room, and walked out with
never a word. She might have regarded the intrusion as a mistake if a
like visit from the same personage had not been made at the same hour
next morning in our own rooms, to which we were that day transferred.
The two successive intrusions were to us inexplicable, unless, in the
light of succeeding events, we were to regard the priest as a detective
officer or spy. Our apartments communicated, both being reached through
an entry, while my room, lying beyond Kate's, was only reached by
passing also from the entry through hers.

On the fourth day of our sojourn in the hotel, about nine o'clock in the
morning, Kate tapped on the door leading into my room, and at my cry of
"Entrez," came in. She was in a dressing-gown, her long, curling brown
hair hanging over her shoulders and a very unusual expression on her
face.

"More priests?" I asked in explanation.

"_Police!_" she exclaimed. "If we ever get out of this town alive I
shall be thankful! I had rung as usual for water, and just as I had
finished my bath I heard a knock at the outside door, and asking 'Wer
ist da?' the chambermaid replied that _she_ was. I then opened the door
a bit, and saw looking over her shoulders two strange men. My first
thought was that they were friends of yours wishing to give you a
surprise, and I cried out, 'Oh, you can't come in, for we are not
dressed.' Then one of the men said in broken English, 'We shall and we
_will_ come in;' and they forced the door in upon me, while I hastened
to close and fasten the other, but was too late, for they followed at my
heels. 'You are Miss W----?' the one who had already spoken said.--'No,
I am not.'--'Then she is in the next room?'--'But you cannot go in, for
she isn't dressed,' I said.--'You are her sister, and you come from the
Grand Hotel,' he continued; and you've no idea with what a ferocious
face. It was dreadful! Then he said something about the _police_--that
we must go to the _police-court_; and finally said he would give you
five minutes to dress in. Now, there they are, banging at the door. Oh,
what have we done? Why _did_ we ever come into this barbarous land?" and
poor merry Kate was on the brink of hysterics.

"Oh, 'tis all a mistake," I replied, adjusting my necktie. "I will see
the men, and the matter will be explained at once."

The noise from the street coming in from my open windows had prevented
me from hearing the conversation in Kate's room, and I shou