wn, with the intention of keeping a close look-out for the hotel in
question. A kind-looking gentleman occupied the seat next to me, and I
ventured to inquire of him:

"If you please, sir, can you tell me where the St. Denis Hotel is?"

"Yes; we ride past it in the stage. I will point it out to you when we
come to it."

"Thank you, sir."

The stage rattled up the street, and after a while the gentleman looked
out of the window and said:

"This is the St. Denis. Do you wish to get out here?"

"Thank you. Yes, sir."

He pulled the strap, and the next minute I was standing on the pavement.
I pulled a bell at the ladies' entrance to the hotel, and a boy coming
to the door, I asked:

"Is a lady by the name of Mrs. Clarke stopping here? She came last
night, I believe."

"I do not know. I will ask at the office;" and I was left alone.

The boy came back and said:

"Yes, Mrs. Clarke is here. Do you want to see her?"

"Yes."

"Well, just walk round there. She is down here now."

I did not know where "round there" exactly was, but I concluded to go
forward.

I stopped, however, thinking that the lady might be in the parlor with
company; and pulling out a card, asked the boy to take it to her. She
heard me talking, and came into the hall to see herself.

"My dear Lizzie, I am so glad to see you," she exclaimed, coming forward
and giving me her hand. "I have just received your note"--I had written
her that I should join her on the 18th--"and have been trying to get a
room for you. Your note has been here all day, but it was never
delivered until to-night. Come in here, until I find out about your
room;" and she led me into the office.

The clerk, like all modern hotel clerks, was exquisitely arrayed, highly
perfumed, and too self-important to be obliging, or even courteous.

"This is the woman I told you about. I want a good room for her," Mrs.
Lincoln said to the clerk.

"We have no room for her, madam," was the pointed rejoinder.

"But she must have a room. She is a friend of mine, and I want a room
for her adjoining mine."

"We have no room for her on your floor."

"That is strange, sir. I tell you that she is a friend of mine, and I am
sure you could not give a room to a more worthy person."

"Friend of yours, or not, I tell you we have no room for her on your
floor. I can find a place for her on the fifth floor."

"That, sir, I presume, will be a vast improvement on my room. Well, if
she goes to