"
"The very thing!" cried Mrs. Makely. "Who would ever have thought you were
so practical, Mr. Homos? I don't believe you're an Altrurian, after all; I
believe you are an American in disguise."
The Altrurian turned away, without making any response to this flattering
attribution of our nationality to him; but Mrs. Makely had not waited for
any. She had flown off, and I next saw her attacking the landlord, with
such apparent success that he slapped himself on the leg and vanished, and
immediately the porters and bell-boys and all the men-servants began
carrying out chairs to the tennis-court, which was already well set round
with benches. In a little while the whole space was covered, and settees
were placed well up the ground toward the grove.
By half-past two the guests of the hotel came out and took the best seats,
as by right, and the different tallyhoes and mountain wagons began to
arrive from the other hotels, with their silly hotel cries, and their gay
groups dismounted and dispersed themselves over the tennis-court until all
the chairs were taken. It was fine to see how the natives and the trainmen
and the hotel servants, with an instinctive perception of the proprieties,
yielded these places to their superiors, and, after the summer folks were
all seated, scattered themselves on the grass and the pine-needles about
the border of the grove.
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