Everybody supposed the Baroness, as she was
still called, half in derision and half from the American love of
mouthing a title, would offer this house for sale, and depart for
fresh fields and pastures new. But the Baroness never did what she
was expected to do.
Instead of offering her house for sale, she offered "Rooms to Let,"
and turned the family mansion into a fashionable lodging-house.
Its central location, and its adjacence to several restaurants and
boarding houses, rendered it a convenient place for business people
to lodge, and the handsome widow found no trouble in filling her
rooms with desirable and well-paying patrons. In a spirit of fun,
people began to speak of the old Brown mansion as "The Palace," and
in a short time the lodging-house was known by that name, just as its
mistress was known as "Baroness Brown."
The Palace yielded the Baroness something like two hundred dollars a
month, and cost her only the wages and keeping of three servants; or
rather the wages of two and the keeping of three; for to Berene
Dumont, her maid and personal attendant, she paid no wages.
The Baroness did not rise till noon, and she always breakfasted in
bed. Sometimes she remained in her room till mid-afternoon. Berene
served her breakfast and lunch, and looked after the servants to see
that the lodgers' rooms were all in order.
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