ch other's scalps.

Angry exclamations reached me as I came towards them.

"Mais je vous dis, je ne savais pas!"

"Mais c'est impossible!"

"Pas en regie!"

"Que voulez vous? C'est un barbare!"

Then as I came up there was a general cry of "Le voila! le voila!" and
in an instant they were all around me, all clamouring, screaming,
questioning me at once. The master of the hotel in the greatest
agitation, the manager in his shirt sleeves, two or three waiters, a
man looking like a gendarme, and another official with a paper in his
hand. For a second they shouted so--nothing could be distinguished
except broken phrases and the continual repetition of the words
"Notification" and "M'sieur le Commissionaire."

"A vous la responsibilite!"

"Moi? je n'en savais rien!"

"Il veut abimer notre sante!"

"Il partera tout de suite!"

I looked at them for a moment in amaze, and the fellow with the paper
thundered out--"Silence," which produced the effect of cold thrown
suddenly in boiling water. The little crowd pressed in upon me closely
and listened awe-struck as the Commissionaire spoke to me, in French,
of course.

"Monsieur," he said, in an impressive tone, "I am informed you have a
dog here!"

I nodded.

"A dog--dead!" and the accent on the last word was terrific.

"My dog unfortunately has died," I said. "Yes"--and I wondered more and
more the upshot of it all.

"Then," thundered the official, purple with excited rage, "how is it,
Monsieur, you have not sent a notification to the police?"

I was fairly taken aback. The matter, though I barely yet comprehended
it, was evidently, in their estimation, one of serious importance.
Involuntarily, I glanced round at the others as the Commissionaire
scowled threateningly at me. They noted my glance, and attributing it,
I suppose, to guilty confusion, there were suppressed and complacent
murmurs all round me, and shakes of the head.

"Pas d'explication!"

"Vous voyez ca?"

"Point d'excuse!"

"It is scandalous, it is shameful, it is abominable, M'sieur," shouted
the Commissionaire, "the way you have acted! Twenty-four hours you hide
the dead body of a dog in your bedroom! You hope to escape the eye of
the law! You would bring disgrace on the gendarmerie, on the
municipality of Paris! You laugh at our regulations, M'sieur, you
laugh!" and he brandished the paper violently. "But you will find the
authority of France is greater than you! There are cells, M'sieu