d a
weather-glass always at 'set fair,' and pictures round the walls of all
the wonderful inns in Germany and Switzerland, with coaches-and-four
driving in at full gallop, and ladies on the balconies, and
saddle-horses waiting, and every diversion in life going on, while,
maybe, all the time, the place is dead as Darmstadt."

Scroope recognized the description perfectly, but could give no clew to
its whereabouts.

"Maybe 't is Kaufmayer's. Was it painted yellow outside?"

Scroope thought not. "It hadn't a garden in front?" He couldn't say
positively; but, if so, it was a small garden. "He did n't remark two
dogs in stone beside the door?" No, he had not seen them.

"Then, by the powers!" exclaimed Peter, "I give it up. Nelly's the only
body can make anything out of it."

"And who's Ne-Ne-Nelly?" screamed Purvis.

"My daughter, Miss Dalton," said Peter, haughtily, And as if rebuking
the liberty of the question.

Scroope hastened to apologize, and suddenly remembered how frequently he
had heard of the young lady from her sister, and how eager Mrs. Ricketts
would be to make her Acquaintance.

"There's nothing easier than that same," said Dalton. "Just come with
me to my little place, and take tea with us. Nelly will be right glad
to see them that was kind to her sister, and then we'll try if we can't
find out your inn."

"Can we do this, Martha?" cried Scroope, in seeming Agitation.

"I 'll speak to my sister," mildly replied she.

"Do, then, Miss," said Dalton. "Say 'tis just alone, and in the family
way, and that we have n't more than ten minutes' walk from this; or, we
'll get a coach if she likes."

The very thought of practising hospitality was ecstasy to honest Peter,
who, while Martha retired to consult her sister, ordered in a relay of
bottles to beguile the time.

"I like that little ould man," said he, confidingly, to Purvis, while he
bent a kindly glance on the General. "He doesn't say much, and, maybe,
he hears less; but he takes his glass pleasantly, and he lays it down
when it's empty, with a little sigh. I never knew a bad fellow had that
habit."

Scroope hinted that the General was one of the bright stars of the
British army.

"I did n't care that he took Tippoo Saib, or Bergen-op-Zoom, and that's
a big word,--for a wickeder pair of devils, by all accounts, never
lived,--if he's all right here." And Peter touched the left region
of his brawny chest "If he's good and generous, kind to the