s we take to wearing one on each leg.)

All these people were laughing and talking together very loudly and
calling out Christian names. "Jim!" and "Sunny Jim!" seemed to be the
big young man who had driven them up. Then they all trooped off towards
the Palm Court, calling out something about "Rattlesnake cocktails"--and
Million and I came back with a start to our own business.

A huge porter came along to take our luggage off the cab. He put a
tremendous amount of force into hoisting one of the dress-baskets. It
went up like a feather. The empty one! I do wonder what he thought....

We went into the Central Hall, crowded with people. (Note.--I must teach
Million to learn to walk in front of me; she will sidle after me
everywhere like a worm that doesn't know how to turn.) We marched up to
the bureau. The man on the other side of the counter pushed the big book
towards me.

"Will you sign the register, please."

"Yes--no. I mean it isn't me." I drew back and pinched my employer's
arm. "You sign here, please, Miss Million," I said very distinctly.

And Million, breathing hard and flushing crimson, came forward, leant
over the book, and slowly wrote in her Soldiers' Orphanage copybook
hand, with downstrokes heavy and upstrokes light:

"Nellie Mary Million" (just as it had been written on her
insurance-card).

"Miss," I dictated in a whisper, "Miss Nellie Mary Million and maid."

"'Ow, Miss, don't you write your name?" breathed Million gustily.
"Miss----"

I trod on her foot. I saw several American visitors staring at us.

The man said: "Your rooms are forty-five, forty-six, and forty-seven,
Miss."

"Forty-five. Ow! Same number as at home," murmured Million. "Will you
please tell me how we get?"

It was one of the chocolate-liveried page-boys who showed us to our
rooms--the two large, luxuriously furnished bedrooms and the
sitting-room that seemed so extraordinarily palatial to eyes still
accustomed to the proportions of No. 45 Laburnum Grove.

What a change! What other extraordinary changes and contrasts lie before
us, I wonder?

We were closely followed by the newly bought trunks; one filled with
ancient baggage, like a large and beautiful nut showing a shrivelled
kernel; the others an empty magnificence. Million and I gazed upon them
as they stood among the white-painted hotel furniture, filling the big
room with the fragrance of costly leather.

Million said: "Well! I shall never get enough things t