the
rooms as a lie.

On the day of his arrival, he dined by himself in the restaurant,
before the hour of the table d'hote, for the express purpose of
questioning the waiter, without being overheard by anybody. The answer
led him to the conclusion that '13 A' occupied the situation in the
hotel which had been described by his brother and sister as the
situation of '14.' He asked next for the Visitors' List; and found that
the French gentleman who then occupied '13 A,' was the proprietor of a
theatre in Paris, personally well known to him. Was the gentleman then
in the hotel? He had gone out, but would certainly return for the
table d'hote. When the public dinner was over, Francis entered the
room, and was welcomed by his Parisian colleague, literally, with open
arms. 'Come and have a cigar in my room,' said the friendly Frenchman.
'I want to hear whether you have really engaged that woman at Milan or
not.' In this easy way, Francis found his opportunity of comparing the
interior of the room with the description which he had heard of it at
Milan.

Arriving at the door, the Frenchman bethought himself of his travelling
companion. 'My scene-painter is here with me,' he said, 'on the
look-out for materials. An excellent fellow, who will take it as a
kindness if we ask him to join us. I'll tell the porter to send him up
when he comes in.' He handed the key of his room to Francis. 'I will
be back in a minute. It's at the end of the corridor--13 A.'

Francis entered the room alone. There were the decorations on the
walls and the ceiling, exactly as they had been described to him! He
had just time to perceive this at a glance, before his attention was
diverted to himself and his own sensations, by a grotesquely
disagreeable occurrence which took him completely by surprise.

He became conscious of a mysteriously offensive odour in the room,
entirely new in his experience of revolting smells. It was composed
(if such a thing could be) of two mingling exhalations, which were
separately-discoverable exhalations nevertheless. This strange
blending of odours consisted of something faintly and unpleasantly
aromatic, mixed with another underlying smell, so unutterably sickening
that he threw open the window, and put his head out into the fresh air,
unable to endure the horribly infected atmosphere for a moment longer.

The French proprietor joined his English friend, with his cigar already
lit. He started back in dismay at a sig