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Security and the Lodging Industry
Sample Lesson Plan
Note: If your students are taking this class as part of a credited course from the Educational Institute, please inform
them that the material in this chapter will NOT be covered on the Educational Institute’s Final Exam for this course.
PowerPoints:
PowerPoint 1: Competencies for Security and the Lodging Industry
Competency 1: Explain important issues in developing and managing a security program.
(pp. 261–273)
Key Concepts:
Security
Protection of people and assets
Legal duty to provide “reasonable care”
Not all crime is preventable
Elements of a security program:
Doors, locks, key control, access control
Electronic locking systems
Record authorized/unauthorized entry
Security can identify last 50 entries
Keys coded with time limits
Guest key deactivates on departure date
Guest key recoded for extended stay
Guestroom keys coded for maintenance repairs
Security levels of keys
Individual room
Section master
Floor master
Building masters
Guestrooms
Public areas
Grand master
Emergency key (E-key)
Guestroom security
Peepholes
Corridor lighting
Telephones
Control of persons on premises
Surveillance systems
Video cameras
Motion detectors
Perimeter and grounds control
Lighting
Gates
Fences
Protection of assets
Safe deposit boxes
Guest signature card used for each access
One key per box
In-room safes
Silent alarm at front desk
Safes
Access/deposit control
Cashier bank audit
Employee lockers
2 Security and the Lodging Industry
Emergency procedures
Fire
CPR
Guests with disabilities
Communications
Radios, pagers
Posting security information
Emergency medical services
Security records
Track issues/problems
Protect hotel from legal action
Assist hotel with insurance claims
Staff security procedures
Never mention a guest’s room number aloud
Require identification before issuing a key
No one enters a guestroom without a key
Valet parking control with 3-part forms
Provide safety information in each guestroom
No charge purchases without a key
Require immediate reporting of security issues
Credit and debit cards: hotels must exercise extreme care in keeping card data
secure
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
Affects all businesses globally that accept credit/debit cards
Collection, storage, transmission, use of customer and account info
Six major categories and 12 key compliance requirements
Privacy issues re: payment cards: fraud, identity theft, misuse of data
Identity theft: dumpster diving, skimming, change of address
Ways to secure credit card numbers: “mask” numbers; destroy obsolete
records; secure databases; secure back-up tapes; encrypt numbers
Hotels should be prepared to release data to legitimate investigations or warrant
Folio detail should include only enough information to identify transaction
Ensure that requests for copies of folios are legitimate
Text Exhibits:
Exhibit 1: Incident/Loss Report
Exhibit 2: Traveler Safety Tips Card
Exhibit 3: A Synopsis of the PCI Data Security Standard
PowerPoints:
PowerPoint 2: Elements of a Security Program
PowerPoint 3: Doors, Locks, Key Control, and Access Control
PowerPoint 4: Guestroom Security
PowerPoint 5: Control of Persons on Premises
PowerPoint 6: Perimeter and Grounds Control
PowerPoint 7: Protection of Assets
PowerPoint 8: Emergency Procedures
PowerPoint 9: Communications
PowerPoint 10: Security Records
PowerPoint 11: Staff Security Procedures
PowerPoint 12: Security Issues with Payment Cards
PowerPoint 13: Identity Theft
PowerPoint 14: Effective Ways to Secure Payment Card Numbers
Competency 2: Describe the role that managers play in a property’s security program.
(pp. 274–275)
Key Concepts:
Need for effective management
Managers/supervisors develop security guidelines
Tailor information to specific jobs
Security and the Lodging Industry 3
Areas of vulnerability
Security procedures
Must be consistent with image of service/hospitality
Must not offend/inconvenience guests
Handling checks and providing credit
Physical assets of hotel: towels, linens, tableware
Theft by employees
Security requirements
Challenges at newer lodging concepts (example: at some extended-stay lodging brands,
minimal or no staff at night)
No national industry standards due to diverse lodging brands/concepts
PowerPoints:
PowerPoint 15: Management’s Role in Security
PowerPoint 16: Hotel Areas of Vulnerability
PowerPoint 17: Hotel Security Requirements
Competency 3: Explain the importance of setting up a security program, including security
staffing and having a liaison with local law enforcement. (pp. 275–281)
Key Concepts:
Establish good relationships with local government agencies (police, fire, health,
emergency management)
Coordinate hotel security plans with local and regional law enforcement and other
agencies
A good relationship with law enforcement agencies:
Promotes prompt response to security incidents
Encourages more frequent police patrols
Visibility of police—deterrent to certain crimes
Security staffing
Full-time, part-time, outsourced
Contract security companies
Screened, tested, and trained personnel
Consulting services
Surveys on hotel security requirements
Debugging sweeps
Data processing security
Contingency planning: bomb threats/disasters
Checklist
Guard training programs
Previous lodging experience
State certification, if applicable
Property inspection frequency
Staffing for large-scale emergency
Daily incident reporting to management
Liability and workers’ compensation issues
In-house security staff:
Hotel’s greater control over security officers
More focused training
Quality of personnel becomes hotel decision
More effective integration with other hotel departments
Career paths can reduce security officer turnover
Off-duty police:
Superior training in reacting to security incidents
Knowledge of the law
Better able to recognize criminals
Immediately recognized as authorities
May enhance police response to incidents
Trained more toward apprehension than prevention
May be required to carry firearms
May not be permitted to wear police uniforms

Fatigue may become a factor
Personnel screening:
Security job candidates, authorization statement/affidavit
Bonding
Police background check
PowerPoints:
PowerPoint 18: Setting Up a Hotel Security Program
PowerPoint 19: Relations with Local Governmental Agencies
PowerPoint 20: Security Staffing
PowerPoint 21: Security Staffing: Contract Security Companies
PowerPoint 22: Security Staffing: In-House Security Staff
PowerPoint 23: Security Staffing: Off-Duty Police
Competency 4: Identify the elements of security training that are critical to an effective security
program. (pp. 281–287)
Key Concepts:
Security training topics for all employees:
Identify security issues, take appropriate action when they are discovered
Limits of an on-premises security officer’s authority
Thorough security orientation when hired; ongoing security training
Written security manual
Responsibility: hiring off-duty police officers or a security contract company does not
relieve the hotel from “reasonable care” responsibilities
Authority of a security officer: no greater than any other private citizen; citizen’s arrests,
search, use of force
Team concept: the entire hotel staff should be security-conscious.
Text Exhibits:
Exhibit 4: Selected Security and Law Enforcement Publications
PowerPoints:
PowerPoint 24: Security Training
PowerPoint 25: The Authority of a Security Officer
PowerPoint 26: The Team Concept
Competency 5: List and describe the legal concepts and societal concerns related to security
issues. (pp. 287–290)
Key Concepts:
Reasonable care
Foreseeability
Proximate cause
Negligence
Damages
Compensatory
Punitive
Trial court
Plaintiff
Defendant
Summary judgment
Directed verdict
Judgment notwithstanding the verdict
Appeals
Appellant
Appellee (respondent)
PowerPoints:
PowerPoint 27: Security and the Law
PowerPoint 28: Legal Concepts
Class Activities
Suggested Guest Speaker
Consider inviting a guest speaker to this class session. An appropriate guest speaker would be the general manager
of a local hotel to discuss:
• Elements of the hotel’s security program

• Liaison with local law enforcement agencies
• Security training for all employees
• Balancing image of hospitality with need for security
• Security staff procedures
• Reasonable care
Optional Test
A ready-to-use test containing questions related to the competencies covered by this chapter is included in this
session. Note, however, that if your students are enrolled in this course with the Educational Institute, the Institute’s
Final Exam will NOT contain test questions on material from this chapter.
The answers to this session's optional test are:
1-b-C1, 2-a-C1, 3-d-C1, 4-c-C2, 5-b-C3, 6-c-C3, 7-c-C4, 8-a-C4, 9-b-C5, 10-d-C5
Each question is linked to a competency. Competencies are listed on the first page of the chapter and in the Sample
Lesson Plan. An answer reading 3-b-C4 translates to:
3: the question number
b: the correct answer
C4: the competency number
The pages in the text that are associated with this chapter's competencies are as follows:
C1: 261–273
C2: 274–275
C3: 275–281
C4: 281–287
C5: 287–290
Note that the answers to test questions may not appear verbatim on the referenced pages. Test questions may assess
the examinees’ ability to apply a concept, not just their knowledge of the concept.
These questions can also be found on the CD-ROM in a rich text format. You can use these questions as a starter to
create your own tests.
Individual /Group Activities

Activity 1: Case Study: “Steve’s Royal Problem”
Instructor’s points for guiding discussion on this case study can be found later in this session. This case
study covers Competency 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in this chapter.
Activity 2: Case Study: “Doughnuts and Dilemmas”

study covers Competency 1, 2, and 5 in this chapter.
Activity 3: Case Study: “The Case of the Missing Jewels”

study covers Competency 1 in this chapter.
Activity 4: Case Study: “The Safe Deposit Box That Wasn’t”

This case study and instructor’s points for guiding discussion can be found later in this session. This
case study covers Competency 1 in this chapter.
Security and the Lodging Industry
NAME _____________________________________________________
DATE _________________________________
1. At the SafeWay Hotel, each room attendant is issued one electronic key that is coded to provide access to the
rooms he/she is assigned to clean for that day. These keys are called:
a. floor keys.
b. section masters.
c. building masters.
d. E-keys.
2. Which of the following statements about a hotel security program is false?
a. Due to lost or stolen keys, hotels typically stock extra keys for each safe deposit box.
b. Hotels evict visitors who have no specific reason for being on the property.
c. Electronic locking systems recode keys every time a new guest checks in.
d. Most guestroom locks have a deadbolt mechanism.
3. Which of the following is a common hotel security procedure?
a. require identification before issuing a room key to guests
b. never mention a guest’s room number aloud
c. issue E-keys to all hotel managers and supervisors
d. a and b
4. Which of the following statements about lodging security issues is true?
a. Standard security procedures apply across the lodging industry.
b. Managers should look upon the theft of hotel towels, ash trays, and so on as just the cost of doing
business.
c. Security information for employees should be tailored to fit the needs of their specific jobs.
d. Hotels are required by law to have security staff available and on the property 24 hours a day.
5. The general manager of a large, mid-market hotel wants to hire off-duty police officers as part-time security
staff. Which of the following statements about off-duty police officers is false?
a. They may be better able to identify known criminals.
b. They are oriented more toward crime prevention than the apprehension of criminals.
c. They may have superior training in dealing with emergencies.
d. They might be fatigued after already working a full duty shift.
6. A hotel’s contract security company should be responsible for supervising:
a. the hotel’s in-house security team.
b. the hotel’s security director.
c. contract security employees.
d. off-duty police officers working as security officers for the hotel.
7. Even where the law permits security officers to make a citizen’s arrest, they should do so only:
a. when a guest is under suspicion of burglary.
b. when a guest is under suspicion of credit card fraud.
c. if a sworn police officer cannot respond in time.
d. after receiving the approval of the hotel’s general manager.
8. Which of the following is an appropriate action for a hotel’s in-house security officer?
a. asking questions following an incident
b. use of deadly force
c. search of a guest’s room for evidence
d. detaining all suspects involved in an incident
9. Compensatory damages are awarded:
a. to punish a defendant for outrageous conduct.
b. to the plaintiff for pain and suffering.
c. only when punitive damages are also awarded.
d. based on the emotions of the plaintiff.
10. Which of the following factors helps in determining foreseeability at a given property?
a. the visibility of local police in the surrounding community
b. the prior incidence of that type or similar types of crime on the premises
c. the crime rate of the surrounding community
d. b and c
Case Study: “Steve's Royal Problem”
Points for Instructors

1. What evidence can Steve share with the corporate legal department that would support a
recommendation either to settle for $25,000 or to take the case to court?
Given the unfortunate history of the Royal Court in terms of its crime rate, Steve would have little substantive
support for a recommendation to go to court. In fact, such an event might well bring to light even more
examples of lax security. Steve may raise the question of whether or not the Royal Court was truly liable for
the incident involving Mrs. Heidegger (who was not a registered guest at the property). However, the corporate
legal department would find that the hotel was in fact liable for her "reasonable care" because she was
attending a hotel-sponsored event.
"Reasonable care" refers to that degree of care the ordinary, prudent person would use under similar
circumstances, and it touches on the question of foreseeability: is there reason to think, based on past
experience and general knowledge, that an event may occur? What it means to provide reasonable care will
vary, depending on specific factors. For example, when determining what constitutes reasonable care, courts
may consider whether the injured party was a guest or a trespasser, the hotel's history, the neighborhood, public
expectations, competitors' actions, and common industry practices, among other issues. Given what Steve has
learned of the neighborhood and the hotel's history, there seems little chance of persuading a court that
reasonable care had been taken in this instance.
Instead, it seems best for Steve to recommend a settlement. Points he could raise with the legal department
include:
• By all accounts, the June 4 incident happened as claimed by Mrs. Heidegger.
• She was attending a hotel-sponsored event, although she was not a registered hotel guest.
• There were numerous witnesses to the incident.
• The hotel had no written records of the incident, which could be interpreted as carelessness or
negligence.
• A similar crime had occurred three months earlier.
• Hotel staff had been instructed to keep police calls to a bare minimum, which could give the
impression of negligence or carelessness.
• Police records indicated six valid calls for emergency situations during the past year.
• Other hotels in the vicinity have been increasing security efforts, while the Royal Court actually
eliminated a full-time security staff.
• Hotel staff report numerous security breaches at the property and a general uneasiness in terms of
overall safety.
• Newspaper articles seem to support the police record and employee perceptions.
2. What steps can Steve and his staff take to effectively reduce the number of security incidents at the
Royal Court, while still working to keep expenses to a minimum?
In the absence of a full-time security staff, it is especially important that all staff view themselves as having
security responsibilities. Clearly, a number of employees have been at the Royal Court for many years and
are dedicated to the operation; they would likely be more than willing to play a greater role in making their
workplace more secure. This change in mindset might require only a modest training expense.
Case Study: “Doughnuts and Dilemmas”

1. In addition to the things Phil mentioned to Doug, what other things can Doug do to promote a good
relationship with his local police department?
Doug can make it clear that the hotel will prosecute any wrongdoers the police apprehend at the hotel.
This should apply to employees as well as guests. If an employee is caught stealing, for example, or in some
other wrongdoing that is a police matter, the hotel's policy should be to prosecute. To do otherwise sends a
message to the police department that the hotel is not serious about punishing wrongdoers. Once that message
is sent, sometimes it is hard to get police officers to respond quickly when a call for help is sent out. If,
whenever guests destroy hotel property and the police have to be called out, the hotel drops the charges when
the guests agree to pay for the damages, police officers begin to feel like glorified bill collectors, and their
respect for the hotel's management and their eagerness to respond to calls from that hotel may diminish
accordingly.
If Doug decides to hire off-duty police officers to help with hotel security, Doug can outline his expectations of
them up front.
For example, he should point out that the hotel's goal is to prevent problems from occurring, not apprehend
wrongdoers after problems occur. Their focus when working at the hotel should be on prevention, not
apprehension. Doug should put the officers through a training program that outlines the hotel's standards in
terms of hospitably interacting with guests. Last but not least, Doug should make it clear that, due to safety and
liability concerns, no guns will be allowed on the property.
Doug can make it clear up front that, by law, he must protect the privacy of his guests.
This puts the police department on notice that it should not impose on its relationship with the hotel by asking
for information illegally. Doug can point out that he will be happy to cooperate with any court orders, but
otherwise, he must adhere to his legal obligation to protect guest privacy. To do otherwise would open up the
hotel to possible lawsuits by aggrieved guests.
2. The "domestic situation" that occurred at Phil's hotel could have turned out much worse. What are
some of the things that could have gone wrong, had it been handled less effectively by hotel staff
members?
Hotel staff members could have erred in four ways:
• Ignore the problem and do nothing.
• Handle the problem all by themselves.
• Fail to cooperate with police officers.
• Call the police too late.
Ignore the problem and do nothing.
The ignore-it-and-maybe-it-will-go-away approach has two major flaws: (1) other guests in the hotel would
continue to be disturbed by the fighting couple in Room 410, and (2) someone within Room 410 might have
wound up seriously hurt if the fight had been allowed to continue unchecked.
There are several junctures where the problem could be ignored. First, the guest representative at the front desk
might decide to not follow up on the complaint calls. Second, the guest representative might call security
personnel, but security might decide to ignore the situation: “It's just a couple having a squabble. It's none of
our business. It'll probably be over with before we can even get up to the room to check it out,” and so on. Or,
security personnel might even investigate, but decide to ignore the problem after the couple assures them that
they will behave—and ignore the problem even if the fight starts up again. No matter where the ball is dropped,
the consequences to the hotel are the same: unhappy guests who are disturbed by the noise, and guests in Room
410 who are in danger of being injured.
Handle the problem all by themselves.

The let's-handle-everything-ourselves approach puts the responsibility for handling the situation squarely on the
hotel. Domestic quarrels are notoriously difficult for would-be peacemakers to handle, even for specially
trained police officers. If security personnel decide to go it alone, they must do everything right.
For example, if they are talking through the door to the couple in 410 and the man is assuring them that
everything is all right, they must also insist on hearing this from the woman as well. If they don't like what they
hear and decide to enter the guestroom, they must do so without escalating the potential explosiveness of the
situation. Once in the room, they must defuse the fight without becoming targets themselves. Many a peace-
maker with the chivalrous motivation of "saving the lady" has been surprised to find that same lady kicking and
punching him because she suddenly wants to "defend her man."
In short, the scene in Room 410 could very easily have disintegrated into something far worse, with lots more
disruption to other guests in the hotel, had Bret and the security guard decided to take care of it themselves and
mishandled the situation somewhere along the way.
Fail to cooperate with police officers.

If the hotel had called the police out on time but failed to cooperate with the officers, the situation could have
ended up much worse as well. Once the police got control of the situation, the hotel could have declined to
press charges because the couple promised to stop fighting and pay for the damages. The result? Instead of the
man being led to jail, the woman to a shelter, and the hotel quickly returned to normalcy, the police would have
left and the fight might have broken out again, with more disruption to the hotel's other guests and the potential
for serious injury to one or both members of the couple. On top of that, the police officers might have departed
feeling used, thinking that the hotel called them out only so that the quarreling guests would be intimidated into
agreeing to pay for the damage they caused. If the hotel was forced to call the officers out a second time, they
might be slower to respond.
Call the police too late.
If the hotel had called the police out but had waited until late in the fight, again, one or both members of the
couple, with more time for the fight to escalate, might have been seriously injured, and the prolonged fracas
probably would have disturbed more of the hotel's other guests.
3. Despite Phil's advice to Doug about establishing a good working relationship with the police, and despite
Phil's wish to preserve his relationship with his own local police force, Phil turned down Lieutenant
Foster's request for information about a man wanted by the FBI. Why did Phil refuse to give Foster all
of the information he wanted?
Phil cannot legally give out guest information—such as credit card numbers or phone calls made or received—
to police without a court order. In the absence of a court order, Phil can legally tell police only whether
someone is registered at the hotel. Phil can also put a call through to the person the police are interested in, but
even then must be careful not to reveal the guestroom number.
Lieutenant Foster knew this before he asked Phil to bend the rules. Foster was trying to avoid all the paperwork
involved in getting court orders, and avoid a delay (he might not be able to reach a judge until Monday). Foster
didn't push very hard, because he knew what he was asking Phil to do was illegal.
Phil, despite his good relationship with the police department, was correct in turning Foster down. Cooperating
with the police is not a defense in court, and if at any time Phil passes information to the police illegally and the
matter comes up in court (by a wronged, innocent guest, for example), the hotel can be held liable for damages.
Even cooperating with the police in a legal way should be done with care. For example, the police may ask a
hotel to cooperate in a "sting" operation, during which the hotel rents a room to a known drug dealer so the
police can collect evidence and make arrests. In this type of situation, the general manager should make sure
that all guests are kept well away from the drug dealer's room. Otherwise, if something should go wrong during
the sting and a guest in a room adjacent to the dealer's room is shot and seriously wounded or killed, the hotel
could well be held liable by a jury for not making sure that guests were kept well out of harm's way.
Front desk personnel and others on the hotel's staff should be aware of what they can and cannot do legally to
cooperate with police officers and others seeking information about guests. For example, some police officers,
bounty hunters, and private investigators flash a badge at a hotel staff member—typically someone at the front
desk—and then try to grill him or her about the person they are interested in. Staff members should be trained
to refer such individuals to the manager on duty or to the head of the security department.
Case Study: “The Case of the Missing Jewels”

The purpose of this case is to illustrate the very important issue of protecting guest valuables. It is important for
students to understand the responsibility the property has. In this case, the guest made a mistake, but the fact is that
it cost the property significantly in time and hassle. Guests frequently lose items and they often falsely accuse staff.
Whenever a robbery is reported, management must take it very seriously. When a real robbery takes place, it is
important to identify steps to capture the robber and to implement preventive measures. Local police departments
may be able to help catch an internal thief using small video cameras mounted in secure and unknown places within
a guestroom and prevent further incidents by maintaining a presence in the area.
1. How should the MOD have approached the irate guest?

In this case, the guest was in the middle of the lobby demanding action. In dealing with irate or difficult guests,
it is important for managers or staff to ask the guest to step inside an office or to a quiet place as soon as
possible. Moving the guest aside minimizes the extent to which other guests are exposed to a negative
experience. This strategy can also help to change the focus of the guest even for a moment. So the first step that
the MOD should have taken was to ask the guest or guests to step into his office.
Handling difficult guests may require that the manager or staff speak in a firm tone of voice to establish who is
in control, but, in this case, the elderly woman reacted in anger to a firm tone. The MOD used appropriate eye
contact, tone of voice, and body language to establish the relationship with the guest. However, he should have
invited the guest into the manager’s office.
2. What steps would you have taken to gather the relevant information from the guest?
When a guest is visibly upset, it is important that the manager or staff person speaking with the guest gather
relevant and clear information regarding the issue or problem. In this case, the woman spoke broken English,
which added another dimension to the communication process. The manager should first settle the guest in a
comfortable place and let the guest know that the property wants to help solve the problem. Second, the
manager must ask clarifying questions so that the facts become clear. Empathic listening skills are vital in
dealing with irate or dissatisfied guests. The manager should be sure to take notes on the conversation. Written
documentation of the conversation will minimize possible disagreements in the future.
In summary, steps in the process of gathering information from irate, dissatisfied, or difficult guests include the
following:
• Invite the guest into an office or other quiet space away from other guests and employees.
• Give the guest a comfortable place to sit.
• Ask the guest clarifying questions.
• Listen empathically.
• Take notes to minimize chances for disagreement.
• Be sure to paraphrase the main points of the discussion so that the guest knows you have heard.
• Once the manager or staff person is satisfied with the clarity of the issues being discussed, he or she should
be sure to let the guest know how the property is planning to take care of the situation.
• Be sure to give the guest some timeframe in which you will respond personally regarding the guest’s
situation.
• Thank the guest for bringing this situation to your attention.
• Get back to the guest within the timeframe outlined in the discussion.
3. Would you have called the police?

Management must decide whether calling the police will help the situation. In this case, calling the police may
have been the best solution to quieting this guest. However, lodging operations should be prepared with formal
paperwork to document theft and other small actions that may occur on the property. Calling the police during
the busy season can take away from important police work and also send a wrong message to other guests on
the property. Management must weigh carefully the advantages and disadvantages of calling the police. Often,
security working for the property can handle common situations that are non-threatening. However, if guests
are disruptive and exhibiting difficult behavior, management should request assistance from police or other
authorities. In this case, it may not have been necessary to call in the police if the MOD had requested security
to take down the information from the guest on an official security report.
4. Does the Boden have an effective system for managing guest valuables?
Employing systems for managing guest valuables is a very important consideration for lodging managers.
Frequently guests will bring valuable jewelry, cameras, and other items that they plan to use during their stay.
It is common for properties to have small safes secured in each guestroom or available upon request for guest
use. If in-room safes aren’t available or are inadequate, the property is required to provide an alternative means
of keeping guest valuables safe. In this case, the safe for the entire property is in the front office. There are also
a number of safe deposit boxes available for guests. However, most guests prefer to keep their valuables in
their rooms, so guests rarely request the front office options. In addition, the front office staff is not trained to
let guests know upon check-in that these options are available. The Boden is likely liable for the stolen items
because the guest was never informed of her options.
In-Depth Discussion
Other issues of guest security, safety, and privacy can be discussed using this case as the base. Students can role-
play the following scenarios:
Scenario 1: A guest is causing trouble for the front desk agent who won’t give out a guest’s room number. The front
desk agent calls security for assistance.
Scenario 2: Numerous guests are running through the guestroom corridor having a great time after a wedding
reception. They are making all kinds of noise and a guest trying to sleep calls security. It is 1 A.M.
Scenario 3: Security notices car lights out in the field behind the resort. Some teenagers are drinking and enjoying
the stars.
Scenario 4: Guests are climbing the fence to go for a midnight swim even though the sign says no swimming after
10 P.M.
Scenario 5: The bartender calls security because a few guests are demanding more drinks. He cut them off because
they were intoxicated.
Case Study: “The Safe Deposit Box That Wasn’t”

Amanda stood behind the front desk of the Metropolitan, a 376-room upscale hotel, and tried to ignore the
butterflies in her stomach. It was just her second day on the job, and there was so much to remember! She glanced
over at Ron, standing at the other end of the counter. It was comforting to have him working the shift with her—he
had worked for the Metropolitan for two years and had been a big help yesterday whenever she got flustered or
confused. Her first day was extremely busy because everybody was checking in for the annual aluminum siding
trade show and convention that started today. In a way, it was good that her first day was so busy, because she hadn't
had time to be nervous. But today, most of the hotel's guests were off attending the show at the convention center
downtown and the Metropolitan was relatively quiet.
Amanda gazed across the opulent lobby at the bank of house phones. A middle-aged woman in a tight, leopard-
print jumpsuit was speaking angrily into one of the telephones, her free arm, festooned with gold and black
bracelets, waving in the air as she pounded home her points to the unfortunate soul on the other end of the line. At
this distance Amanda could faintly hear the clicking of the bracelets but could not make out what the woman was
saying. Finally the woman slammed the receiver down in its cradle and started looking frantically around the lobby.
When her eyes settled on Amanda, the woman grabbed the gold vinyl suitcase at her feet and strode purposefully
toward the front desk. “Oh, please,” thought Amanda, “don't come over here, go talk to Ron!”
But the woman stayed on course, and Amanda had plenty of time to take in the big hair, the heavy makeup, and
the wounded, self-righteous expression before the woman stopped in front of her and said: "There's something
wrong with your phones!"
"Ma'am?"
"I can't get through to my husband's room. I kept dialing '326,' but I couldn't get through."
Ron stepped in smoothly. "Our house phones no longer connect directly to the guestrooms."
"Yeah, yeah, that's what the operator said. That's not very convenient, you know," the woman responded.
"We changed our system in order to provide more privacy and security for our guests," Ron continued. "Did the
operator reach your husband for you?"
"No, she started explaining why dialing '326' wasn't working and I told her what I thought of her new system
before I hung up on her."
From her training, Amanda remembered that you were never to put callers through to guestrooms if they only
asked to be put through to a certain room number. You always had to ask whom the person was calling, so you
could confirm that the person knew the guest and was not simply calling rooms at random. Thieves, for example,
had been known to call room after room until they found one that was empty, then go ransack the room.
"What's your husband's name?" Amanda asked. "We can try to connect you here at the front desk."
"Virgil Jones," the woman responded.
Amanda moved to the computer and called up Virgil's reservations record. Yes, a Virgil H. Jones was registered
in Room 326. "Mr. Jones checked in to Room 326 yesterday—let me try and reach him for you."
Amanda picked up the front desk telephone, dialed, and listened to the phone ring ten times. "Sorry, there's no
answer."
"That's okay—just give me a key to the room then,” ordered the woman.
Immediately a red flag went up for Amanda. New as she was, she was well aware that key control was an
extremely important issue at the Metropolitan.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but it's against our policy to give out keys to guests who are not registered. Mr. Jones is the
only person registered for that room."
"But I'm his wife! Look," the woman rummaged through her handbag and came up with her driver's license,
"here's my I.D. I'm Sheila Jones. See? That's me there."
"I'm sorry, Ms. Jones," Amanda said. "Had your husband told us you were coming, we would have noted it in
the reservations record and there'd be no problem. But we're not allowed to let unregistered guests into rooms." She
glanced at Ron.
"That's right, Ms. Jones," Ron said. "We'd do the same thing for you. It's actually against the law to admit an
unregistered guest to a room."
"My husband doesn't know I'm coming. I didn't think I would get off work, but my boss finally gave in." Sheila
Jones put on an ingratiating smile. "Can't you break the rules just this once? I really want to surprise Virgil."
"I'm sorry," Amanda said, "we really can't." She looked at Ron again for support, and he nodded in agreement.
"Is your husband here for the big convention?" Amanda asked.
Sheila nodded sulkily.
"Then he's probably at the Grandthorpe right now—that's the big convention hotel downtown. That's where the
trade show is."
"I'll never find him there," Sheila fumed.
"You're welcome to look around in our restaurant and lounge to make sure he's not still here."
"It would be a lot easier if you'd just let me in the room," Sheila grumbled. "I'm tired—it was a long drive."
Amanda tried to give Sheila her best empathetic smile. "I'm sorry. I'll tell you what—if you can't find him, let us
know and we'll put you in another guestroom temporarily so you can freshen up."
"I suppose that'll have to do," Sheila said wearily. "I'm not gonna bother looking for him. I'm tired, and if he's
not in his room he's probably at the convention like you said. Just give me a room."
After Sheila collected a key to Room 287 and left in a huff, Ron congratulated Amanda for a job well done.
"You did the right thing. Her I.D. proves she's Sheila Jones, but it doesn't prove she's Virgil's wife. She probably
really is his wife, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred probably nothing bad would happen if we let a wife or a
husband or a brother or somebody into a room. But it's not worth taking a chance on violating the privacy or
compromising the safety of our guests. It's that one time in a hundred that can lead to serious trouble."
Thankfully, Sheila did not make another appearance and the rest of the morning passed uneventfully. Just after
Amanda returned to the front desk after lunch, a short, balding fellow in a shiny blue suit approached the desk and
gave her a big smile. "Hi, I'm Virgil Jones, Room 326. Any messages or mail for me?"
"No, Mr. Jones, but someone was asking about you. A Ms. Sheila Jones was here. She said she was your wife
and wanted to wait for you in your room, but we had to turn her down."
Virgil looked startled rather than pleased. "Where is she now?"
"We put her in another room so she could freshen up. Let me call her and let her know you're here." Amanda
called Room 287 and in a few minutes Sheila appeared in the lobby.
"Hi, baby!" Virgil called out when he saw her, rushing up and giving her a bear hug.
Sheila looked at Amanda over Virgil's shoulder and tried to pull away. "That's enough, honey." She extracted
herself and approached the front desk. "Thanks for the room," she said to Amanda. "I feel so much better after my
shower."
"You're welcome."
"I forgot to bring my room key down with me. Can I return it later, or do you want it right away? I'll be moving
over to Virgil's room now."
"Just leave it in the room, that's fine," Amanda said. "Do you need any help with moving your luggage? I can
send a bellperson up."
Virgil shook his head. "We can handle it. Thanks."
__________________
The next day Amanda experienced her first time alone at the front desk. Ron had an early dental appointment and
wouldn't be in until 11:00. Even though the front desk manager assured Amanda that he would be available in case
things got busy, Amanda crossed her fingers and hoped for an uneventful morning.
It was just before nine o'clock when Sheila appeared in the lobby again, dressed slightly more conservatively in
a tight purple jumpsuit. She smiled at Amanda and held up a safe deposit box key. "Good morning. I'd like to get
into our safe deposit box, please."
Thank goodness I don't have to say 'no' to her again, Amanda thought gratefully. "Yes, Ms. Jones, right this
way, please." Quickly, Amanda mentally reviewed her training in how to handle safe deposit box requests as she led
Sheila into the small safe deposit box room just to the right of the front desk. One side wall contained the bank of
safe deposit boxes; the master key to all the boxes hung by a chain secured to the wall. Pushed against the opposite
wall was a narrow table with a file box on it.
Let's see, Amanda mused, I'm supposed to ask for identification, pull the card, get the card signed, initial the
card—okay, I can do this. "Can I see some identification, please?"
Sheila groaned. "Not this again," she grumbled. She opened her handbag and came up with her driver's license
again.
"Thank you," Amanda said, and looked under the "J's" in the file box for the right card. There it was: Box 116,
signed out by Mr. Virgil H. Jones.
"Will you sign the card, please? And I'll initial your signature." Amanda gave Sheila the card and a pen and
indicated the narrow table. Sheila signed the card and gave the pen to Amanda; Amanda initialed the card and
recorded the date and time.
"Thank you." Amanda put the card back in the file box. "Now I'll put my key in the box and turn it." Amanda
found Box 116 and turned the master key in the appropriate lock. "And now your key."
Sheila stepped forward and turned her key in the second lock. Amanda swung the box door open, pulled the
long, narrow drawer from the box, and handed the drawer to Sheila. "I'll be right outside—just let me know when
you're finished."
"That won't be necessary," Sheila said—somewhat grimly, Amanda thought. "This will only take a second."
Amanda turned her back discreetly while Sheila placed the drawer on the table. Amanda heard the metallic
creak of the lid lifting, then a sharp intake of breath from Sheila, and then something like a sob. Amanda resisted the
impulse to turn around. It's none of our business, it's rude, and it might get us into trouble, she remembered Ron
telling her, so never watch guests get into their safe deposit boxes. Amanda was thinking of quietly leaving the room
when she heard the lid close and Sheila said, "Okay, I'm done, thank you."
Amanda turned around and took the box from Sheila. The lighting in the room made it hard to tell, but Amanda
thought Sheila's eyes were redder and puffier than before. Amanda returned the drawer to its box, swung the box
door shut, and turned both keys in their locks. She let the master key hang by its chain and handed the guest key
back to Sheila. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No, thanks," Sheila sniffed with a sad smile. "You've done quite enough."
__________________
The next day was Amanda's day off. Ron was at the front desk with another guest service representative named
Dennis when Virgil Jones approached just after 8 A.M., looking puzzled. "This is going to sound like a strange
question," he said, "but—have you seen my wife?"
"No, sir, not this morning," Ron replied.
"I didn't hear her get up, and her suitcase is gone." Virgil rubbed his chin for a moment, then shrugged. "I'm
sure she'll turn up," he turned to go. "Like a bad penny," he said under his breath as he walked away.
About 20 minutes later, Virgil was back at the front desk, looking considerably more anxious than before. "I
can't find my safe deposit box key," he said to Ron. "Do you have a spare? I need to check on something right
away."
Ron shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir, but, for security reasons, we don't have spare keys to any of our boxes."
"What do we do now? I've got to get into that box!"
"Well, you have two options," Ron said. "One, we can call a locksmith. The firm we use is good about coming
out right away. They're usually here between a half hour and an hour after we call—and I believe the last time they
came out for this they charged around $80. Whatever the charge is, we will add it to your room bill. Or, two, I can
call our maintenance department and have one of the staff 'punch' the lock for us. He can probably be up here in just
a few minutes, but if you choose this option there's a $100 charge because we'll have to replace the lock."
"Call the maintenance guy," Virgil said grimly. "I'm not waiting no hour."
"Very well." Ron moved to the front desk phone and spoke a few words into it before returning to Virgil. "He'll
be up right away. Do you remember your safe deposit box number?"
Virgil was churning his fingers through his hair, a worried expression on his face. "No," he said. "Maybe 110,
218? I don't know."
"Well, we can look it up in our files. Excuse me for a moment." Dennis was busy with another guest, so Ron
answered the front desk telephone.
When Ron hung up, he smiled and waved to a young man just getting off one of the lobby elevators. "Ah, here's
Ted already." Ted was in a gray maintenance uniform and carrying a box of tools. "Come with me, please," Ron said
to Ted, and then, "Mr. Jones, right this way."
The three men entered the safe deposit box room. Ron opened the file box and turned to Virgil. "Can I see some
I.D., please?"
Virgil pulled out a fat wallet and gave Ron his driver's license.
"Thank you." Ron put the license on the table and flipped quickly to the "J's" in the file box. There was the card:
Box 116, signed out by Virgil H. Jones. Ron compared the signature on the license to the signature on the card,
nodded, and gave the license back to Virgil. Ron noticed that Virgil had not gotten into the box since he had first
opened it up, but that Sheila Jones had signed for it yesterday. Ron looked at the initials alongside the signature:
"A.M."—Amanda Muldinado—and shook his head. Rookies, he thought.
"It looks like you reserved box 116, Mr. Jones," Ron said. "Sign here, please, and we'll get it open for you right
away." Ron pushed the card over to Virgil before turning to put the master key in the master-key lock for box 116
and turning it.
Virgil started to sign the card but stopped. "I see my wife's signature here. She got into the box yesterday?"
"Looks like it," Ron said. Behind them Ted set down his box of tools. After a couple of sharp blows, Ted said,
"All set."
Ron pulled the long drawer out of box 116 and handed it to Virgil. "We'll leave you alone now, Mr. Jones," Ron
said quickly, and motioned for Ted to exit. Ron was hardly back at the front desk before Virgil reappeared.
"Is everything all right, Mr. Jones?"
"No, everything is not all right," Virgil said in measured tones. "Something's missing."
Ron's heart started to pound. "Oh, no! What's missing? Can you describe it?"
"There was a solid gold I.D. bracelet in there with the name 'Mitzy' engraved on it," Virgil said grimly. "Now
it's gone."
"Oh, no," Ron said again.
"And now my wife is gone," Virgil continued. "I hope this hotel makes a lot of money," he said with quiet fury,
"because the Metropolitan's going to pay for my divorce."
Discussion Questions
1. Why does Virgil Jones think that he might have grounds to compel the Metropolitan to "pay for his divorce" Or,
to put it another way, did Amanda, Ron, or any other hotel staff member make any serious mistakes in dealing
with Virgil or Sheila? If so, what were they?
2. Generally speaking, what are the essential security precautions hotel staff members should take when checking
a guest into a hotel room?
3. Generally speaking, what are the essential security precautions hotel staff members should take when allowing
guests access to safe deposit boxes?
Case Number: 3873CA
The following industry experts helped generate and develop this case: Wendell Couch, ARM, CHA, Director of
Technical Services for the Risk Management Department of Bass Hotels & Resorts; and Raymond C. Ellis, Jr.,
CHE, CHTP, Professor, Conrad N. Hilton College, University of Houston, Director, Loss Prevention Management
Institute.
Case Study: “The Safe Deposit Box That Wasn't”

1. Why does Virgil Jones think that he might have grounds to compel the Metropolitan to "pay for his
divorce"? Or, to put it another way, did Amanda, Ron, or any other hotel staff member make any
serious mistakes in dealing with Virgil or Sheila? If so, what were they?
The hotel operator handled Sheila's request to telephone Virgil's room correctly—that is, the operator did not
allow Sheila to call the room merely by dialing the room's extension.
Amanda and Ron correctly handled Sheila's request to enter Virgil's hotel room—they turned her down. Only a
registered guest or someone that he or she has indicated to the front desk has permission to enter the guestroom
may legally be allowed to do so.
Ron handled Virgil's request for access to his safe deposit box correctly. He outlined the two options guests
have at the Metropolitan Hotel if they lose their safety deposit box key, and he required Virgil to produce
identification and sign for the box before allowing him access.
Ted was within his rights to "break into" Virgil's safe deposit box—he had permission from Virgil to do so.
The single mistake was made by Amanda, when she allowed Sheila Jones access to her husband's safe deposit
box. Virgil reserved the box for himself, and there was nothing on the file card to indicate that Sheila or anyone
else had his permission to enter his box. Amanda assumed that Sheila had a legal right to enter Virgil's safe
deposit box because Sheila had the key in her possession and she was married to Virgil. In fact, no one has a
legal right to access a safe deposit box unless they have signed for it.
Note to Instructor: If you want to add an extra wrinkle to the case, tell students to suppose that the I.D.
bracelet was not only solid gold, but diamond studded as well, and was worth $50,000. Further, tell them that
Virgil and Sheila are not married, but are scam artists who from the beginning were just out to steal from the
hotel. Then tell students that Virgil never put a gold I.D. bracelet in the box, diamond-studded or otherwise,
although he's going to claim that he did. Introducing these new "facts" into the case will point out to students
that:
• Hotels often do not know what a guest puts inside a safe deposit box; in many states, guests do not have to
disclose contents.
• Not having proof of the legal relationship between guests (someone may claim to be a spouse or family
member, but are they really?) is one of the reasons why hotel staff members should let only people who
have signed for a safe deposit box have access to it. (Returning to our original case, even if people claiming
to be spouses or family members are who they claim to be, that does not mean the person who signed for
the safe deposit box wants them to have access to it.)
Although some states have laws limiting the liability of hotels for loss of items in safe deposit boxes, others do
not. Even in those states with liability laws, guests have taken hotels in those states to court over claimed
losses. The bottom line is that it pays for all hotels to take great care when assigning safe deposit boxes and
allowing guests access to them.
2. Generally speaking, what are the essential security precautions hotel staff members should take when
checking a guest into a hotel room?
The following are security precautions hotel staff members should take when checking a guest into a hotel
room:
• Always ask for I.D. from guests who are checking in, preferably I.D. with a photo, even if they pay with
cash. If the guest should become seriously ill or injured, become unconscious, or die, the hotel has a
record verifying who the person is.
• Always verify whether the guest is registering just for himself or herself or is expecting others to join him
or her. Be sure to note the names of these other individuals on the registration and reservation records.
• Always make sure that guests fill out their registration forms completely. Information on this form—such
as the guest's home address—can be useful if, for example, guests become ill (the hotel can contact a
guest's home to let family members know about the situation), or guests lose their keys and request
replacements (before issuing new keys, you can ask the guests for their home addresses or telephone
numbers as a check to make sure they are who they say they are, especially in cases when they do not have
picture I.D.).
• Always ask the guest to sign the registration form. This form should include the rate paid for the room and
the guest's date of departure. This confirms the contract the guest has with the hotel, and gives the hotel
legal ground to stand on when presenting the bill to the guest, asking the guest to leave on the designated
date, or (as some hotels do) penalizing a guest for leaving earlier than promised.
• Never announce the name of the guest or his or her room number so that it can be heard beyond the
registering guest.
• Always caution the guest to keep the guestroom key and the key's folder separate. The folder has the
guest's room number written on it; the key does not. If the guest loses the key or the folder, the guest still
has a measure of protection, because the folder without the key is useless, and the key without the folder is
almost as useless. A thief, for example, who found only the key would not know which door the key
worked in and would have to try every door in the hotel. However, if the guest loses the key and the folder
together, whoever picks them up knows what door the key fits.
• Never issue a new key to guests unless they can produce identification—preferably identification that
includes a picture (such as a driver's license)—and until you verify that the guests are registered at the
hotel. You can also ask guests to repeat information found on their registration card (their home address or
telephone number, for example) if you are in doubt about their identity.
3. Generally speaking, what are the essential security precautions hotel staff members should take when
allowing guests access to safe deposit boxes?
The following are security precautions hotel staff members should take when allowing guests access to safe
deposit boxes:
• Always ask for identification from an individual who wishes to access a box.
• Beginning with the first deposit, a record must be kept each time the guest has access to the safe deposit
box, listing the time of entry. The guest must sign the record each time he or she gains access to the box;
the hotel staff member who assists the guest must initial or sign the record as well. There should be only
one guest key for each of the safe deposit boxes designated for guest use.
• Only the person who has signed out the box should be given access to the box, unless the person has
indicated on the safe deposit box record that other individuals (a spouse, for example) may also have
access to the box. These individuals must also sign the safe deposit box record.
• Never assume that the person holding the key to a safe deposit box is the person (or is one of the people)
authorized to access the box.
• If there is any doubt that the signature of the person currently wanting access to the box does not match
previous signatures, you should ask for other valid identification that contains the person's signature. If
still in doubt, contact the manager on duty.
• Always relock the safe deposit box in the presence of the guest.
• When the guest no longer needs the safe deposit box, he or she should complete and sign the surrender
declaration on the safe deposit box record. This signifies that the guest has removed all items from the
box. You must then sign or initial the record as a witness, then ask the guest to surrender the safe deposit
box key. The box and the key must be surrendered before the guest checks out.
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‘I do think it good of your dear mother to bother about that young man,’
said Mrs. Colquhoun. ‘Let us hope she will teach him better manners. And
now,’ she added briskly, laying an affectionate arm round her daughter-in-
law’s shoulder, ‘isn’t it time our little Virginia put her feet up?’
XX
Christopher’s was the slowest motor-cycle on the road that day. At times
it proceeded with the leisureliness of a station fly. They loitered along in the
sunshine, stopping at the least excuse—a view, an old house, a flock of
primroses. They had tea at Salisbury, and examined the Cathedral, and
talked gaily of Jude the Obscure, surely the most unfortunate of men, and
from him they naturally proceeded to discuss death and disaster, and all
very happily, for they were in the precisely opposite mood of the one
praised by the poet as sweet, and the sad thoughts evoked by Sarum Close
brought pleasant thoughts to their mind.
How much they had to say to each other. There was no end to their talk,
their eager exchange of opinions. Chickover was dim as a dream now in
Catherine’s mind; and the Catherine who had gone to bed there every
evening in a growing wretchedness was a dream within a dream. With
Christopher she was alive. He himself was so tremendously alive that one
would indeed have to be a hopeless mummy not to catch life from him and
wake up. Besides, it was impossible to be—anyhow for a short time—with
some one who adored one, unless he was physically repulsive, and not be
happy. That Christopher adored her was plain to the very passers-by. The
men who passed grinned to themselves in sympathy; the women sighed;
and old ladies, long done with envy, smiled with open benevolence between
their bonnet-strings.
Unconscious of everybody except each other, they walked about
Salisbury looking at the sights and not seeing them, so deeply were they
engaged in talk. What could be more innocent than to walk, talking, about
Salisbury? Yet if Stephen, Virginia, or Mrs. Colquhoun had met them they
would have been moved by unpleasant emotions. Once during the afternoon
this thought crossed Catherine’s mind. It was when, at tea in a
confectioner’s, Christopher was holding out a plate of muffins to her, his
face the face of a seraph floating in glory; and she took a muffin, and held it
suspended while she looked at him, arrested by the thought, and said, ‘Why
mayn’t one be happy?’
‘But one may, and one is,’ said Christopher.
‘One is,’ she smiled, ‘but one mayn’t. At least, one mayn’t go on being
happy. Not over again. Not in this way. Not——’ she tried to find the words
to express it—‘out of one’s turn.’
‘What one’s relations think, or wish, or approve, or deplore,’ said
Christopher, who scented Stephen somewhere at the back of her remarks,
‘should never be taken the least notice of if one wishes to go on
developing.’
‘Well, I seem to be going on developing at a breakneck rate.’
‘Besides, it’s jealousy. Nearly always. Deep down. The grudge of the
half dead against the wholly alive, of the not wanted against the wanted.
They can’t manage to be alive themselves, so they declare the only
respectable thing is to be dead. The only pure thing. The only holy thing.
And they pretend every sort of pious horror if one won’t be dead too.
Relations,’ he finished, lighting a cigarette and speaking from the depths of
an experience that consisted of one uncle, and he the most amiable and
unexacting of men, who never gave advice and never criticised, and only
wanted sometimes to be played golf with, ‘are like that. They have to be
defied. Or they’ll strangle one.’
‘It seems dangerous,’ said Catherine, pursuing her first thought, ‘to show
that one likes anything or anybody very much.’
‘Isn’t it the rankest hypocrisy,’ said Christopher with a face of disgust.
‘If you were bald, and had a long white beard——’ she began. ‘But even
then,’ she went on after a pause, ‘if we looked pleased while we talked and
seemed very much interested, we’d be done for.’
She smiled. ‘They wouldn’t mind at all,’ she said, ‘if you were eating
muffins happily with a girl of your own age. It’s when somebody like me
comes along, who has had her turn, who is out of her turn.’
‘They would have people love by rule,’ said Christopher.
‘I don’t know about love, but they would have them be happy by rule,’
said Catherine.
‘They must be defied,’ said Christopher.
She laughed. ‘We are defying them,’ she said.
Proceeding from Salisbury with the setting sun behind them, they
continued with the same leisureliness in the direction of Andover and
London.
‘Oughtn’t we to go a little faster?’ Catherine asked, noticing the lowness
of the sun.
‘If you’re home by nine o’clock, won’t that be soon enough?’ he asked.
‘Oh, quite. I love this.’
‘I’d like to go on for ever,’ said Christopher.
‘Aren’t we friends,’ said Catherine, looking up at him with a smile.
‘Aren’t we,’ said Christopher, in deep contentment.
The chimney stacks of an old house on their right among trees attracted
her, and they turned off the main road to go and look at it. The house was
nothing specially beautiful, but the road that led to it was, and it went
winding on past the house through woods even more beautiful.
They followed it, for the main road was uninteresting, and this one,
though making a detour, would no doubt ultimately arrive at Andover.
Charming, this slow going along in the soft, purple evening. The smell
of the damp earth and grass in the woods they passed through was
delicious. It was dead quiet, and sometimes they stopped just to listen to the
silence.
Companionship: what a perfect thing it was, thought Catherine. To be
two instead of one, to be happily two, with no strain, no concealing or
pretending, quite natural, quite simple, quite relaxed—so natural and simple
and relaxed that it was really like being oneself doubled, but oneself at
one’s best, at one’s serenest and most amusing. Could any condition be
more absolutely delightful? And, thought Catherine, to be two with some
one of the opposite sex, some one strong who could take care of one, with
whom one felt safe and cosy, some one young, who liked doing all the
things the eternal child in oneself liked doing so much, but never dared to
for want of backing up, for fear of being laughed at—how completely
delightful.
They came, on the outer edge of the woods, to a group of cottages; a
little hamlet, solitary, tucked away from noise, the smoke of its chimneys
going straight up into the still air, so small that it hadn’t even got a church
—happy, happy hamlet, thought Catherine, remembering her past week of
church—and in one of the cottage gardens, sheltered and warm, was the
first flowering currant bush she had seen that year.
It stood splendid against the grey background of the shadowy garden,
brilliant pink and crimson in the dusk, and Christopher stopped at her
exclamation, and got off and went into the cottage and asked the old woman
who lived there to sell him a bunch of the flowers; and the old woman,
looking at him and Catherine, was sure from their faces of peace that they
were on their honeymoon, and picked a bunch and went to the gate and
gave it to Catherine, and wouldn’t take any money for it, and said it was for
luck.
It seemed quite natural, and in keeping with everything else that
afternoon, to find a nice old woman who gave them flowers and wished
them luck. In Salisbury people had all seemed extraordinarily amiable. This
old woman was extraordinarily amiable. She even called them pretty dears,
which filled their cup of enjoyment to the brim.
After this the country was very open, and solitary, and still. No signs of
any town were to be seen; only rolling hills, and here and there a little
group of trees. Also a few faint stars began to appear in the pale sky.
‘Oughtn’t we to go faster?’ asked Catherine again, her lap full of the
crimson flowers.
‘We’ll make up between Andover and London,’ said Christopher. ‘If it’s
half-past nine instead of nine before we get to Hertford Street, will it be
early enough?’
‘Oh, quite,’ said Catherine placidly.
They jogged along, up and down the windings of the lane, which
presently grew grassier and narrower, into hollows and out of them again.
Not a house was to be seen, not a human being. Stillness, evening, stars. It
seemed to Catherine presently, in that wide place of rolling country and
great sky, that in the whole world there was nothing except herself,
Christopher, and the stars.
About seven miles beyond the hamlet of the flowering currant bush, just
at the top of an incline, the motor-cycle stopped.
She thought, waking from the dream she had fallen into, that he was
stopping it, as so often before that afternoon, to listen to the silence; but he
hadn’t stopped it, it had stopped itself.
‘Damn,’ said Christopher, pulling and pushing and kicking certain parts
of the thing.
‘Why?’ asked Catherine comfortably.
‘The engine’s stopped.’
‘Perhaps it wants winding up.’
He got off, and began to stoop and peer. She sat quiet, her head back, her
face upturned, gazing at the stars. It was most beautiful there in the great
quiet of the falling night. There was still a dull red line in the sky where the
sun had gone down, but from the east a dim curtain was drawing slowly
towards them. The road, just at the place they were, curved southwards, and
she had the red streak of the sunset on her right and the advancing darkness
on her left. They were on the top of a rising in the vast flatness, and it was
as if she could see to the ends of the world. The quiet, now that the motor
had stopped, was profound.
Christopher came and looked at her. She smiled at him. She was
perfectly content and happy.
He didn’t smile back. ‘The petrol’s run out,’ he said.
‘Has it?’ said Catherine placidly. In cars, when petrol ran out, one
opened another can of it and ran it in again.
‘There isn’t any more,’ said Christopher. ‘And from the look of this
place I should say we were ten miles from anywhere.’
He was overwhelmed. He had meant to have his tank filled up at
Salisbury, and in his enchanted condition of happiness had forgotten. Of all
the infernal, hopeless fools....
He could only stare at her.
‘Well, what are we going to do?’ she asked, waking up a little to the
seriousness of his face.
‘If we were near anywhere——’ he said, looking round.
‘Can’t we go back to those cottages?’
‘The thing won’t budge.’
‘Walk?’
‘At least seven miles.’
They stared at each other in the deepening dusk.
‘Well, but, Christopher——’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘We’re in a hell of a fix, and it’s entirely my fault. I
simply forgot to have her filled up at Salisbury.’
‘Well, but there must be some way out.’
‘Not unless some one happens to come along, and I could persuade him
to go to the nearest petrol place and fetch us some.’
‘Can’t you go?’
‘And leave you here?’
‘Can’t I go?’
‘As though you could!’
In silence they gazed at each other. The stars were growing brighter.
Their faces stood out now as something white in the darkening landscape.
‘Well, but, Christopher——’ began Catherine incredulously.
‘If I thought we could by walking get anywhere within reasonable time,
I’d leave the blighted machine here to its fate. But we might get lost, and
wander round for hours. And besides, where would we find a railway
station? Miles and miles we might have to go.’
‘That wouldn’t matter. I mean, however late we got to London wouldn’t
matter as long as we did get there.’
‘I quite see we’ve jolly well got to get there. What beats me is how.’
Catherine was silent. They were indeed, as Christopher said, in a fix. She
would even, mentally, agree with him that it was a hell of a one.
‘Catherine, I’m sorry,’ he said, laying his hand on hers.
The words but feebly represented his feelings. He was crushed by his
folly, by his idiotic forgetfulness in Salisbury. Would she ever trust herself
with him again? If she didn’t, he deserved all he got.
‘I was so happy in Salisbury,’ he said, ‘that I never thought about the
petrol. I’m the most hopeless blighter.’
‘But what are we to do?’ asked Catherine earnestly.
‘I’m hanged if I know,’ he said.
Again they stared at each other in silence. The night seemed to have
descended on them now with the suddenness of a huge swooping bird.
‘I suppose we had better leave it here and walk on,’ she said. ‘It seems a
dreadful thing to do, but there’s a chance perhaps of our meeting some one
or getting somewhere. Or couldn’t we push it? Is it very heavy?’
‘I could push it for two miles, perhaps, but that would be about the
limit.’
‘But I’d help.’
‘You!’
He smiled at her, miserable as he was.
‘We might strike the main road,’ he said, gazing across the dim space to
where—how many miles away?—it probably lay.
‘It can’t be very far, can it?’ she said. ‘And then perhaps a car passing
might help us.’
He struck a match and lit the lamps—their light comforted them a little
—and took out his map and studied it.
As he feared, this obscure and attractive cart-track was not to be found
on it, nor was the group of solitary cottages.
Far away to the north, in some distant trees, an owl hooted. It had the
effect of making them feel more lost than ever.
‘I think we’d better stay where we are,’ he said.
‘And hope some one may come along?’
‘Yes. We’ll have the lights on. They ought to be seen for miles round.
Somebody may wonder what they’re doing up here, not moving. There’s
just a chance. People are so damned incurious, though,’ he added.
‘Especially if being curious would mean walking up here in the dark.’
She tried to talk in her usual voice, but it was difficult, for she was
aghast at the misfortune that had overtaken them.
‘Perhaps if you shouted——?’ she suggested.
He shouted. It sounded awful. It emphasised the loneliness. It made her
shiver. And after each shout, out of the silence that succeeded it, the owl
away in the distant trees hooted. It was the only answer.
‘Let us wait quietly,’ she said, laying her hand on his arm. ‘Some one is
sure to see the lights, sooner or later.’
A little wind began to creep round them, a mere stirring, to begin with,
of the air, but it was a very cool little wind, not to say cold, and any more of
it would be decidedly unpleasant.
He looked round him again. The ground dropped on the left of the track
into one of the many hollows they had been down into and up out of since
leaving the cottages.
‘We’ll go and sit down there,’ he said. ‘It’ll be more sheltered, and we
shall hear all right if anybody comes along the road.’
She got on to her feet, and he helped her out, unwinding the rug as he
had done that morning—was it really only that morning?—in the sunny
cove by the sea.
‘What a day we’re having!’ said Catherine, trying to be gay; but never
did anybody feel less so.
He carried the rug and cushions across the grass and down the slope. He
had nothing he could say. He was overwhelmed by his folly. Of what use
throwing himself at her feet and begging her to forgive him? That wouldn’t
help them. Besides, she wasn’t angry with him, she couldn’t forgive an
offence she didn’t recognise. She was an angel. She was made up of
patience and sweet temper. And he had got her into this incredible mess.
Silently Christopher chose, by one of the lamps he took off his machine,
a little hollow within the hollow, and spread the rug in it and arranged the
cushions. ‘It’s not much past eight,’ he said, looking at his wrist-watch.
‘Quite early. With any luck——’
He broke off, and covered her up, as she sat on it, with the ends and
sides of the rug, for what did he mean by luck? If anybody were to come
across that plain and consent to go and fetch petrol, what hours before it
could be found and brought! Still, to get her back to Hertford Street in the
small hours of the night, even in the very smallest, would be better than not
getting her back till next day.
‘You stay here,’ he said, ‘and I’ll go up to that confounded machine
again, and do a bit more shouting.’
‘It sounds so gruesome,’ she said, with a shiver. ‘As if we were being
murdered.’
‘You won’t hear it so much down here.’
He went up the slope, and presently the forlorn sound echoed round
again. The night rang with it. It seemed impossible that the whole world
should not be startled into activity by such a noise.
When he was hoarse he came back to her, and sat listening with a cocked
ear for any sounds of approaching footsteps.
‘You’re not cold?’ he asked. ‘Oh, Catherine—forgive me.’
‘Quite warm,’ she answered smiling. ‘And I don’t mind this a bit, you
know. It really is—fun.’
He said no more. He who was so ready of tongue had nothing to say
now. In silence he sat beside her, listening.
‘I’m glad we ate all those muffins for tea,’ she said presently.
‘Are you hungry?’
‘Not yet. But I think I shall be soon, and so will you.’
‘And soon you’ll be cold, I’m afraid. Oh, Catherine——’
‘Well, I’m not cold yet,’ she interrupted him, smiling again, for what was
the good of poor Christopher reproaching himself?
Peering into her face, white in the darkness, he could see she was
smiling. He tucked the rug closer round her. He wanted to kiss her feet, to
adore her for being so cheerful and patient, but what was the good of that?
Nothing he did could convey what he thought of himself. There they were;
and it was getting cold.
He fancied he heard a sound on the track above, and leapt up the bank.
Silence up there. Silence, and the stars, and the lonely lights of his
deserted machine, and black down below, and all round emptiness.
He shouted again. His shout seemed to come back to him mournfully,
from great distances.
By this time it was half-past nine.
He stayed up there, shouting at intervals, for half an hour, till his voice
gave out. When he scrambled down again into the hollow, Catherine was
asleep.
He sat down carefully beside her. He didn’t dare light a cigarette for fear
the smell would wake her. It was better that she should sleep.
He sat cursing himself. Suppose she caught cold, suppose she was ill
from fatigue and exposure? Beyond this, and her natural, and he was afraid
inevitable, loss of trust in him, he saw no other danger for her. These were
bad enough, but he saw no others. Nobody would know about this. None of
her detestable relations would ever hear that she did not after all get home
till—when? How should they? It wouldn’t enter Mrs. Mitcham’s head, or
the porter’s, to mention it. Why on earth should they? His mind was quiet as
to that. But Catherine out there, in a damp field, at night, perhaps for hours
—Catherine who was so precious a jewel in his eyes that he felt she ought
never to be let out of the softest, safest nest—Catherine brought there by
him, marooned there by his fault—these were the things that made him
swear under his breath, sitting beside her while she slept.
It got colder, much colder. A mist gathered below them, and crawled
about among the hillocks. No wind could reach them in their hollow, but a
mist, he knew, is a nasty clammy thing to have edging up over one’s boots.
Perhaps it wouldn’t come so high. He watched it anxiously. He was in
despair. They could get warm, he knew, by walking, and he himself would
get more than warm pushing his machine, but he couldn’t push it for
anything like two miles, as he had told her, on that rough track, and when
he was obliged to stop from exhaustion they would both very soon be
colder than ever. Besides, imagine Catherine, with her little feet, slithering
and stumbling about in the mud and the dark! And anyhow they’d get
nowhere now there was that mist. Better stick where they were. At least
they were sheltered from wind. But it was fantastic to think, as he was
beginning to be forced to think, that they might have to stay there till
daylight.
He sat with his hands gripped round his knees, and stared at the stars.
How hard and cold they looked. What did they care? Cruel brutes. He
wondered why he had ever admired them.
Catherine moved, and he turned to her quickly, and gently tucked the
loosened rug round her again.
This woke her, and she opened her eyes and looked for a moment in
silent astonishment at his head, dark and shadowy, with stars behind it in a
black sky, bending over her.
It seemed to be Christopher’s, but why?
Then she remembered. ‘Oh,’ she said faintly, ‘we’re still here....’
She tried not to shiver, but she was very cold, and what is one rug and
damp grass to lie on to a person used at that time of night to a bed and
blankets? Also, her surface was small, and she got cold more quickly than
bigger people.
He saw her shiver, and without asking leave, or wasting time in phrases,
moved close up to her and took her in his arms.
‘This is nothing to do with anything, Catherine,’ he explained, as she
made a movement of resistance, ‘except a determination not to let you die
of cold. Besides, it will keep me warm too—which I daresay I wouldn’t be,
towards the small hours of the morning, if I kept myself to myself.’
‘The morning?’ she echoed in a very small voice. ‘Are we—do you
think we shall be here all night?’
‘It looks like it,’ he said.
‘Oh, Christopher——’
‘I know.’
She said no more, and he held her and her coat and the rug tightly in his
arms. As a mother holds her babe, so did Christopher hold Catherine, and
with much the same sort of passionate protective tenderness. One arm was
beneath her shoulders, so that her head rested on his breast, the other was
round her body, keeping her coverings close round her. His own head was
on the cushion from the side-car, and his cheek leaned against her soft
motoring cap.
Like this they lay in silence, and what Catherine felt was, first,
amazement that she should be there, on an unknown hillside in a lonely
country at night with Christopher, forced by circumstances to get as close to
him as possible; and secondly, as she became warmer and drowsier, and
nature accordingly prevailed over convention, a queer satisfaction and
peace. And what Christopher felt, as he lay leaning his cheek against her
head and gazing up at the stars, was that he had never seen anything more
beautiful than the way those blessed stars seemed to understand—twinkling
and flashing down at them as if they were laughing for joy at the amount of
happiness that was flung about the world. His precious little love—his
precious, precious little love....
‘Of course—you know—’ murmured Catherine, on the verge of sleep,
‘this is only—a kind of—precautionary measure——’
‘Quite,’ whispered Christopher, holding the rug closer round her.
But sleep is a great loosener of the moral sense. How is one to know
right from wrong if one is asleep? How can one, in that state, be expected to
be responsible? Catherine slept, and Christopher kissed her. Dimly through
her dreams she knew she was being kissed, but it was so gentle a kissing, so
tender, it made her feel so safe ... and up there there was no one to mind, no
one to criticise ... and yesterday was infinitely far away ... and to-morrow
might never come....
She was not so much asleep that she did not know she was happy; she
was too much asleep to feel she ought to stop him.
XXI
Mrs. Mitcham, not expecting her mistress back till Monday, went on that
Saturday to visit a friend in Camden Town, and when she came back soon
after nine was surprised to find Miss Virginia’s husband on the mat outside
the door of the flat ringing the bell. He, of all people, should know her
mistress wasn’t there, thought Mrs. Mitcham, seeing that it was in Miss
Virginia’s house she was staying.
The carpet on the stairs was thick, and Mrs. Mitcham arrived at
Stephen’s side unnoticed. He was absorbed in ringing. He rang and rang.
‘I beg your pardon, sir,’ said Mrs. Mitcham respectfully.
He turned quickly. ‘Where is your mistress?’ he inquired.
‘My mistress, sir?’ said Mrs. Mitcham, much surprised. ‘I understood
she was coming back on Monday, sir.’
‘She left the Manor this afternoon on her way home. She ought to have
been here long ago. Have you had no telegram announcing her arrival?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Well, I have,’ he said, looking quite upset, Mrs. Mitcham noticed, and
pulling a telegram out of his overcoat pocket. ‘My wife telegraphed her
mother had started, and asked me to see if she got here safely.’
‘Safely, sir?’ echoed Mrs. Mitcham, surprised at the word.
‘Mrs. Cumfrit was—motoring up. As you know, my wife should not be
worried and made anxious just now,’ said Stephen frowning. ‘It is most
undesirable—most undesirable.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Mrs. Mitcham. ‘But I’m sure there is no cause. Mrs.
Cumfrit will be here presently. It’s not more than nine o’clock, sir.’
‘She left at half-past two.’
‘Allowing for punctures, sir——’ suggested Mrs. Mitcham respectfully.
‘Will you come in, sir?’ she added, unlocking the door and holding it open
for him.
‘Yes—and wait,’ said Stephen in a determined voice.
He went straight into the drawing-room without taking off his overcoat.
That Miss Virginia’s husband was upset was plain to Mrs. Mitcham. He
hardly seemed like the same gentleman who had on his last visit so nicely
called her and her mistress little children and told them to love one another.
She was quite glad to get away from him into her calm kitchen.
Stephen was very much upset. He had received Virginia’s telegram at six
o’clock, just as he was quietly sitting in his hotel bedroom going over his
sermons and giving them the last important touches. These were valuable
hours, these afternoon and evening hours of the Saturdays before he
preached, and to be taken away from them for any reason was most
annoying. To be taken away from them for this one was more than
annoying, it was gravely disturbing. Again that side-car; again that young
man; as if a whole morning in it and with him were not sufficiently
deplorable. No wonder his poor little darling at home was anxious. She said
so in the telegram. It ran: Mother left for Hertford Street in Mr. Monckton’s
side-car 2.30. Do see if arrived safely. Anxious.
Two-thirty; and it was then six. He went round at once. He didn’t know
much about motor-cycles, but at the pace he had seen them going he judged
that Monckton, not less swift than his confrères in upsetting the peace of
God’s countryside, would have had time to get to London.
No one, however, was in the flat, not even Mrs. Mitcham, who was
bound to it by duty. He rang in vain. As he went away he inquired of the
hall porter why no one was there, and learned that Mrs. Mitcham had gone
out at three o’clock and had not yet returned, and that Mrs. Cumfrit had
been away for the last week in the country,—which he already only too well
knew.
At half-past seven he called again—his sermons would suffer, he was
painfully aware—but with the same result. It was dark then, and he too
began to feel anxious; not on his mother-in-law’s account, for whatever
happened to her would be entirely her own fault, but on Virginia’s. She
would be in a terrible state if she knew her mother had not reached home
yet. That Mrs. Mitcham should still be absent from her duties he regarded
as not only reprehensible and another proof of Mrs. Cumfrit’s laxness, but
as a sign that she was unaware of her mistress’s impending return, which
was strange.
Immediately after dinner—a bad one, but if it had been good he could
not have appreciated it in his then condition of mind—he went back to
Hertford Street, and unable to believe, in spite of the hall porter’s
assurances, that the flat was still empty, rang and rang, and was found by
Mrs. Mitcham ringing. His mother-in-law must be there by now. She was
inside. He felt she was inside, and had gone to bed tired.
But directly he got in he knew she was not. There was a chill, a silence
about the flat, such as only places abandoned by their inhabitants have. The
drawing-room was as cold and tidy as a corpse. He kept his coat on. The
idea of taking it off in such bleakness would not have occurred to him. He
would have liked to keep his hat on too, for he had gone bald early, but the
teaching of his youth on the subject of ladies’ drawing-rooms and what to
do in them prevented him.
Mrs. Mitcham, coming in to light the fire, found him staring out of the
window in the dark. The room was only lit by the shining in of the street
lamps. She was quite sorry for him. She had not supposed him so much
attached to Mrs. Cumfrit. Mrs. Mitcham was herself feeling rather worried
by now, and as she made Catherine’s bed and got her room ready she had
only kept cheerful by recollecting that a car had four tyres, all of which
might puncture, besides innumerable other parts, no doubt equally able to
have things the matter with them.
‘I’ll light the fire, if you please, sir,’ she said.
‘Not for me,’ said Stephen, without moving.
She lit it nevertheless, and also turned on the light by the sofa. She didn’t
like to draw the curtains, because he continued to stand at the window
staring into the street. Watching, thought Mrs. Mitcham; watching
anxiously. She was quite touched.
‘Is there anything you would like, sir?’ she inquired.
‘Nothing,’ said Stephen, his gaze riveted on the street.
Throughout that dreadful night Stephen watched at the window, and
Mrs. Mitcham came in at intervals to see what she could do for him. She
made coffee at eleven o’clock, and brought it to him, and fetched it away
again at midnight cold and untouched. She carried in an armful of blankets
at one o’clock, and arranged a bed for him on the sofa, into which he did
not go. At five she brought him tea, which he did not drink. At eight she
began to get breakfast ready. Throughout the night he stood at the window,
or walked up and down the room, and each time she saw him he seemed to
have grown thinner. Certainly his face looked sharper than it had the night
before. Mrs. Mitcham could not but be infected by such agitation, though
being naturally optimistic she felt somehow that her mistress was delayed
rather than hurt. Still, it was impossible to see a gentleman like Mr.
Colquhoun, a gentleman of great learning, she had heard, who must know
everything about everything and had preached in St. Paul’s Cathedral,—it
was impossible to see such a gentleman grow thinner with anxiety before
one’s eyes without becoming, in spite of one’s secret faith, anxious too. And
the hard fact that her mistress’s bed had not been slept in stared her in the
face.
‘I must wash,’ said Stephen hoarsely, when she told him breakfast was
ready and would do him good.
She conducted him to the bathroom.
‘I must shave,’ he said, looking at her with hollow eyes. ‘I have to
preach this morning. I must go back to my hotel and shave.’
‘Oh no, sir,’ said Mrs. Mitcham; and brought him George’s razors—a
little blunt, but yet razors.
He stared at them. His eyes seemed to become more hollow.
‘Razors?’ he said. ‘Here?’
That there should be razors in the apartment of a widow——
‘The late Mr. Cumfrit’s, sir,’ said Mrs. Mitcham.
Of course. Really his control was gone; he was no longer apparently able
to keep his thoughts from plunging into the most incredible places.
He stropped the razors, thinking of the probable last time they had been
stropped by his father-in-law before being folded away by him who would
never strop again, and shaved in front of the glass in the bathroom before
which the excellent man must so often have stood. Pulvis et umbra sumum,
said Stephen to himself in his profound dejection, forgetting for a moment
the glorious resurrection he so carefully believed in. At what point did one,
he wondered, his mind returning to his troubles,—at what point did one, in
the circumstances in which he found himself, inform the police?
He forced himself to eat some breakfast for fear he might otherwise
collapse in the pulpit, and he drank a cup of strong coffee with the same
idea of being kept up. The thought that it was his own mother-in-law who
had brought all this trouble on him had a peculiar sting. Quite evidently
there had been an accident, and God knew how he would get through his
sermon, with the fear crushing him of the effect such terrible news would
have on the beloved mother of his child to be. There was no blessing, he
told himself, outside the single straight path of one’s duty. If his mother-in-
law had continued in that path as she used to continue in it, instead of
suddenly taking to giving way to every impulse—that she should still have
impulses was in itself indecent—this misery for Virginia, and accordingly
for himself, would have been avoided. To go rushing about the country with
a young man,—why, how scandalous at her age. And the punishment for
this, the accident that had so evidently happened, fell most heavily, as
punishments so mysteriously often did—only one must not question God’s
wisdom—on the innocent. What living thing in the whole world could be
more innocent than his wife? Except the child; except the little soul of love
she bore about with her beneath her heart; and that too would suffer through
her suffering.
Stephen prayed. He couldn’t bear the thought of what Virginia was going
to suffer. He bowed his head on his arms and prayed. Mrs. Mitcham found
him like this when she came to clear away the breakfast. She was deeply
sorry for him; he seemed to have been so much more attached to her
mistress than one would have ever guessed.
‘You’ll feel better, sir,’ she consoled him, ‘when your breakfast has had
more time.’ And she ventured to ask, ‘Was it Miss Virginia’s car bringing
Mrs. Cumfrit up? I beg pardon, sir—I mean, your car? Because if so, I’ll be
bound she’ll be safe with Smithers.’
Stephen shook his head. He could bear no questions. He could not go
into the story of the motor-cycle with Mrs. Mitcham. He felt ill after his
night walking about the drawing-room; his head seemed to be bursting. He
got up and left the room.
He had to go to the hotel on his way to St. Jude’s to fetch his sermon. He
waited till the last possible minute, still hoping that some news might come;
and then, when he dared wait no longer, and Mrs. Mitcham was helping him
into his coat, he told her he would come back immediately after morning
service and consider what steps should be taken as to informing the police.
‘The police?’ repeated Mrs. Mitcham, much shocked. The police and her
mistress. Out of her heart disappeared the last ray of optimism.
‘We must somehow find out what has happened,’ said Stephen sharply.
‘Yes, sir,’ said Mrs. Mitcham, opening the door for him.
The police and her mistress. She had a feeling that the mere putting the
police on to search would make them find something dreadful,—that if
nothing had happened, the moment they began to look something would
have happened.
Feeling profoundly conscious of being only a weak woman in a world
full of headstrong men, she opened the door for Stephen, and he, going
through it without further speech, met Catherine coming out of the lift,—
Catherine perfectly sound and unharmed,—and with her was Christopher.
They all three stopped dead.
‘You, Stephen?’ said Catherine after a moment, very faintly. ‘Why, how
——?’
‘I have,’ said Stephen, ‘been waiting all night. Waiting and watching for
you.’
‘I—we—broke down.’
He made a sign to the lift boy that he was coming down with him.
‘Enough—enough,’ he said, with a queer gesture of pushing her and
everything connected with her out of his sight; and hurried into the lift and
disappeared.
Catherine and Christopher looked at each other.
XXII
That was an awful day for Stephen.
Men have found out, with terrible pangs, that their wives, whom they
regarded as models of blamelessness, were secretly betraying their homes
and families, but Stephen could not recall any instance of a man’s finding
this out about his wife’s mother. It was not, he supposed, quite so personally
awful as if it were one’s wife, but on the other hand it had a peculiar
awfulness of its own. A young woman might descend declivities, impelled
by the sheer momentum of youth; but for women of riper years, for the
matrons, for the dowagers, for those whose calm remaining business in life
is to hold aloft the lantern of example, whose pride it should be to be quiet,
to be immobile, to be looked-up to and venerated,—for these to indulge in
conduct that disgraced their families and ruined themselves was, in a way,
even more horrible. In any woman of riper years it was horrible and terrible.
In this one,—what it was in this one was hardly to be uttered, for she—ah,
ten times horrible and terrible—was his own mother-in-law.
He preached his sermon mechanically, with no sense of what he was
reading, never lifting his eyes from his manuscript. The dilapidated pair—
they had looked extraordinarily dilapidated as they stood there, guilty and
caught, in the unsparing light of Sunday morning—floated constantly
before him, and made it impossible for him to attend to a word he was
saying.
What was he to do next? How could he ever face Virginia, and answer
her anxious, loving questions about her mother’s safety? It must be kept
from her, the appalling, the simply unutterable truth; at all costs it must be
kept from her in her present condition, or it well might kill her. He felt he
must tell his mother, for he could not bear this burden alone, but no one else
must ever know what he knew. It would be the first secret between him and
Virginia, and what a secret!
His thoughts whirled this way and that, anywhere but where he was,
while his lips read out what he had written in those days last week of
innocent peace, that now seemed so far away, about Love. Love! What sins,
thought Stephen, were committed in its name. Incredible as it was, almost
impossible to imagine at their different ages, and shocking to every feeling
of decency and propriety, the word had probably frequented the
conversations of those two.
He shuddered away. There were some things one simply could not think
of. And yet he did think of them; they haunted him. ‘We broke down,’ she
had said. Persons in her position always said that. He was man of the world
enough to know what that meant. And then their faces,—their startled,
guilty faces, when they found him so unexpectedly confronting them.
‘Love,’ read out Stephen from his manuscript, quoting part of his text
and with mechanically uplifted hand and emphasis impressing it on his
congregation, ‘thinketh no evil....’
After the service he went straight back to Hertford Street. Useless to
flinch from his duty. His first impulse that morning, and he had followed it,
was to remove himself at once from contact with his mother-in-law. But he
was a priest; he was her nearest living male relative; he was bound to do
something.
He went straight back to Hertford Street, and found her sitting in the
dining-room quietly eating mutton.
It had always seemed grievous to Stephen, and deeply to be regretted,
that no traces of sin should be physically visible on the persons of the
sinners, that a little washing and tidying should be enough to make them
indistinguishable from those who had not sinned. Here was this one,
looking much the same as usual, very like any other respectable quiet lady
at her Sunday luncheon, eating mutton as though nothing had happened. At
such a crisis, he felt, at such an overwhelming moment of all their lives, of
his, of hers, of his dear love’s, whitely unconscious at home, whatever his
mother-in-law did it ought anyhow not to have been that.
She looked up when he came in, walking in unannounced, putting Mrs.
Mitcham aside when she tried to open the door for him.
‘I’m glad you’ve come back, Stephen,’ she said, leaning forward and
pushing out the chair on her right hand for him to sit on—as though he
would dream of sitting!—‘I want to tell you what happened.’
He took no notice of the chair, and stood facing her at the end of the
table, leaning on it with both hands, their thin knuckles white with his
heavy pressure.
‘Won’t you sit down?’ she said.
‘No.’
‘Have you had lunch?’
‘No.’
‘Will you have some?’
‘No.’
There was nothing for it, Catherine knew, but to face whatever music
Stephen should make, but she did think he might have said ‘No, thank you.’
Still, her position was very weak, so she accepted his monosyllables
without comment. Besides—poor Stephen—he did look wretchedly upset;
he must have had a dreadful night.
She was very sorry for him, and began to tell him what had happened,
how the petrol had run out just when they were in that bare stretch of
country between Salisbury and Andover——
Stephen raised his hand. ‘Spare me all this,’ he said. ‘Spare me and
yourself.’
‘There’s nothing to spare,’ said Catherine. ‘I assure you I don’t mind
telling you what happened.’
‘You should blush,’ said Stephen, leaning forward on his knuckles. ‘You
should blush.’
‘Blush?’ she repeated.
‘Do you not know that you are fatally compromised?’
‘My dear Stephen——’
He longed to forbid her to call him by that name.
‘Fatally,’ he said.
‘My dear Stephen, don’t be ridiculous. I know it was most unfortunate
that I shouldn’t get back till this morning——’
‘Unfortunate!’
‘But who will ever hear about it? And I couldn’t help it. You don’t
suppose I liked it?’
Then, as she said the words, the remembrance of herself being kept
warm in Christopher’s arms, and of him softly kissing her eyes, came back
to her. Yes; she had liked that. Yes; she knew she had liked that, and been
happy.
A deep red flooded her face even as she said the words, and she lowered
her eyes.
Stephen saw; and any faint hope he had had that her story might be true
went out. His soul seemed to drop into a pit of blackness. She was guilty.
She had done something unthinkable. Virginia’s mother. It was horror to be
in the same room with her.
‘This thing,’ he said in a low voice, his eyes wide open and blazing, as
though he indeed beheld horror, ‘must be made good somehow. There is
only one way. It is a shame, a shame to have to utter it in connection with a
boy of his age and a woman of yours, but the only thing left for you to do is
to marry him.’
‘Marry him?’
She stared at him, her mouth open in her amazement.
‘Nothing else will save you, either from man’s condemnation or God’s
punishment.’

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May not be permitted to wear police uniforms

• Elements of the hotel’s security program

Individual /Group Activities

Activity 2: Case Study: “Doughnuts and Dilemmas”

Activity 3: Case Study: “The Case of the Missing Jewels”

Activity 4: Case Study: “The Safe Deposit Box That Wasn’t”

Security and the Lodging Industry

Case Study: “Steve's Royal Problem”

Points for Instructors

Case Study: “Doughnuts and Dilemmas”

Points for Instructors

Handle the problem all by themselves.

Fail to cooperate with police officers.

Case Study: “The Case of the Missing Jewels”

Points for Instructors

1. How should the MOD have approached the irate guest?

3. Would you have called the police?

Case Study: “The Safe Deposit Box That Wasn’t”

Case Number: 3873CA

Case Study: “The Safe Deposit Box That Wasn't”

Points for Instructors

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