"'Madame!' I ventured to correct in a weak voice.
"'Vos clefs, s'il vous plait,' said a polite official as we entered the door, and another laid hands on the satchels we carried, to examine them.
"We had entirely forgotten the octroi officers. 'Oh my! this affair may keep us another half hour,' thought I, 'and I am so sleepy!' I have often found (I confide this to you as an inviolable secret) that to be unreasonable is a woman's strongest weakness: it is a shield against which man's sharpest logic is invariably turned aside. The next thing to there not being a necessity, is not seeing a necessity, and this I prepared in the most innocent manner to do.
"'Gracious me!' I exclaimed—or its French equivalent, which I suppose is 'Mon Dieu'—'you don't mean to detain us here opening those bags, and we so tired, and they packed so full that we could scarcely shut them; and if you do open them, we cannot get all the things into them again, and shall have no end of trouble!' Then I looked as injured as if they had been thieves or highway-men.
"Had a man made this speech they would have mistrusted him, but as women have a reputation for shallowness, such talk is never thought suspicious in them.
"'What do they contain?' asked the officer, hesitating.
"'I don't know what all: we have been at the sea-side, and they are full of trash. There are some shells and an old hat in mine, and—and things.'
"He tried to conceal a smile, and looked toward the other, who nodded, and we saw the welcome 'O' put on in chalk, upon which the bags were given back to us.
"'Now the trunks,' said the first who had spoken, holding out his hand for the keys.