24 THE GENTLE ART OF BLAZON 



such things befitted such a man as he. Straightway the man 

 of God, coming to himself, blushed that he should be over- 

 taken by an unworthy thought, and in the same moment 

 that he drove away the thought, the rain ceased.' 



Few domiciles could be more elaborately ornate and 



ostentatiously luxurious than the bedroom 



Art of of a great railway hotel in which I was landed 



Blazon , * 



this morning before the sparrows began to 

 twitter; yet no dwelling could be more heartless, or 

 seem so utterly indifferent about the individuality of its 

 inmate. Be you maid or matron, bachelor or benedict^ 

 ' tenth transmitter of a feeble face ' or self-made man, 

 your identity is eclipsed from the moment you enter 

 this room, and you become No. 132, just as hundreds 

 have done before and hundreds more will do after you. 

 It is hardly conceivable that a feeling of home could be 

 achieved here by dint of residence, however protracted. 

 One ought to be grateful for warmth, light, cleanliness, 

 and a good breakfast. Well, so I am, but how am I to 

 feel it ? ' Mine host ' being a limited liability company, 

 relations with him are necessarily impersonal and 

 mutually deficient in warmth. Instead of exchanging 

 greeting with him, I yield to peevishness and fault- 

 finding. 



Before me, as I write, hangs a print from a modern 

 very modern picture, showing a young person with 

 an empire waist sprawling in an arbour and smelling at 

 a rose as if her life depended on it. She has taken the 

 precaution of bringing with her a cushion covered with 



