After Maxim had closed the lattice gate, she placed herself next to him so that she did not have to look him in the eyes. But from clamorous excitement – and she was still a bit breathless from her flight – she had forgotten the mirrors on the walls of the cabin. And no matter where she looked, the blond elevator boy seemed to be watching her.
Mouse hated mirrors. She was too small and thin for her age, and when she looked at herself like this, there was really not much girlness to her. She was pale, even in this light that made every other person look healthy; even her lips seemed to her to be colorless and thin. Her dark blue eyes always appeared a bit tired, perhaps because she always was tired. The Concierge, who presided over all the lowly hotel attendants, had determined that she had to look like a boy, or else the fine guests might take offense that they let her work through the entire night. That had been back when she was very small, and so she knew nothing else. Mouse, the Girl-boy.
The elevator set itself in motion with a jerk. Above them in the shaft, the steam-works hissed. Powerful gears crunched.
“That’s a pretty uniform,” she said because the long silence was making her all restless.
“Thanks,” Maxim said, and then his gaze swept over her own clothes.
You deserved that, she thought bitterly. He will see right away that your shoulder-pieces have been mended with carpet threads.
“Would you like one like it?” he asked
She still could not look him in the eyes. “Like it?” she repeated uncertainly.
“A uniform like mine.”
“I’m no elevator boy.” And also would never be one, she added in silence, namely because the Concierge did not like any girl, not even if she looked like a boy.
“That doesn’t matter. I grew almost a head last year. You can have one of my old ones.”
“You’re not serious!”
“Why not? In my trunk they’re just being eaten by moths.”
Hard to imagine that there were moths in the dormitories of the pages and elevator boys. In the hole in the cellar where Mouse slept, there were in fact rats. But that did not bother her. She liked just about everything that was small and crawled on the ground.
“Well?” Maxim asked.
The elevator came to a halt. In front of the cabin grate lay a corridor that was only imperceptibly less magnificent than any in the suite level. Everything in the Hotel Aurora was precious, expensive, and elegant. Except for the behavior of certain employees, when no guests were present.
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