ing
the best, and kept by a personal friend of his, bore the sign _a la
Parfaite Union_. The entry was by the kitchen, and through the steam and
odour of onions, illuminated by one doubtful oil-lamp, I saw the
guest-room filled with people in Sunday dress, while two fiddles played
each its own tune in its own time. Nothing but the potent name of M. the
Maire of Aviernoz gained me even a hearing; and, for a bed, I was
obliged to stretch my intimacy with that exalted personage to the very
furthest bounds of truth. Chappaz Nicolai, whose name the maire had
written in my note-book, that there might be no mistake, appeared to be
of that peculiar mental calibre which warrants Yorkshire peasants in
describing a man as 'half-rocked,' or 'not plumb.' His wife, on the
other hand, was one of those neat, gentle, sensible women, of whom one
wonders how they ever came to marry such thick-lipped and blear-eyed
men. Between them they informed me that if I did not object to share a
room, I could be taken in; otherwise--maire or no maire--not. I asked
whether they meant half a bed; but they said no, that would not be
necessary at present; and I accepted the offered moiety of accommodation,
as it was now seventeen hours since I had started in the morning, and I
was not inclined to turn out in the dark to look for a whole room
elsewhere.

The stairs were a sort of cross between a ladder and nothing, and when
we reached the proposed room a large mastiff was in possession, who
would not let us enter till the master was summoned to expel him. The
furniture consisted of a table and five chairs, with no bed or beds. On
the chairs were various articles of clothing, blouses and garments more
profound, belonging probably to members of the party below; and on the
table, a bottle of water and a soup-plate, the pitcher and basin of the
house. It was a mere slip of a room, with two diamond-shaped holes in
one wall, whose purpose I discovered when my guide opened a papered
door, in which were the holes, and displayed two beds foot to foot in an
alcove. One of these, she was sure, would be too short for me, but she
feared I must be satisfied with it, as the other was much broader and
would therefore hold the two messieurs. How the _two_? I asked, and was
told that two _pensionnaires_ lived in this room; but they were old
friends, and for one night would sleep in the same bed to oblige
monsieur. The ideas of length and breadth in connection with the beds