The Motor Maid | Page 7

I don't know any one to talk to."
"It is very distressing, but the Princess Boriskoff died about four
o'clock this morning, of heart failure."
"Oh!" ... I could not get out another word.
"These things are not liked in hotels, even when not contagious."
The assistant manager looked gloomily at me, as if I might be held
responsible for the inconvenient event; but still I could not speak.
"Especially in the high season. It is being kept secret. That is the
custom. In some days, or less, it will leak out, but not till the Princess
has--been removed. You will kindly not mention it, mademoiselle. This
is very bad for us."
No, I would kindly not mention it, but it was worse for me than for
them. The Hotel Majestic Palace looked rich; very, very rich. It had
heaps of splendid mirrors and curtains, and imitation Louis XVI. sofas,
and everything that a hotel needs to make it happy and successful,
while I had nothing in the world except what I stood up in, one fitted
bag, one small box, and thirty-two francs. I didn't quite see, at first

sight, what I was to do; but neither did the assistant manager see what
that had to do with him.
Once I knew a girl who was an actress, and on tour in the country she
nearly drowned herself one day. When the star heard of it, he said:
"How should we have played to-night if you'd been dead--without an
understudy, too?"
At this moment I knew just how the girl must have felt when the star
said that.
"I--I think I must stay here a day or two, until I can--arrange things," I
managed to stammer. "Have you a small single room disengaged?"
"We have one or two small north rooms which are usually occupied by
valets and maids," the young man informed me. "They are twelve
francs a day."
"I'll take one," I replied. And then I added anxiously: "Have any
relatives of the Princess come?"
"None have come; and certainly none will come, as it would now be
too late. Her death was very sudden. The Princess's maid knows what
to do. She is an elderly woman, experienced. The suite occupied by Her
Highness will be free to-morrow."
"Oh! And had she no friends here?"
"I do not think the Princess was a lady who made friends. She was very
proud and considered herself above other people. Would you like to see
your room, mademoiselle? I will send some one to take you up to it. It
will be on the top floor."
I was in a mood not to care if it had been on the roof, or in the cellar. I
hardly knew where I was going, as a few minutes later a still younger
youth piloted me across a large square hall toward a lift; but I was
vaguely conscious that a good many smart-looking people were sitting
or standing about, and that they glanced at me as I went by. I hoped

dimly that I didn't appear conspicuously pale and stricken.
Just in front of the lift door a tall woman was talking to a little man.
There was an instant of delay while my guide and I waited for them to
move, and before they realized that we were waiting.
"They say the poor thing is no worse than yesterday, however, my maid
tells me--" The lady had begun in a low, mysterious tone, but broke off
suddenly when it dawned upon her that she was obstructing the way.
I knew instinctively who was the subject of the whispered conversation,
and I couldn't help fixing my eyes almost appealingly on the tall
woman; for though she was middle-aged and not pretty, her voice was
so nice and she looked so kind that I felt a longing to have her for a
friend. She had probably been acquainted with Princess Boriskoff, I
said to myself, or she would not be talking of her now, with bated
breath, as a "poor thing."
Evidently the lady had been waiting for the lift to come down, for when
my guide rang and it descended she took a step forward, giving a
friendly little nod to her companion, and saying, "Well, I must go. I feel
sure it's true about her."
Then, instead of sailing ahead of me into the lift, as she had a perfect
right to do, being much older and far more important than I, and the
first comer as well, she hesitated with a pleasant half smile, as much as
to say, "You're a stranger. I give up my right to you."
"Oh, please!" I said, stepping aside to let her pass, which she did,
making room for me to sit down beside her on