After the excitement was over, they went into the neighboring hotel,
where there was some difficulty in obtaining rooms, as all the
burned-out people had taken refuge there. However, the utmost
hospitality and friendliness prevailed, and even hungry Englishmen,
cheated of their dinner, were patient for once, while the overtaxed
waiters hurried to and fro, preparing for the second and quite
unexpected table d'hote. Everyone had something to tell either of his
escape or his losses. One lady had seen her night gown thrown out of the
window, and had managed adroitly to catch it; some one else on rushing
up to find his purse had been deluged by the fire engine, and Raeburn's
story of the little German boy excited great interest. The visitors were
inclined to make a hero of him. Once, when he had left the room, Erica
heard a discussion about him with no little amusement.
“Who is the very tall, white-haired man?”
“The man who saved the child? I believe he must be the Bishop of
Steneborough; he is traveling in the Tyrol, I know, and I'm sure that
man is a somebody. So much dignity, and such power over everybody!
Didn't you see the way the captain of the fire brigade deferred to him?”
“Well, now I think of it,” replied the other, “he has an earnest,
devotional sort of face, perhaps you're right. I'll speak to him when he
comes back. Ah!” in a lower voice, “there he is! And Confound it! He's
got no gaiters! Goodbye to my visions of life-long friendship and a
comfortable living for Dick!”
In spite of his anxiety about the lost packet, Raeburn laughed heartily
over Erica's account of this conversation. He had obtained leave to
search the deserted hotel, and a little before ten o'clock they made
their way across the square, over planks and charred rafters, broken
glass, and pools of water, which were hard to steer through in the
darkness. The fire was now quite out, and they were beginning to move
the furniture in again, but the place had been entirely dismantled, and
looked eerie and forlorn. On the staircase was a decapitated statue, and
broken and crushed plants were strewn about. Erica's room was quite bare
of furniture, nor could she find any of the things she wanted. The pen
with which she had been writing lay on the floor, and also a Japanese
fan soaked with water, but neither of these were very serviceable
articles to a person bereft of every toilet requisite.
“I shall have to lie down tonight like a dog, and get up in the morning,
and shake myself,” she said, laughing.
And probably a good many people in Innsbruck were that evening in like
case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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