"H--m," said the latter; "the worse a hotel is, the bigger name it
seems to have. But about the discount. Let me repeat for you, Pelletan,
a business axiom. To give a discount is to admit that your goods are not
worth the price you ask for them, and that you're willing to cheat
anybody who doesn't know enough to beat you down. All the business of
Europe seems to be run in just that way, but ours won't be. Our goods
are worth the price!"

"But," began Pelletan, humbly, "efen at Ostend--"

"This is not Ostend. This is Weet-sur-Mer--a place more home-like, more
comfortable, preferable in every way, and with greater natural
advantages than Ostend ever had or ever will have. Only a fool would go
to Ostend when he could come to Weet-sur-Mer and stop at the Grand Hôtel
Royal."

Pelletan rubbed his hands in delight.

"You really t'ink so, monsieur?" he murmured.

"No matter what I think. Besides, you can go back to your old schedule,
if you want to, at the end of the month. But I'm fixing this new
schedule to suit myself, and I don't want to be interrupted. These
ordinary apartments will be thirty to forty francs, according to size.
Single rooms will be ten francs. Breakfast will be four francs, dinner
ten francs--in a word, we double our income without increasing our
expenses. That's the secret of all high finance, my friend."

"But, monsieur," stammered Pelletan, more and more astounded, "eef t'ere