n length; and on the balcony next the division wall, close to
another on the adjoining property, a quarter circle of iron-work set
like a blind-bridle, and armed with hideous prongs for house-breakers to
get impaled on.

"Why, in there," said Richling, softly, as they hurried in, "we'll be
hid from the whole world, and the whole world from us."

The wife's answer was only the upward glance of her blue eyes into his,
and a faint smile.

The place was all it had been described to be, and more,--except in one
particular.

"And my husband tells me"--The owner of said husband stood beside him,
one foot a little in advance of the other, her folded parasol hanging
down the front of her skirt from her gloved hands, her eyes just
returning to the landlady's from an excursion around the ceiling, and
her whole appearance as fresh as the pink flowers that nestled between
her brow and the rim of its precious covering. She smiled as she began
her speech, but not enough to spoil what she honestly believed to be a
very business-like air and manner. John had quietly dropped out of the
negotiations, and she felt herself put upon her mettle as his agent.
"And my husband tells me the price of this front room is ten dollars a
month."

"Munse?"

The respondent was a very white, corpulent woman, who constantly panted
for breath, and was everywhere sinking down into chairs, with her limp,
unfortified skirt dropping between her knees, and her hands pressed on
them exhaustedly.

"Munse?" She turned from husband to wife, and back again, a glance of
alarmed inquiry.

Mary tried her hand at French.

"Yes; _oui, madame_. Ten dollah the month--_le mois_."

Intelligence suddenly returned. Madame made a beautiful, silent O with
her mouth and two others with her eyes.

"Ah _non_! By munse? No, madame. Ah-h! impossybl'! By _wick_, yes; ten
dollah de wick! Ah!"

She touched her bosom with the wide-spread fingers of one hand and threw
them toward her hearers.

The room-hunters got away, yet not so quickly but they heard behind and
above them her scornful laugh, addressed to the walls of the empty room.

A day or two later they secured an apartment, cheap,
and--morally--decent; but otherwise--ah!

CHAPTER VII.

DISAPPEARANCE.

It was the year of a presidential campaign. The party that afterward
rose to overwhelming power was, for the first time, able to put its
candidate fairly abreast of his competitors. The South was all af