Chapters 1-4 Summary

Bertram's is an old fashioned hotel fashioned after the hotels of the Edwardian age in England. Many of the aristocrat's dowagers, clergymen, and Americans seeking a real English adventure stay at Bertram's Hotel.

In chapter 1, Lady Selina Hazy is sitting in the lounge of Bertram's Hotel enjoying the muffins they serve at tea hour and watching the guests walk by. Colonel Luscombe speaks to her for a minute before going to the desk to check into his room. Colonel Luscombe is a regular guest so the desk clerk, Miss Gorringe, not only knows him, but knows which room he prefers. Mr. Humfries, the manager, knows him as well and stops to say hello. Colonel Luscombe asks Mr. Humfries how some of the elderly guests can afford to pay the high prices at Bertram's and is told many of the regulars are...