"Can I get the box seat, do you think, if I pay extra for it?" I had
asked one of the stablemen before breakfast.
"You don't need to be payin', miss! Just confront the driver, and
you'll get it aisy!" If, by the way, I had confronted him at the
end instead of at the beginning of the journey, my charms certainly
would not have been all-powerful, for my coat had been leaked upon
by red and green umbrellas, my hat was a shapeless jelly, and my
face imprinted with the spots from a drenched blue veil.
After two hours more of this we reached the Shan Van Vocht Hotel,
where we had engaged apartments; but we found to our consternation
that it was full, and that we had been put in lodgings a half-mile
away.
Salemina, whose patience was quite exhausted by the discomforts of
the day, groaned aloud when we were deposited at the door of a
village shop, and ushered upstairs to our tiny quarters; but she
ceased abruptly when she really took note of our surroundings.
Everything was humble, but clean and shining--glass, crockery,
bedding, floor, on the which we were dripping pools of water, while
our landlady's daughter tried to make us more comfortable.
"It's a soft night we're havin'," she said, in a dove's voice, "but
we'll do right enough if the win' doesn't rise up on us."
Left to ourselves, we walked about the wee rooms on ever new and
more joyful voyages of discovery. The curtains rolled up and down
easily; the windows were propped upon nice clean sticks instead of
tennis rackets and hearth brushes; there was a well-washed stone to
keep the curtain down on the sill; and just outside were tiny window
gardens, in each of which grew three marigolds and three asters, in
a box fenced about with little green pickets.
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