CHAPTER XIII

INTO THE OLD DOMINION

When two men are traveling together on an equal footing, and it becomes necessary to decide between two rooms in a hotel, how is the decision to be made?  Which man is to take the big, bright corner room, and which the little room that faces on the court and is fragrant of the bakery below?  Or again, which man shall occupy the lower berth in a Pullman drawing-room, and which shall try to sleep upon the shelf-like couch?  Or when there is but one lower left, which shall take the upper?  If an extra kit bag be required for the use of both, who shall pay for it and own it at the journey’s end?  Who shall pay for this meal and who for that?  Or yet again, if there be but one cheap heavy overcoat in a shop, and both desire to own that coat, which one shall have the right of purchase?  Who shall tip the bell boy for bringing up the bags, or the porter for taking down the trunks?  Who shall take home from a dance the girl both want to take, and who shall escort the unattractive one who resides in a remote suburb?

Between two able-bodied men there is no uncomfortable complication of politeness in such matters.  On a brief journey there might be, but on a long journey the thin veil of factitious courtesy is cast aside; each wants his fair share of what is best and makes no pretense to the contrary.

Upon our first long journey together, some years ago, my companion and I established a custom of settling all such questions by matching coins, and we have maintained this habit ever since.  Upon the whole it has worked well.  We have matched for everything except railroad fares and hotel bills, and though fortune has sometimes favored one or the other for a time, I believe that, had we kept accounts, we should find ourselves to-day practically even.

Our system of matching has some correlated customs.  Now and then, for instance, when one of us is unlucky and has been “stuck” for a series of meals, the other, in partial reparation, will declare a “party.”  Birthdays and holidays also call for parties, and sometimes there will be a party for no particular reason other than that we feel like having one.

Two of our parties on this journey have been given in the basement cafe of the Shoreham Hotel in Washington.  Both were supper parties.  The first I gave in honor of my companion, for the reason that we both like the Shoreham cafe, and that a party seemed to be about due.  That party brought on the other, which occurred a few nights later and was given by us jointly in honor of a very beautiful and talented young actress.  And this one, we agree, was, in a way, the most amusing of all the parties we have had together.

It was early in the morning, when we were leaving the cafe after the first party, that we encountered the lady who caused the second one.  I had never met her, but I was aware that my companion knew her, for he talked about her in his sleep.  She was having supper with a gentleman at a table near the door, and had you seen her it would be unnecessary for me to tell you that my companion stopped to speak to her, and that I hung around until he introduced me.