were entirely driven from my head by the fact of their dirtiness; and I
determined that if the two _pensionnaires_ occupied the one, the other
should be unoccupied.

After arranging things a little, I struggled down the steps again, and
ordered coffee and bread in a little room, which commanded the assembly
with the fiddles in the larger _salle_. The head waitress, busy as she
was, found time to come now and then to an open window near where I sat,
and talked to a male friend sitting outside in the dark: indeed, she
did more than talk, and people had to rattle their glasses very hard
before they could make her hear. From her I learned that this was a
marriage party which had arrived; and when I asked why they did not
dance, as the fiddles were engaged at that moment with unwonted
unanimity upon dance-music, she gave me to understand that these were
not people of Thorens, but only a party from another village, making the
evening promenade after the wedding: from which it would seem that it is
not the etiquette for people to dance under such circumstances, except
in the home village. They sat round a table, men and women alternately,
with their hats on, and with glasses before them. The bride and
bridegroom were accommodated with a bench to themselves at the head of
the table, he likewise with his hat on, and with a pipe in his mouth,
which, seeing that he was a demonstrative bridegroom, one might have
supposed to be an inconvenience. He managed very well, however, and
every one seemed contented: indeed, the pipe must, I think, be held to
be no difficulty; for the men all smoked, and yet, to judge from
appearances, there was a prospect of as many marriages as there were
couples in the room. The unruffled gravity, however, and the apparent
want of zest, both in giving and receiving, which characterised the
proceedings specially referred to, led me to suppose that it might be
only a part of the etiquette, and so meant nothing serious.

Between ten and eleven the fiddles and the party vanished, and I went
up-stairs more determined than ever not to touch a bed, after my
experience of the room below. Three chairs were speedily arranged
between the table and wall, and on these I lay and tried to sleep. But
the very chairs were populous, as I had found below, and sleep was
impossible. Moreover, soon after eleven, a soldier came into the room,
to arrange about his breakfast with one of the maidens in the
house. He had heard me