The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-11-07

tContinued).
 r3nfwean Rudd's and the hotel they mad the very best part of High Street to stroll through. Here they were indeed cocks of the walk; the Medford constabulary saluted them, shops admired and studied the tit or fheir straw hats, the cut of their nan mel trousers, the color of their ties and washing waistcoats; while snop proprietors on doorsteps respectfully, eycophantically greeted them; aooa- informing, sir;" Fine morning, SIT. hope see you well, MT. Granvhie' sec.
 m the reverential greeting Of High street and it's curtly condescending as- knowiedgment one could measure all tho social gulf between the Hili ana the town. {.
 But at the White Hart these sons of fhe Hill were content-from ancient us < bee and customs--to narrow the di- xiainE distance! and in billiard-room ma bar parlor would meet the more. Important townsmen and hold commune with them in patronizingly friendly manner.
 The White Hart was the best. the only real. hotel in Medford. It was an old spacious house, very slightly moo, ernixed On either side of the piiiared porch there were white posts and
  in green tubs; there were flower boxes to all the windows on the ground hoor, and the pavement was formed of queer little stones Instead of the usual flags, in order to show that from time im- memorial 1t had belonged. and did now belong, to the White Hart and not to the public. At one end of the house there was a modern bar. with a separ- ate entrance to the street, and grand terra cotta front: but above this new ernamental work the musty old bed- rooms were unchanged.
 The fine old panelled hall. the proau staircase and passages were dark ana gloomy even at high noon. but behind the hall there was a better lit, glass screened bar parlor or landlords office: a most pleasant lounging place, 1t one had the freedom of ft-with, moreover. some delightful small inner rooms. from which the two Misses Drake, Ethel and Mildred, daughters of mine host Bob Drake, would emegre to sup clement and aid Miss Granger, the manageress. Here. in the bar par Tor. were Issued orders to the stable yard: here were set on slate and trans ferred to ledger bookings of flies; here biIis for bed and board. dinners and zuncheons were hastily made out etc, etc. When the young men came in here, they felt 1t was like going behind the GG&H&& must be In the way, and that made 1t more pleasant.
 Thank you. MT. Padfeld, if you'll get or of those books you are sitting an. I'll enter this account Let you help me? No. thanks. Oh, ao along, do. Yes, I daresay."
 The ioafing sons of the Hill would wander from the hotel proper-when Miss Granger, Ethel, and Milly began to pall--and through devious passages, and a service door that bore in white pafnt the word: Private" admit them- selves to the modern bar; and, if 1t was empty would chaff and rag the youhger barmaid
 Visitors, tumhled from the sky ap- parently, thought all these lounging young men were the idle, noisy sons or nephews. of mine host. They thought too, that Mir. Drake must be both a very kind and a very foolish man to encourage so mAch idleness But did it matter what they thought-infernal outsiders?
 Staying visitors were few-'bagmen' chiefly, with aimless wanderers who did not know what they had come for. and Americans carrying guide-books. pi- ously determined tosee every town in England before they went home again. Thtre was no thriving business here. and yet sthe White Hart seemed to be a paying concern. Anyhow, it had been going for two hundred years; it could hardly stop going now. Profit l perhaps came from the incredible num- Der of whislies and sodas absorbed by ] it's regular patrons; from auctions 1 which were often held on the premises 1 as well as political meetings and din- ners: and from the large room upstairs | which was used always by the Medford Ancient Lodge of Freemasons. No. | 3215.
 Behind the house there was a gar den with well-filled herbaceous bord- CTS, a basin for water lilies and gold | lsh. a sun dial, bowling greenland | the river, with a rotten old landing | stage. a crazy skin. and a leaking punt; | in which, if you were mad, you might ---------------------