."

This, and no more, had Madame Bouisse to tell. I had sought her in her
own little retreat at the foot of the public staircase. It was a very
wet afternoon, and under pretext of drying my boots by the fire, I
stayed to make conversation and elicit what information I could. Now
Madame Bouisse's sanctuary was a queer, dark, stuffy little cupboard
devoted to many heterogeneous uses, and it "served her for parlor,
kitchen, and all." In one corner stood that famous article of furniture
which became "a bed by night, a chest of drawers by day." Adjoining the
bed was the fireplace; near the fireplace stood a corner cupboard filled
with crockery and surmounted by a grand ormolu clock, singularly at
variance with the rest of the articles. A table, a warming-pan, and a
couple of chairs completed the furniture of the room, which, with all
its contents, could scarcely have measured more than eight feet square.
On a shelf inside the door stood thirty flat candlesticks; and on a row
of nails just beneath them, hung two and twenty bright brass
chamber-door keys--whereby an apt arithmetician might have divined that
exactly two-and-twenty lodgers were out in the rain, and only eight
housed comfortably within doors.

"And how old should you suppose this lady to be?" I asked, leaning idly
against the table whereon Madame Bouisse was preparing an unsavory dish
of veal and garlic.

The _concierge_ shrugged her ponderous shoulders.

"Ah, bah, M'sieur, I am no judge of age," said she.

"Well--is she pretty?"

"I am no judge of beauty, either," grinned Madame Bouisse.

"But, my dear soul," I expostulated, "you have eyes!"

"Yours are younger than mine, _mon enfant_," retorted the fat
_concierge_; "and, as I see Mam'selle Hortense coming up to the door,
I'd advise you to make use of them for yourself."

And there, sure enough, was a tall and slender girl, dressed all in
black, pausing to close up her umbrella at the threshold of the outer
doorway. A porter followed her, carrying a heavy parcel. Having
deposited this in the passage, he touched his cap and stated his charge.
The young lady took out her purse, turned over the coins, shook her
head, and finally came up to Madame's little sanctuary.

"Will you be so obliging, Madame Bouisse," she said, "as to lend me a
piece of ten sous? I have no small change left in my purse."

How shall I describe her? If I say that she was not particularly
beautiful, I do her less than justice; fo