ime we get
back again."

Suddenly he halted before a house at the corner of the marketplace. It
looked little better than a common cabaret, and was also closed and
dark. Down went the luggage, as he knocked mysteriously at the shutters.

"What are you doing?" we said. "You don't suppose that we would put up
here even for an hour."

"It is clean and respectable," objected Andre. "Messieurs cannot walk
the streets till morning."

A door was as mysteriously opened, leading into a room. A couple of
candles were burning at a table, round which some rough-looking men were
seated, drinking and playing cards, but keeping silence. It looked
suspicious and uninviting.

"In fact we might be murdered here," shuddered H.C.: "most certainly we
should be robbed."

Andre made his request: could they give us lodgment?

"Not so much as a chair or a bench," answered the woman, to our relief;
for though we should never have entered, Andre might have disappeared
with the baggage and given us some trouble. He evidently had all the
obstinacy of the Breton about him, and was growing desperate. The door
was closed again without ceremony, and once more we were left to make
the best of it.

This time we took the lead and made for the hotel. Again we passed
through the wonderful street with the overhanging eaves and gables.
Again we paused and lingered, lost in admiration. But the light had
departed from the latticed window, and no doubt in dreams the Fair One
was beholding again the vision of H.C.

A few minutes more and we stood before the hotel. They were just closing
the doors. Monsieur Hellard was crossing the passage at the moment.
Never shall I forget his consternation. He raised his hands, and his
hair stood on end.

"What's the matter?" he cried.

"Matter enough," replied Andre taking up the parable. "Madame never sent
to the bouchere, and the bouchere has no room. And I think"--despair
giving him courage--"it was too bad to give us a wild goose chase at
this time of night."

"And now you must do your best and put us where you can," I concluded.
"We are too tired to stir another step."

"I haven't where to lodge a cat," returned the perplexed landlord. "I
cannot do impossibilities. What on earth are we to manufacture?"

"You have a salon?"

"Comme de juste!"

"Is it occupied?"

"No; but there are no beds there. It stands to reason."

"Then put down two mattresses on the floor, and we will make the best of
them fo