d offered his services three
times a week for nothing and each girl during her two weeks in the
kitchen learned how to prepare eggs in forty different ways, to say
nothing of sauces and delicacies that the Ritz itself could not
afford. I received the benefit of all the experiments. I could also
amuse myself looking through the glass partition at the little master
chef, whose services thousands could not command, rushing about the
kitchen, waving his arms, tearing his hair, shrieking against the
incredible stupidity of young females whom heaven had not endowed with
the genius for cooking; and who, no doubt, had never cooked anything
at all before they answered the advertisement of Mlle. Thompson. Few
that had not belonged to well-to-do families whose heavy work had been
done by servants.

A table was given me in a corner by myself and the other tables were
occupied by the girls who at the moment were not serving their
fortnight in the kitchen or as waitresses. These were treated as
ceremoniously (being practiced on) as I was, although their food,
substantial and plentiful, was not as choice as mine. I could have had
all my meals served in my rooms if I had cared to avail myself of the
privilege; but not I! If you take but one letter to Society in France
you may, if you stay long enough, and are not personally disagreeable,
meet princesses, duchesses, marquises, countesses, by the dozen; but
to meet the coldly aloof and suspicious bourgeoisie, who hate the
sight of a stranger, particularly the petite bourgeoisie, is more
difficult than for a German to explain the sudden lapse of his country
into barbarism. Here was a unique opportunity, and I held myself to be
very fortunate.

Was I comfortable? Judged by the American standard, certainly not. My
bed was soft enough, and my breakfast was brought to me at whatever
hour I rang for it. But, as was the case all over Paris, the central
heat had ceased abruptly on its specified date and I nearly froze.
During the late afternoon and evenings all through May and the greater
part of June I sat wrapped in my traveling cloak and went to bed as
soon as the evening ceremonies of my two fortnightly attendants were
over. I might as well have tried to interrupt the advance of a German
taube as to interfere with any of Mlle. Jacquier's orthodoxies.

Moreover four girls, with great chattering, invariably prepared my
bath--which circumstances decided me to take at night--and I had to
wai