e, on
the contrary, lurked about the hotels where they passed their days in a
silence so dignified that when his verbs and nominatives seemed not to
agree, you accused your own hearing. He was correctly dressed, as an
elderly man should be, in the yesterday of the fashions, and he wore
with impressiveness a silk hat whenever such a hat could be worn. A pair
of drab cloth gaiters did much to identify him with an old school of
gentlemen, not very definite in time or place. He had a full gray beard
cut close, and he was in the habit of pursing his mouth a great deal.
But he meant nothing by it, and his wife meant nothing by her frowning.
They had no wish to subdue or overawe any one, or to pass for persons of
social distinction. They really did not know what society was, and they
were rather afraid of it than otherwise as they caught sight of it in
their journeys and sojourns. They led a life of public seclusion, and
dwelling forever amidst crowds, they were all in all to each other,
and nothing to the rest of the world, just as they had been when they
resided (as they would have said) on Pinckney street. In their own house
they had never entertained, though they sometimes had company, in the
style of the country town where Mrs. Lander grew up. As soon as she was
released to the grandeur of hotel life, she expanded to the full measure
of its responsibilities and privileges, but still without seeking
to make it the basis of approach to society. Among the people who
surrounded her, she had not so much acquaintance as her husband even,
who talked so little that he needed none. She sometimes envied his ease
in getting on with people when he chose; and his boldness in speaking to
fellow guests and fellow travellers, if he really wanted anything. She
wanted something of them all the time, she wanted their conversation
and their companionship; but in her ignorance of the social arts she was
thrown mainly upon the compassion of the chambermaids. She kept these
talking as long as she could detain them in her rooms; and often fed
them candy (which she ate herself with childish greed) to bribe them to
further delays. If she was staying some days in a hotel, she sent for
the house-keeper, and made all she could of her as a listener, and
as soon as she settled herself for a week, she asked who was the best
doctor in the place. With doctors she had no reserves, and she
poured out upon them the history of her diseases and symptoms in an
i