house in the neighborhood. We entered the vestibule,
the outer door being open, and beheld, on one side of us, a row
of bell-handles. Above each of these handles was the mouth of a
speaking-tube, and above each of these, a little glazed frame containing
a visiting-card.

"Isn't this cute?" said Euphemia, reading over the cards. "Here's his
name and this is his bell and tube! Which would you do first, ring or
blow?"

"My dear," said I, "you don't blow up those tubes. We must ring the
bell, just as if it were an ordinary front-door bell, and instead of
coming to the door, some one will call down the tube to us."

I rang the bell under the boarder's name, and very soon a voice at the
tube said:

"Well?"

Then I told our names, and in an instant the front door opened.

"Why, their flat must be right here," whispered Euphemia. "How quickly
the girl came!"

And she looked for the girl as we entered. But there was no one there.

"Their flat is on the fifth story," said I. "He mentioned that in his
letter. We had better shut the door and go up."

Up and up the softly carpeted stairs we climbed, and not a soul we saw
or heard.

"It is like an enchanted cavern," said Euphemia. "You say the magic
word, the door in the rock opens and you go on, and on, through the
vaulted passages--"

"Until you come to the ogre," said the boarder, who was standing at the
top of the stairs. He did not behave at all like an ogre, for he was
very glad to see us, and so was his wife. After we had settled down
in the parlor and the boarder's wife had gone to see about something
concerning the dinner, Euphemia asked after the children.

"I hope they haven't gone to bed," she said, "for I do so want to see
the dear little things."

The ex-boarder, as Euphemia called him, smiled grimly.

"They're not so very little," he said. "My wife's son is nearly grown.
He is at an academy in Connecticut, and he expects to go into a civil
engineer's office in the spring. His sister is older than he is. My wife
married--in the first instance--when she was very young--very young in
deed."

"Oh!" said Euphemia; and then, after a pause, "And neither of them is at
home now?"

"No," said the ex-boarder. "By the way, what do you think of this dado?
It is a portable one; I devised it myself. You can take it away with you
to another house when you move. But there is the dinner-bell. I'll show
you over the establishment after we have had something to eat.