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The living room of their suite at Garborough’s Hotel was brown and dingy. To Bessie, accustomed to hotel rooms the size of a railroad terminal, the room was shockingly small. It was but little bigger than the entire cottage she had occupied four years before.

She sniffed. And quite rightly.

And the bedrooms had wardrobes instead of proper closets.

She sniffed again. She rang for the room waiter.

“Dry Martini,” said Bessie.

“Eek?” gasped the room waiter.

“Dry Martini! Cocktail! Licker!” snarled Bessie.

“I beg pardon, madame, but we do not serve cocktails. ”

“You don’t—” In the hurt astonishment of it Bessie sat down, hard. “Say, what kind of a dump is this? What kind of a bunch do you get here?”

“His Grace, the Duke of Ightham, has been coming here for sixty years. ”

“Ever since you were a boy of forty! All right, bring me a highball. ”

“A high ball, madame?”

“A highball! A whisky and soda! A lightning and cloudburst!”

“Very well, madame. ”

After the waiter’s stately exit, Bessie whimpered, “And they said I’d like these old ruins!”

For the moment she looked beaten. “Maybe it ain’t going to be as easy to be buddies with Maximilian and Sidonie as I thought. I wish I’d brought old Rabbit!” Her depression vanished; she sprang up like a war horse. “How I’d bawl him out! Come on, Bess! Here’s where we show this old run-down Europe what an honest-to-goodness American lady can do!”

They had arrived at Garborough’s at three of the afternoon. At five, in a black velvet costume which made her look like a vamp—as far up as her chin—Bessie was stalking into the lobby of the Hotel Picardie.

The reception clerk at Garborough’s had been a stringy young woman in black alpaca and a state of disapproval, but at the Picardie he was a young Spanish count in a morning coat.

“I want,” she said, “the best suite you have. ”

“Certainly, madame; at once. ”

The clerk leaped into action and brought out from a glass-enclosed holy of holies an assistant manager who was more dapperly mustached, more sleekly frock-coated, more soapily attentive than himself.

“May I inquire how large a suite Madame would desire? And—uh—is Madame’s husband with Madame?”

“No. I’m the mother of Terry Tait, the movie, I mean cinema, star. I’m here with him; just us two. I’d like a parlor and coupla of bedrooms and a few private dining rooms. I guess you need references here. ” For a second Bessie again sounded a little hopeless. “Probably if you called up the American ambassador he would know about us. ”

“Oh, no, madame; of course we are familiar with the pictures of Master Tait. May I show you some suites?”

The first suite that he showed was almost as large, it had almost as much gilt, paneling, omelet-marble table tops, telephone extensions, water taps and Persian rugs as a hotel in Spokane, Schenectady, or St. Petersburg, Florida.

“This is more like it. But look here, I heard somewhere that Queen Sidonie and her boy are staying here. ”

“Yes, quite so, madame. ”

“Well, look: I’d like to be on their floor. ”

“Sorry, madame, but that is impossible. We have reserved the entire floor for Their Majesties and their suite. ”

“But there must be some rooms empty on it. ”

“Sorry, madame, but that is quite impossible. The police would be very nasty if we even attempted such a thing. ”

Bessie unhappily recalled the days when she had first gone to Hollywood with Terry and tried to persuade a castiron-faced guard to let them through to the casting director. Not since then had anyone spoken to her so firmly. It was a dejected Bessie Tait from Mechanicville who besought, “Well, then, I’d like to be on the floor right above them or below them. I’ll make it worth your while, manager. Oh, I know I can’t bribe you, but I don’t like to bother anybody without I pay for their trouble, and it would be worth ten of your pounds, or whatever you callum, to have a nice suite just above Their Majesties. ” The assistant manager hesitated. From her gold-link purse Bessie drew out the edge of a ten-pound note. At that beautiful sight the assistant manager sighed, and murmured respectfully, “I’ll see what can be done, madame. ”