“Well, you succeeded,” said Sewell easily.
“Don’t you think he’s greatly improved
in the short time he’s been in the city?”
“He’s very well dressed. I hope he
isn’t extravagant.”
“He’s not only well dressed, but he’s
beginning to be well spoken. I believe he’s
beginning to observe that there is such a thing as
not talking through the nose. He still says,
‘I don’t know as,’ but most of the
men they turn out of Harvard say that; I’ve heard
some of the professors say it.”
Mrs. Sewell was not apparently interested in this.
That night Lemuel told Mrs. Harmon that she must not
expect him to do anything thenceforward but look after
the accounts and the general management; she must
get a head-waiter, and a boy to run the elevator.
She consented to this, as she would have consented
to almost anything else that he proposed.
He had become necessary to the management of the St.
Albans in every department; and if the lady boarders
felt that they could not now get on without him, Mrs.
Harmon was even more dependent.
With her still nominally at the head of affairs, and
controlling the expenses as a whole, no radical reform
could be effected. But there were details of
the outlay in which Lemuel was of use, and he had
brought greater comfort into the house for less money.
He rejected her old and simple device of postponing
the payment of debt as an economical measure, and
substituted cash dealings with new purveyors.
He gradually but inevitably took charge of the store-room,
and stopped the waste there; early in his administration
he had observed the gross and foolish prodigality
with which the portions were sent from the carving-room,
and after replacing Mrs. Harmon’s nephew there,
he established a standard portion that gave all the
needed variety, and still kept the quantity within
bounds. It came to his taking charge of this
department entirely, and as steward he carved the
meats, and saw that nothing was in a way to become
cold before he opened the dining-room doors as head-waiter.
His activities promoted the leisure which Mrs. Harmon
had always enjoyed, and which her increasing bulk
fitted her to adorn. Her nephew willingly relinquished
the dignity of steward. He said that his furnaces
were as much as he wanted to take care of; especially
as in former years, when it had begun to come spring,
he had experienced a stress of mind in keeping the
heat just right, when the ladies were all calling
down the tubes for more of it or less of it, which
he should now be very glad not to have complicated
with other cares. He said that now he could look
forward to the month of May with some pleasure.
