第8章

It is now the last day,and the desolation is thickening upon our hotel.

This morning the door-posts up and down my corridor showed not a single pair of trousers;not a pair of boots flattered the lonely doormats.In the lower hall I found the tables of the great dining-room assembled,and the chairs inverted on them with their legs in the air;but decently,decorously,not with the reckless abandon displayed by the chairs in our Long Island hotel for weeks before it closed.In the smaller dining-room the table was set for lunch as if we were to go on dining there forever;in the breakfast -room the service and the provision were as perfect as ever.The coffee was good,the bread delicious,the butter of an unfaltering sweetness;and the glaze of wear on the polished dress-coats of the waiters as respectable as it could have been on the first day of the season.All was correct,and if of a funereal correctness to me,I am sure this effect was purely subjective.

The little bell-boys in sailor suits (perhaps they ought to be spelled bell-buoys)clustered about the elevator-boy like so many Roman sentinels at their posts;the elevator-boy and his elevator were ready to take us up or down at any moment.

The portier and I ignored together the hour of parting,which we had definitely ascertained and agreed upon,and we exchanged some compliments to the weather,which is now settled,as if we expected to enjoy it long together.I rather dread going in to lunch,however,for I fear the empty places.