90 A Walk from 



landlady is, of course, the president of the establish- 

 ment, whether or not she calls any man lord in the 

 retired and family department of the house. But the 

 actual geranfes, or working corps, with which you have 

 to do immediately, are three independent and distinct 

 personages, called the waiter, chambermaid, and boots. 

 If it were respectful to gender, these might be called 

 the great triumvirate of the English inn. No traveller, 

 after a night's lodging and breakfast, will mistake or 

 confound the prerogatives or perquisites of these officials. 

 If he is an American, and it be his first experience of 

 the regime, he will be surprised and puzzled at the 

 imperium in imperio which his bill, presented to him 

 on a tea-tray, seems to represent. In no other business 

 transaction of his life did he ever see the like. It goes 

 far beyond anything in the line of limited partnership 

 he ever saw. There is only one partial parallel that 

 approaches it ; and this comes to his mind as he reads 

 the several items on his bill. When made out and 

 interpreted, it comes to this : the proprietor, the waiter, 

 chambermaid, and boots are independent parties, who get 

 up a night's lodging and two or three meals for you 

 on the same footing as four independent underwriters 

 would take proportionate risks at Lloyds in some ship at 

 sea. Or, what would put it in simpler form to an unin- 

 itiated guest, he is apparently first charged for the raw 



