Thurston of Orchard Valley
tomb. Young man, will you kindly get us a railroad schedule?" 

 The silver-buttoned official, who watched the big plate-glass door, started at a smart rap on his shoulder, and blinked at the angular lady in a startling costume and a blue veil. Thomas Savine interposed meekly: 

 "A time-table; and that's evidently not the man to ask, my dear." 

 "Then he can tell the right one," Mrs. Savine answered airily, and presently halted before a row of resplendently-gilded books adorning one portion of the vestibule. She thereupon explained for the benefit of all listeners that it was hard to see the necessity for so many railways in so small a country, and finally, with a clerk's assistance, selected a train which would deposit her at Oxenholme, from which place the official suggested that she might find means of transport into the district in which, to the best of his belief, Coleridge and Wordsworth, or one of them, wrote what Mrs. Savine entitled charming little pieces. It proved good counsel, and two of the party passed a delightful week at Ambleside, where their sojourn was marred only by Mrs. Savine's laments that potatoes were not served at supper and breakfast. 

 "I want some potatoes with my ham," she said, and when the attendant explained that the vegetables were never eaten in England at that meal, she inquired, "Don't you grow potatoes anywhere in this country?" 

 The attendant said that very fine ones were produced in the immediate vicinity, and Mrs. Savine waved a jeweled hand majestically. 

 "Then away you go and buy some. I'll sit right here until they're boiled," she said. 

 "It really isn't the custom, and you know you never got them in London, and hardly ate them at home," said Thomas Savine, but Mrs. Savine remained superior to such reasoning. 

 "That's quite outside the question. I want those potatoes, and I'm going to have them," she insisted. 

 There was a whispering at the end of the breakfast hall, somebody whistled up a tube, and the hotel manager appeared to announce, with regrets, that it was unfortunately impossible in the busy season to upset the culinary arrangements for the benefit of a single guest. 

 "Then we'll start again and follow the Schroeders' trail to that place in Cumberland," Mrs. Savine decided.  "Tom, you go out and buy one of those 
 Prev. P 35/235 next 
Back Top
Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact