"'Because you are a goose,' I answered impatiently, 'and if you don't come I will leave you. If you like, you can engage boarding here for a week, and raise the tiles one by one with a knife and fork. As for me, I am going to breakfast.'
"'But don't you think it really has an uncanny look?' she asked, giving a last glance over her shoulder as she came out.
"'If you call dirt uncanny, there is plenty of that. Shut the door, and I will push back the bed.'
"'Jane,' she again remarked as she was trying on her bonnet before the crooked glass, 'if ever I tell of this night, I think I will say that there was a trap-door in the kitchen: you know there might be one and we not see it.'
"'Oh yes,' I answered as patiently as I could, 'I suppose a fib more or less will make but little difference in your lifetime. While you are at it, however, you may as well make a few more additions.'
"'Now you are unkind.'
"'A person is not accountable for temper when famishing. Take up your satchel.'
"We found the house a most every-day-looking house, seen by sunlight; but there had lain the difficulty. The clerk in the office did not particularly resemble a cutthroat, or even a cutpurse, and, strange to say, did not overcharge us: in fact, he behaved very civilly. We found we were not far from the station, and depositing our bags there, we walked down the beautiful Rue La Fayette.
"'It is a great deal pleasanter to travel alone in this way,' said Nan gayly, her spirits rising in the delightful air. 'When I was here before with all the family, it was not near so jolly; and I think we manage well, don't you? Oh, there is an omnibus not complet: let us get in. I am too hungry to walk.'
"After we were seated she continued: 'I wonder what will happen to us to-night. Suppose we find every place full, and have to sleep in a garden or on the steps of a church, or something? Isn't it delightful not to know in the least what is going to happen next?—just as in fairy-land. Don't you hope we may have an adventure every night?'