Anticipating this patronage, Clarkson, its bonanza-king builder and
owner, had amended the architect's plans to make them include a
convention-hall, committee-rooms, and a complete floor of suites with
private dining-rooms. Past this, the amended plans doubled the floor
space of the lobby--debating-ground dear to the heart of the country
delegate--and particular pains had been taken to make this semi-public
forum, where the burning question of the moment could be caucussed and
the shaky partisan resworn to fealty, attractive and home-like; the
plainly tiled floor, leather-covered lounging-chairs, and numerous and
convenient cuspidors lending an air of democratic comfort which was
somehow missing in the resplendent, bemirrored, onyx-plated bar,
blazing with its cut glass and polished mahogany.
After the solid costliness of Wartrace Hall and the thirty-mile spin in
a high-powered gentleman's roadster, which was only one of the three
high-priced motor-carriages in the Wartrace garage, Evan Blount was not
surprised to learn that his father was registered in permanence for one
of the private dining-room suites at the Inter-Mountain. It was amply
evident that the simple life which had been the rule of the "Circle-Bar"
ranch household had become a thing of the past; and though he charged
the new order of things to the ambition of his father's wife, he could
hardly cavil at it, since he was himself a sharer in the comforts and
luxuries.
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