traditions of the first families of
Columbus were upheld long after the war, and it thus happened that when,
a few years since, a young New Yorker, arriving for a visit in the town,
alighted from his train, he was greeted by an ancient negro who,
indicating an equally ancient carriage, cried: "Hack, suh! Hack, suh!
Ain't nevah been rid in by none but the Billupses."

Not every young man from the North would have understood this reference,
but by a coincidence it was at the residence of Mrs. Billups that this
one had come to visit.

Neither as to hack nor habitation were my companion and I so fortunate
as the earlier visitor. Our conveyance was a Ford, and the driver warned
us, as we progressed through shadowy tree-bordered streets, that the
Gilmer Hotel was crowded with delegates who had come to attend the State
convention of the Order of the Eastern Star. Nor was his warning without
foundation. The wide old-fashioned lobby of the Gilmer was hung with the
colors of the Order and packed with Ladies of the Eastern Star and their
ecstatic families; we managed to make our way through the press only to
be told by the single worn-out clerk on duty that not a room was to be
had.

Unlike the haughty clerk who had dismissed us from the Tutwiler Hotel in
Birmingham, the clerk at the Gilmer was not without the quality of
mercy. Overworked though he was, he began at once to telephone about the
town in an effort to secure us rooms. But if this led us to conclude
that our problem was thereby in effect solved, we discovered, after
listening to his brief telephonic conversations with a series of unseen
ladies, that the conclusion was premature. Though there were vacant
rooms in several private houses, strange stray males were not desired as
lodgers.

Concerned as we were over our plight, my companion and I could not help
being aware that a young lady who had been standing at the desk when we
came in, and had since remained there, was taking kindly interest in the
situation. Nor, for the matter of that, could we help being aware, also,
that she was very pretty in her soft black dress and corsage of
narcissus. She did not speak to us; indeed, she hardly honored us with a
glance; but, despite her sweet circumspection, we sensed in some subtle
way that she was sorry for us, and were cheered thereby.

After a time, when the clerk seemed to have reached the end of his
resources, the young lady hesitantly ventured some suggestions as to