eager to say. She had the air of a born leader; that is to say, she
could be gracious when occasion demanded, without being patronising.

In due course of time the Medcrofts and Miss Fowler were presented to
the distinguished couple. This function was necessarily delayed until
Odell-Carney had time to go into the details of a particularly annoying
episode of the afternoon. He was telling the story to his friend Rodney,
and of course everything was at a standstill until he got through.

It seems that Mr. Odell-Carney felt the need of a nap at three o'clock.
He gave strict injunctions that there was to be no noise in the halls
while he slept, and then went into his room and stretched out. Anyone
who has stopped at the Hotel Four Seasons will have no difficulty in
recalling the electric hall-bells which serve to attract the
chambermaids to given spots. If one needs the chambermaid, he presses
the button in his room and a little bell in the hall tinkles furiously
until she responds and shuts it off. In that way one is sure that she
has heard and is coming, a most admirable bit of German ingenuity. If
she happens to be taking her lunch at the time, the bell goes on ringing
until she returns; it is a faithful bell. Coming back to Odell-Carney:
the maid on his floor was making up a room in close proximity when a
most annoying thing happened to her. A porter who had reason to dislike
her came along and turned her key from the outside, locking her in the
room. She couldn't get out, and she had been warned against making a
sound that might disturb the English guest. With rare intelligence, she
did not scream or make an outcry, but wisely proceeded to press the
button for a chambermaid. Then she evidently sat down to wait. To make
the story short, she rang her own call-bell for two hours, no other maid
condescending to notice the call, which speaks volumes for the almost
martial system of the hotel. The bell was opposite the narrator's door.