tain of the family luggage on the pier, and afterwards
of its being fed into the baggage-car of the train. Ollendorff abandoned
me thus early in my travels; nor was my father much better off. But Miss
Shepard, now restored to life, made amends for her late incompetence
by discoursing with excited French officials with what seemed to me
preternatural intelligence; indeed, I half doubted whether there were
not some conspiracy to deceive in that torrent of outlandish sounds
which she and they were so rapidly pouring forth to one another.
However, all turned out well, and there we were, in a compartment of a
French railway-train, smelling of stale tobacco, with ineffective zinc
foot-warmers, and an increasing veil of white frost on the window-panes,
which my sisters and myself spent our time in trying to rub off that
France might become visible. But the white web was spun again as fast
as we dissipated it, and nothing was to be seen, at all events, but
long processions of poplars, which interested me only because I imagined
myself using them as lances in some romantic Spenserian adventure of
knight-errantry--for the spell of that chivalric dream still hung
about me. So we came to Amiens, a pallid, clean, chilly town, with
high-shouldered houses and a tall cathedral, and thence went on to Paris
at five o'clock. It was already dusk, and our transit to the Hotel de
Louvre in crowded cabs, through streets much unlike London, is the sum
of my first impressions of the wonderful city.

Then, marshalled by princely yet deferential personages in rich
costumes, we proceeded up staircases and along gilded corridors to a
suite of sumptuous apartments, with many wax candles in candelabra,
which were immediately lighted by an attendant, and their lustre was
reflected from tall mirrors which panelled the rooms. The furniture
thus revealed was costly and elegant, but hardly comfortable to an
English-bred sense; the ceilings were painted, the floor rich with
glowing carpets. But the glow of color was not answered by a glow of any
other sort; a deadly chill pervaded this palatial place, which fires, as
big as one's fist, kindled in fireplaces as large as hall bedrooms, did
nothing to dissipate. Hereupon our elders had compassion on us, and,
taking from the tall, awful bedsteads certain crimson comforters, they
placed each of us in an easy-chair and tucked the comforters in over us.
These comforters, covered with crimson silk, were of great th