Affair in Araby | Page 7

deal. If your compatriots don't
want to patronise my house, they can go to that low-down lunatic
asylum across the street. By the way, what's its name?"
"T'e Grand Hôtel Splendide," answered Pelletan, glowing with delight
at his companion's power of invective.
"H--m," said the latter; "the worse a hotel is, the bigger name it seems
to have. But about the discount. Let me repeat for you, Pelletan, a
business axiom. To give a discount is to admit that your goods are not
worth the price you ask for them, and that you're willing to cheat
anybody who doesn't know enough to beat you down. All the business
of Europe seems to be run in just that way, but ours won't be. Our
goods are worth the price!"
"But," began Pelletan, humbly, "efen at Ostend--"
"This is not Ostend. This is Weet-sur-Mer--a place more home-like,
more comfortable, preferable in every way, and with greater natural
advantages than Ostend ever had or ever will have. Only a fool would
go to Ostend when he could come to Weet-sur-Mer and stop at the
Grand Hôtel Royal."
Pelletan rubbed his hands in delight.
"You really t'ink so, monsieur?" he murmured.
"No matter what I think. Besides, you can go back to your old schedule,
if you want to, at the end of the month. But I'm fixing this new
schedule to suit myself, and I don't want to be interrupted. These
ordinary apartments will be thirty to forty francs, according to size.
Single rooms will be ten francs. Breakfast will be four francs, dinner
ten francs--in a word, we double our income without increasing our
expenses. That's the secret of all high finance, my friend."
"But, monsieur," stammered Pelletan, more and more astounded, "eef
t'ere iss no one to pay, what does it matter?"

"There will be some one to pay--leave that to me. You don't understand
American enterprise, Pelletan. I'm going to astonish you. Now mind
one thing--if Zeit-Zeit comes over here and wants an apartment, you're
to shut him out--I won't have him in the house--not at any price!"
Pelletan grew pale at the thought.
"Refuse t'e Prince of Zeit-Zeit!" he stammered.
"Yes--if you let him in, I'll kick him out. And another thing--the service
has got to be first-class--the best in Europe--nothing gaudy, you
understand, but a quiet elegance that will make us talked about. Do you
think you can accomplish it?"
"I vill do my pest, monsieur," promised Pelletan.
"The place, of course, I'll have to take as I find it," went on Rushford,
with a glance around, "though it's littered up with gewgaws and dinkey
furniture which ought to be made into a bonfire. If I had a little more
time, I'd re-decorate the whole house. Those imitation marble pillars
over there are an insult to the intelligence."
"T'ey haf peen t'ought fery beautiful, monsieur," murmured Pelletan,
humbly.
"Yes--I've noticed that Europeans have a weakness for imitations. It's a
defect of character, I suppose. But there's one thing you can do--and
right away. Send that boy at the desk up to his room and tell him to rip
all that gold braid off his coat. To look at him, you'd think he was a
major-general."
Pelletan stared at his partner to see if he was in earnest.
"Oh, I know it will be a deprivation," said the American, a glint of
humour in his eyes. "You can raise his wages a franc a day to make up
for it."
"Fery well, monsieur," and Pelletan crossed over to the desk and gave

the boy his commands. The latter dragged away up the stair with a
countenance in which grief and joy struggled for the mastery. "Anyt'ing
else, monsieur?" asked the Frenchman, coming back.
"No, I don't think of anything just at this moment. But you do your part
and I'll do mine. Now suppose you go out and get the notary, while I
work my brain a bit."
Pelletan staggered rather than walked to the door, his head in his hands,
fairly overwhelmed. A moment later, Rushford saw him hurrying down
the street. He got out a third cigar and settled back in his chair with a
chuckle of satisfaction.
"Maybe I'll get some fun out of this thing, after all," he said. "It'll offer
a little diversion, anyway. Now, how shall we begin to advertise?"
"M. le Propriétaire, is he here?" inquired a voice, and Rushford looked
around to see a man in resplendent uniform standing at the door.
"That's me, I reckon," he said.
"This is my first day," explained the man; "I will know monsieur
hereafter. I have a telegram," and he produced it. "Monsieur will make
acknowledgment here," he added, and held out a narrow white slip of
paper.
Rushford signed his name mechanically, dropped a franc