He was getting a little used to the rapidity of
urban transactions, but his mind had still a rustic difficulty in
keeping up with his experiences.
"I suppose," said Mrs. Harmon, "it ain't very usual to take anybody
without a reference; I never do it; but so long as you haven't been
a great while in the city--You ever had a place in Boston before?"
"Well, not exactly what you may call a place," said Lemuel, with a
conscience against describing in that way his position at Miss
Vane's. "It was only part work." He added, "I wasn't there but a
little while."
"Know anybody in the city?"
"Yes," said Lemuel reluctantly; "I know Rev. David L. Sewell, some."
"Oh, all right," said Mrs. Harmon, with eager satisfaction. "I have
to be pretty particular who I have in the house. The boarders are
all high-class, and I have to have all the departments accordingly.
I'll see Mr. Sewell about you as soon as I get time, and I guess you
can take right hold now, if you want to."
Mrs. Harmon showed him in half a minute how to manage the elevator,
and then left him with general instructions to tell everybody who
came upon any errand he did not understand, that she would be back
in a very short time. He found pen and paper in the office, and she
said he might write the letter that he asked leave to send his
mother; when he mentioned his mother, she said, yes, indeed, with a
burst of maternal sympathy which was imagined in her case, for she
had already told Lemuel that if she had ever had any children she
would not have gone into the hotel business, which she believed
unfriendly to their right nurture; she said she never liked to take
ladies with children.
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