ook long, the portress, after having answered in the affirmative
my question as to whether her mistress was at home, opened the
folding-doors of a room to the left, and having ushered me in, closed
them behind me. I found myself in a salon with a very well-painted,
highly varnished floor; chairs and sofas covered with white draperies,
a green porcelain stove, walls hung with pictures in gilt frames, a gilt
pendule and other ornaments on the mantelpiece, a large lustre pendent
from the centre of the ceiling, mirrors, consoles, muslin curtains, and
a handsome centre table completed the inventory of furniture. All looked
extremely clean and glittering, but the general effect would have been
somewhat chilling had not a second large pair of folding-doors, standing
wide open, and disclosing another and smaller salon, more snugly
furnished, offered some relief to the eye. This room was carpeted, and
therein was a piano, a couch, a chiffonniere--above all, it contained
a lofty window with a crimson curtain, which, being undrawn, afforded
another glimpse of the garden, through the large, clear panes, round
which some leaves of ivy, some tendrils of vine were trained.

"Monsieur Creemsvort, n'est ce pas?" said a voice behind me; and,
starting involuntarily, I turned. I had been so taken up with the
contemplation of the pretty little salon that I had not noticed the
entrance of a person into the larger room. It was, however, Mdlle.
Reuter who now addressed me, and stood close beside me; and when I had
bowed with instantaneously recovered sang-froid--for I am not easily
embarrassed--I commenced the conversation by remarking on the pleasant
aspect of her little cabinet, and the advantage she had over M. Pelet in
possessing a garden.

"Yes," she said, "she often thought so;" and added, "it is my garden,
monsieur, which makes me retain this house, otherwise I should probably
have removed to larger and more commodious premises long since; but you
see I could not take my garden with me, and I should scarcely find one
so large and pleasant anywhere else in town."

I approved her judgment.

"But you have not seen it yet," said she, rising; "come to the window
and take a better view." I followed her; she opened the sash, and
leaning out I saw in full the enclosed demesne which had hitherto been
to me an unknown region. It was a long, not very broad strip of cultured
ground, with an alley bordered by enormous old fruit trees down the
mi