Jerry Junior | Page 2

the young man would call for next. Yesterday he had rung the bell
and demanded a partner to play lawn tennis, as if the hotel kept partners
laid away in drawers like so many sheets.
He crumpled up the letter and stuffed it in his pocket.
"I say, Gustavo, what do you think of this? They're going to stay in
Lucerne till the tenth--that's next week--and they hope I don't mind
waiting; it will be nice for me to have a rest. A rest, man, and I've
already spent three days in Valedolmo!"
"Si, signore, you will desire ze same room?" was as much as Gustavo
thought.
"Ze same room? Oh, I suppose so."
He sank back into his chair and plunged his hands into his pockets with
an air of sombre resignation. The waiter hovered over him, divided
between a desire to return to his siesta, and a sympathetic interest in the
young man's troubles. Never before in the history of his connection
with the Hotel du Lac had Gustavo experienced such a munificent,
companionable, expansive, entertaining, thoroughly unique and
inexplicable guest. Even the fact that he was American scarcely
accounted for everything.
The young man raised his head and eyed his companion gloomily.
"Gustavo, have you a sister?"
"A sister?" Gustavo's manner was uncomprehending but patient. "Si,

signore, I have eight sister."
"Eight! Merciful saints. How do you manage to be so cheerful?"
"Tree is married, signore, one uvver is betrofed, one is in a convent,
one is dead and two is babies."
"I see--they're pretty well disposed of; but the babies will grow up,
Gustavo, and as for that betrothed one, I should still be a little nervous
if I were you; you can never be sure they are going to stay betrothed. I
hope she doesn't spend her time chasing over the map of Europe
making appointments with you to meet her in unheard of little
mountain villages where the only approach to Christian reading matter
is a Paris Herald four days old, and then doesn't turn up to keep her
appointments?"
Gustavo blinked. His supple back achieved another bow.
"Sank you," he murmured.
"And you don't happen to have an aunt?"
"An aunt, signore?" There was vagueness in his tone.
"Yes, Gustavo, an aunt. A female relative who reads you like an open
book, who sees your faults and skips your virtues, who remembers how
dear and good and obliging your father was at your age, who hoped
great things of you when you were a baby, who had intended to make
you her heir but has about decided to endow an orphan asylum--have
you, Gustavo, by chance an aunt?"
"Si, signore."
"I do not think you grasp my question. An aunt--the sister of your
father, or perhaps your mother."
A gleam of illumination swept over Gustavo's troubled features.
"Ecco! You would know if I haf a zia--a aunt--yes, zat is it. A aunt.

Sicuramente, signore, I haf ten--leven aunt."
"Eleven aunts! Before such a tragedy I am speechless; you need say no
more, Gustavo, from this moment we are friends."
He held out his hand. Gustavo regarded it dazedly; then, since it
seemed to be expected, he gingerly presented his own. The result was a
shining newly-minted two-lire piece. He pocketed it with a fresh
succession of bows.
"Grazie tanto! Has ze signore need of anysing?"
"Have I need of anysing?" There was reproach, indignation, disgust in
the young man's tone. "How can you ask such a question, Gustavo?
Here am I, three days in Valedolmo, with seven more stretching before
me. I have plenty of towels and soap and soft-boiled eggs, if that is
what you mean; but a man's spirit cannot be nourished on soap and
soft-boiled eggs. What I need is food for the mind--diversion,
distraction, amusement--no, Gustavo, you needn't offer me the Paris
Herald again. I already know by heart the list of guests in every hotel
in Switzerland."
"Ah, it is diversion zat you wish? Have you seen zat ver' beautiful
Luini in ze chapel of San Bartolomeo? It is four hundred years old."
"Yes, Gustavo, I have seen the Luini in the chapel of San Bartolomeo. I
derived all the pleasure to be got out of it the first afternoon I came."
"Ze garden of Prince Sartonio-Crevelli? Has ze signore seen ze cedar of
Lebanon in ze garden of ze prince?"
"Yes, Gustavo, the signore has seen the cedar of Lebanon in the garden
of the prince, also the ilex tree two hundred years old and the
india-rubber plant from South America. They are extremely beautiful
but they don't last a week."
"Have you swimmed in ze lake?"

"It is lukewarm, Gustavo."
The waiter's eyes roved anxiously. They lighted on the lunette of
shimmering water and purple mountains visible at the