is inquiries, the child informed
him that an upper room in this cheerless building was occupied by a
young female lodger, who held no intercourse with its other inmates.

Placing a five-franc piece in her hand, the visitor asked the name of
the lodger, but the girl replied that she was known to them only as
"_La Dentelliere_," and lived quite alone in the right-hand room at
the top of the third flight of stairs.

The parley had already occupied twenty minutes, when Dr. Grey cut it
short by mounting the narrow, winding steps. The atmosphere was close,
and redolent of the fumes of dishes not so popular in America as in
France, and he saw that the different doors of this old tenement were
rented to lodgers who cooked, ate, and slept in the same apartment. At
the top of the last dim flight of steps, Dr. Grey paused, almost out
of breath; and found himself on a narrow landing-place, fronting two
attic rooms. The one on the right was closed, but as he softly took
the bolt in his hand and turned it, there floated through the key-hole
the low subdued sound of a sweet voice, humming "_Infelice_."

It was not the deep, rich, melting voice, that had arrested his drive
when first he heard it on the beach, but a plaintive, thrilling echo,
full of pathos, yet lacking power; like the notes of birds when
moulting-season ends, and the warblers essay their old strains.
Cautiously he opened the door wide enough to permit him to observe
what passed within.

The room was large, low, and irregularly shaped, with neither
fire-place nor stove, and only one dormer window opening to the south,
and upon a wide waste of tiled roofs and smoking chimneys. The floor
was bare, except a strip of faded carpet stretched in front of a small
single bedstead; and the additional furniture consisted of two chairs,
a tall table where hung a mirror, and a washstand that held beside
bowl and pitcher a candlestick and china cup. On the table were
several books, a plate and knife, and a partially opened package
disclosed a loaf of bread, some cheese, and an apple.

In front of the window a piece of plank had been rudely fastened, and
here stood two wooden boxes containing a few violets, mignonette, and
one very luxuriant rose-geranium.

The faded blue cambric curtain was twisted into a knot, and as it was
now nearly noon, the sun shone in and made a patch of gold on the
stained and dusky floor.

On the bed lay the straw hat, garlanded with roses that had l