“How much for a double room by the week?” I ast the man.
“They ain’t no weekly rates,” he says. “By the day it’d be twelve dollars and up for two at the Breakers, and fourteen dollars and up at the Poinciana.”
“I like the Breakers better,” says I.
“You can’t get in there,” he says. “They’re full for the season.”
“That’s a long spree,” I says.
“Can we get in the other hotel?” ast the Wife.
“I can find out,” says the man.
“We want a room with bath,” says she.
“That’d be more,” says he. “That’d be fifteen dollars or sixteen dollars and up.”
“What do we want of a bath,” I says, “with the whole Atlantic Ocean in the front yard?”
“I’m afraid you’d have trouble gettin’ a bath,” says the man. “The hotels is both o’ them pretty well filled up on account o’ the war in Europe.”
“What’s that got to do with it?” I ast him.
“A whole lot,” he says. “The people that usually goes abroad is all down to Palm Beach this winter.”
“I don’t see why,” I says. “If one o’ them U-boats hit ’em they’d at least be gettin’ their bath for nothin’.”
We left him with the understandin’ that he was to wire down there and find out what was the best they could give us. We called him up in a