rm into the night,
the door of the Pension Malfait was locked and barred, and Chester
followed his landlord into the long, dark house.

"One has to be careful. There are so many queer characters about," said
M. Malfait; and then, "Will M'sieur have something to eat? A little
refreshment, a bottle of lemonade, or of pale ale? We have splendid
Bass's ale," he said, solicitously.

But the Englishman shook his head, smiling. "Oh, no," he said slowly, in
his bad French, "I dined in Paris. All I need now is a good night's
rest."

"And that M'sieur will certainly have," said the landlord civilly.
"Lacville is famous for its sleep-producing qualities. That is why so
many Parisians content themselves with coming here instead of going
further afield."

They were walking through the lower part of the house, and then suddenly
M. Malfait exclaimed, "I was forgetting the bath-room! I know how
important to English gentlemen the bath-room is!"

The pleasant vista of a good hot bath floated before Chester's weary
brain and body. Really the house was not as primitive as he had thought
it when he had seen the landlord come forward with a candle.

M. Malfait turned round and flung open a door.

"It was an idea of my wife's," he said proudly. "You see, M'sieur, the
apartment serves a double purpose--"

And it did! For the odd little room into which Chester was shown by his
host served as store cupboard as well as bath-room. It was lined with
shelves on which stood serried rows of pots of home-made jam, jars of oil
and vinegar, and huge tins of rice, vermicelli, and tapioca, in a corner
a round zinc basin--but a basin of Brobdignagian size--stood under a cold
water tap.

"The bath is for those of our visitors who do not follow the regular
hydropathic treatment for which Lacville is still famous," said the
landlord pompously. "But I must ask M'sieur not to fill the bath too
full, for it is a great affair to empty it!"

He shut the door carefully, and led the way upstairs.

"Here we are," he whispered at last. "I hope M'sieur will be satisfied.
This is a room which was occupied by a charming Polish lady, Madame
Wolsky, who was a friend of M'sieur's friend, Madame Bailey. But she left
suddenly a week ago, and so we have the room at M'sieur's disposal."

He put the candle down, and bowed himself out of the room.

Chester looked round the large, bare sleeping chamber in which he found
himself with the agreeable feeling that his lo