-place for the elect which we indicate by
the mere laconic word 'the Palace.' In the Palace were her
family history and her ideal; her aspiration was that Bringas
might obtain a superior post in the royal exchequer, and that
then they should go and take up their abode in one of the
apartments of the second story of the great mansion which were
conceded to such tenants." The above is from 'Tormento.' In
the next succeeding novel, 'La de Bringas,' this aspiration is
gratified; the Bringas family are installed in the Palace, in
the quarters assigned to the employees of the royal household.
The efforts of two of their acquaintances to find them, in the
puzzling intricacies of the place, are thus amusingly
described.

ABOVE-STAIRS IN A ROYAL PALACE

From 'La de Bringas'

Well, this is about the way it was. We threw ourselves bravely into
the interminable corridor, a veritable street, or alley at least,
paved with red tiles, feebly lighted with gas jets, and full of
doublings and twistings. Now and then it spread out into broad
openings like little plazas, inundated with sunlight which entered
through large openings from the main court-yard. This illumination
penetrated lengthwise along the white walls of the narrow passageways,
alleys, or tunnels, or whatever they may be called, growing ever
feebler and more uncertain as it went, till finally it fainted away
entirely at sight of the fan-shaped yellow gas flames, smoking little
circlets upon their protecting metal disks. There were uncounted
paneled doors with numbers on them, some newly painted and others
moldering and weather-stained, but not one displaying the figure we
were seeking. At this one you would see a rich silken bell cord, some
happy find in the royal upholstery shop, while the next had nothing
more than a poor frayed rope's-end; and these were an indication of
what was likely to be found within, as to order and neatness or
disarray and squalor. So, too, the mats or bits of carpet laid before
the doors threw a useful light upon the character of the lodgings. We
came upon vacant apartments with cobwebs spun across the openings, and
the door gratings thick with dust, and through broken transoms, drew
chill drafts that conveyed the breath of silence and desolation. Even
whole precincts were abandoned, and the vaultings, of unequal height,
returned the sound of our footsteps hollowly to our ears. We passed