defeated by their friend's finding that his "partner" was awaiting him on
the wharf and that his commercial associate desired him instantly to come
and give his attention to certain telegrams received from St. Louis.
But the two Englishmen, with nothing but their national prestige and
personal graces to recommend them, were very well received at the hotel,
which had an air of capacious hospitality. They found that a bath was
not unattainable, and were indeed struck with the facilities for prolonged
and reiterated immersion with which their apartment was supplied.
After bathing a good deal--more, indeed, than they had ever done before on
a single occasion--they made their way into the dining room of the hotel,
which was a spacious restaurant, with a fountain in the middle, a great
many tall plants in ornamental tubs, and an array of French waiters.
The first dinner on land, after a sea voyage, is, under any circumstances,
a delightful occasion, and there was something particularly agreeable
in the circumstances in which our young Englishmen found themselves.
They were extremely good natured young men; they were more observant than
they appeared; in a sort of inarticulate, accidentally dissimulative fashion,
they were highly appreciative. This was, perhaps, especially the case
with the elder, who was also, as I have said, the man of talent.
They sat down at a little table, which was a very different affair
from the great clattering seesaw in the saloon of the steamer.
The wide doors and windows of the restaurant stood open, beneath large
awnings, to a wide pavement, where there were other plants in tubs,
and rows of spreading trees, and beyond which there was a large
shady square, without any palings, and with marble-paved walks.
And above the vivid verdure rose other facades of white marble and of
pale chocolate-colored stone, squaring themselves against the deep
blue sky. Here, outside, in the light and the shade and the heat,
there was a great tinkling of the bells of innumerable streetcars,
and a constant strolling and shuffling and rustling of many pedestrians,