that this announcement would impress him as much as I
desired; but, to my surprise, he only stared at me. "Eh!" he
exclaimed at last, in a faltering tone, "M. Gringuet's deputy?"

"Yes," I said, dismounting somewhat impatiently; "he is ill with the
gout and cannot come."

"And you--are his deputy?"

"I have said so."

Still he did not move to do my bidding, but continued to rub his bald
head and stare at me as if I fascinated him. "Well, I am--I mean--I
think we are full," he stammered at last, with his eyes like saucers.

I replied, with some impatience, that he had just said that he had a
room; adding, that if I was not in it and comfortably settled before
five minutes were up I would know the reason. I thought that this
would settle the matter, whatever maggot had got into the man's head;
and, in a way, it did so, for he begged my pardon hastily, and made way
for me to enter, calling, at the same time, to a lad who was standing
by, to attend to the horses. But when we were inside the door, instead
of showing me through the kitchen to my room, he muttered something,
and hurried away; leaving me to wonder what was amiss with him, and why
the loungers outside, who had listened with all their ears to our
conversation, had come in after us as far as they dared, and were
regarding us with an odd mixture of suspicion and amusement.

The landlord remained long away, and seemed, from sounds that came to
my ears, to be talking with someone in a distant room. At length,
however, he returned, bearing a candle and followed by a serving-man.
I asked him roughly why he had been so long, and began to rate him; but
he took the words out of my mouth by his humility, and going before me
through the kitchen--where his wife and two or three maids who were
about the fire stopped to look at us, with the basting spoons in their
hands--he opened a door which led again into the outer air.

"It is across the yard," he said apologetically, as he went before, and
opening a second door, stood aside for us to enter. "But it is a good
room, and, if you please, a fire shall be lighted. The shutters are
closed," he continued, as we passed him, Maignan and La Trape carrying
my baggage, "but they shall be opened. Hallo! Pierre! Pierre, there!
Open these shut--"

On the word his voice rose--and broke; and in a moment the door,
through which we had all passed unsuspecting, fell to with a crash
behind us. Before we could move we heard t