering solitude of
his extensive suite for ever. Something must be done. Then he had
the notion of writing to Nellie; he had promised himself to write her
daily; moreover, it would pass the time and perhaps help him