When Callandar had registered, the clerk was very sorry indeed that the hotel arrangements were rather arbitrary in the matter of meal hours.

He was afraid that the kitchen fires were down and everything cold.

Still if the gentleman would go to his room, he would see what could be done-- The gentleman went to his room; but in no enviable frame of mind.

So wretched was his plight that he was not above valuing the covert sympathy of the small bell-boy who preceded him up the oilclothed stairs.

He was a very round boy: round legs, round cheeks, round head and eyes so round that they must have been special eyes made on purpose.
There was also a haunting resemblance to some other boy! Callandar taxed his memory, and there stole into it a vision of a pool with willows.