Section 9- Chapter 17: The Hotel and Chapter 18: The Boarding-House Summary

In "The Hotel", Coverdale obtains a room in a respectable hotel in town to avoid his former companions. He feels stifled by the muddy tide of human activity at first, but while watching a cat creeping along the office rooftops, he is bewitched by the nooks and crannies where nature "hides her head among the long-established haunts of men" (page 92). He observes a boarding-house from his hotel window and blesses God when he observes a loving couple with their two children as he has not seen a prettier bit of nature during his entire summer in the country. He notes that a drawing-room on the first floor is empty, but the industry of two housemaids suggests that the house will not suffer long from the absence of...