PLAZA HOTEL,
_NEW YORK._
Dearest Mamma,--We are here now, so this is where to address your letters.
We went to another hotel first but we could not stand the impudence of the
servants, and having to shout down the telephone for everything instead of
ringing a bell--and here it is much nicer and one is humanly waited on.
America is too quaint. Crowds of reporters came on board to interview us!
We never dreamed that they would bother just private people, but it was
because of the titles, I suppose. Tom was furious but Octavia was
delighted. She said she wanted to see all the American customs and if
talking to reporters was one of them, she wanted that, too. So she was
sweetly gracious and never told them a word of truth.
They were perfectly polite, but they asked direct questions, how we liked
America (we had not landed!), how long we were going to stay, what was our
object in coming there, what we thought of the American divorce, etc., etc.
All but two were the same type: very prominent foreheads, deep set eyes,
white faces, origin South of France or Corsican mixed with Jew to look at,
with the astounding American acuteness added, and all had the expression of
a good terrier after a rat--the most intense concentration.
When we actually landed female ones attacked us, but Octavia who, as you
know, doesn't really care for women, was not nearly so nice to them, and
their articles in the papers about us are virulent!
"Lady Chevenix is a homely looking person with henna-assisted hair and the
true British haughty manner," they put! They were not so disagreeable about
me, but not flattering. Then they snap-shotted us, and Octavia really does
look rather odd, as her nose got out of focus, I suppose, and appears like
Mr. Punch's; underneath is written, "An English Peeress and Society
Beauty." We laughed so!
New York Harbour is a wonderful sight, but you have read all about it
often. The streets by it are awful, badly paved and hideous architecture,
immense tall houses here and there, gaunt and staring like giants who have
seen Medusa's head and been turned into stone. Farther up town the
buildings are all much the same, so their huge height does not show so
greatly as with a few lower ones in between.
Every creature in the street has got a purposeful determined air, and even
the horses, many of them without blinkers, have it, too, I wonder if we
shall catch it before we leave. Nobody appears English--I mean of origin,
even if their name is Smith or Brown; every other nation, with the strong
stamp of "American" dominating whatever country they originally hailed
from, but not English. They have all the appearance of rushing to some
special place, not just taking a walk to nowhere.
You would have to come here to understand the insolence of the servants in
most places. We naturally ordered tea (down the telephone) when we arrived,
and presently a waiter brought a teapot and two cups and nothing else; and
when we remonstrated he picked his teeth and grinned and said, "If you
don't ask for what you want you won't get it. You said tea, and you've got
tea, you never mentioned sugar and milk." Then he bounced off, and when the
lift boy whistled as he brought me up, and the Irish chambermaid began to
chat to Octavia, she said she could not bear it any longer, and Tom must go
out and find another hotel. So late last night we got here, which is
charming; perhaps the attendants are paid extra for manners. But even here
they call Octavia "Lady Chevenix" and me "Lady Valmond" every minute--never
just "My Lady" like at home, and I am sure they would rather die than say
"Your Ladyship!"
Mr. Renour had to leave us; we were so sorry, but he got a telegram as we
landed, saying the superintendent of his mine had been shot and there was
"trouble" out there, so he had to fly off at once. However, we have
promised to go and stay with him presently and he is going to show us all
the mining camps.
To-day we have rested, and quantities of the people one knows in London
sent us flowers, and they are the best I have ever seen--roses so enormous
they look like peonies, and on colossal stalks--in fact, everything is
twice the size of at home.
We are going to dine at Sherry's to-night with a party. It is the
fashionable restaurant, and I will finish when I come back.