The Third and Final Continent
Say 'splendid'!
Describe Mrs Croft and the narrator's first meeting with her.
The YMCA is so noisy that the narrator cannot sleep. He looks for a room, and finds one for eight dollars a week.
On the phone, the landlady asks him only one question: is he from Harvard or from Tech (MIT)? He goes to meet her, politely dressed in a coat and tie.
Mrs Croft is tiny and extremely old, dressed in a long black skirt, and sitting on a piano bench. The first thing she does is shout at him that he must always lock the door.
Then she announces, proudly and loudly, that America has planted its flag on the moon! She orders him to say 'Splendid!'
He feels foolish, but he obeys. That seems to settle it: she rents him the room. Her rules: the rent is to be paid on Fridays, and no lady visitors.
A strange, loud old woman and a shy, polite young man: an unlikely pair.
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