l, not caring to address him, turned to the right and
crossed a narrow hall to a room beyond, evidently a parlour, since it
was fitted up with a faded ingrain carpet, a centre table with a red
plush photograph album, and several enlarged crayon portraits hung
near the ceiling--of the kind made free of charge in Chicago from
photographs, provided the owner orders a frame from the company. No
one was in the room, and the colonel had turned to leave it, when he
came face to face with a lady passing through the hall.

"Are you looking for some one?" she asked amiably, having noted his
air of inquiry.

"Why, yes, madam," replied the colonel, removing his hat, "I was
looking for the proprietor--or the clerk."

"Why," she replied, smiling, "that's the proprietor sitting there in
the office. I'm going in to speak to him, and you can get his
attention at the same time."

Their entrance did not disturb the young man's reposeful attitude,
which remained as unchanged as that of a graven image; nor did he
exhibit any consciousness at their presence.

"I want a clean towel, Mr. Dickson," said the lady sharply.

The proprietor looked up with an annoyed expression.

"Huh?" he demanded, in a tone of resentment mingled with surprise.

"A clean towel, if you please."

The proprietor said nothing more to the lady, nor deigned to notice
the colonel at all, but lifted his legs down from the back of the
chair, rose with a sigh, left the room and returned in a few minutes
with a towel, which he handed ungraciously to the lady. Then, still
paying no attention to the colonel, he resumed his former attitude,
and returned to the perusal of his newspaper--certainly the most
unconcerned of hotel keepers, thought the colonel, as a vision of
spacious lobbies, liveried porters, and obsequious clerks rose before
his vision. He made no audible comment, however, but merely stared at
the young man curiously, left the hotel, and inquired of a passing
Negro the whereabouts of the livery stable. A few minutes later he
found the place without difficulty, and hired a horse and buggy.

While the stable boy was putting the harness on the horse, the colonel
related to the liveryman, whose manner was energetic and
business-like, and who possessed an open countenance and a sympathetic
eye, his experience at the hotel.

"Oh, yes," was the reply, "that's Lee Dickson all over. That hotel
used to be kep' by his mother. She was a widow woman, an' ever since