"This gentleman is looking for a room," was the explanation, sadly given, of my presence.
The ladies withdrew to the foot of the stairway for a whispered conference. This finished, the elder came back to where I stood on the door-mat.
"We generally ask for references—" she began, with a glance at my sodden appearance.
"If that’s essential," I broke in, "I’m afraid it must end matters. I’ve only recently come over from France, and I’m a total stranger in New York. I rang the bell because I saw the notice and I liked the look of the house."
As it happened, the last was the most tactful thing I could have said, going to the hearts of my hostesses. Something, too, in my voice and choice of words must have appealed to their sense of gentility.
"It’s a nice old house," the elder lady smiled, with her brave air of having to overcome agony before being able to speak at all. "It’s old-fashioned, of course, and horribly in the wrong part of the city nowadays; but my sister and I love it. We’ve always lived here, and our dear father before us. He was Doctor Smith, quite a famous oculist in his day; you may have heard of him?"
"I’ve heard the name," I admitted, politely.
"We’ve two good rooms vacant at present; but if you can’t give references"—a wan smile deprecated the unladylike suggestion—"I’m afraid we should have to ask you for a week’s rent in advance. I shouldn’t speak of it if it was not our rule."
When I had agreed to this she led the way over the frayed cocoanut matting of the staircase to an upper hallway, also carpeted in pulverized oilcloth. With one sister ahead of me, and the other shepherding me behind, I was ushered into a large prow-shaped room immediately over the provision dealer, and smelling faintly of raw meat. I could have borne the odor if the rent had not been six a week.
"We’ve another room just over this," the spokeswoman informed me, "but it’s only half this size."
So, marshaled as before, I mounted another stairway in cocoanut matting to a slit of a room shaped like half a ship’s prow, with its single window placed squintwise. As the smell of raw meat was less noticeable here, the squint of the window out into Meeting-House Green, and the rent so low, I made my bargain promptly.