might have been ruled. Better take a look at them. Perhaps you may
have met at home."

"All the more reason for not looking," said the Boy. "Thank goodness,
here comes the landlord."

We could have had twenty rooms if we wished, for, said our host,
throwing a glance across the salon, he had only two other guests
besides ourselves. They had come up by the funicular, meaning to walk
next morning down to Chambery, but whether they could do so or not
depended on the weather. In any case, the hotel would close for the
season in a few days now, and the funicular cease to run. Fires should
be laid in our rooms immediately, and we should be made comfortable,
but as for our animals, unfortunately there were no stables attached
to the hotel, no accommodation whatever for four-footed creatures.
They would have to go back to the chalet, where they and their drivers
could be put up for the night.

"That will not do for Innocentina," exclaimed the boy quickly. In his
eagerness he raised his voice slightly, and the two young men at the
other end of the salon seemed waked suddenly to renewed interest in us
and our affairs. But the Boy's tone fell again instantly. "Innocentina
must have a room at this hotel," he went on. "The chalet will be bad
enough for Joseph. For her it would be impossible. Joseph won't mind
taking the donkeys down and caring for them this one night, for
Innocentina's sake."

"If know Joseph, it will afford him infinite satisfaction; and the
more intense his physical suffering, the happier he'll be in the
thought that he is bearing it for her," I replied. "I'll go out and
break the news to the poor chap."

The Boy sprang up. "No, no; don't leave me alone!" he cried. Then, as
I looked surprised, he added, more quietly: "I mean I'll go with you,
and talk to Innocentina. Meanwhile, our things can be sent up to our
rooms."

Though he had asked "what the men at the other end of the room were
like," he showed no desire to verify for himself the description I had
given. He kept his back religiously turned towards his countrymen, and
did not throw a single glance their way as we left the salon with the
landlord, though I saw that the two young Americans were interested in
him.

We returned to the door at the end of the long corridor, where we had
entered the hotel ten or fifteen minutes earlier, and found Joseph,
Innocentina, and the animals still sheltering against the house wall.
The porter had already retaile