e little rooms in the angle will make an excellent study. It
is the same arrangement as in my apartment below, also in the one
overhead."

"Yes," said Manon, "Monsieur Alain's apartment is just like this, only
his has a view of the tower."

"I think I had better see the rooms by daylight," said Godefroid,
timidly.

"Perhaps so," said Manon.

The priest and Godefroid went downstairs, leaving the woman to lock the
doors. When they re-entered the salon, Godefroid, who was getting inured
to the surroundings, looked about him while discoursing with Madame de
la Chanterie, and examined the persons and things there present.

The salon had curtains at its windows of old red damask, with
lambrequins, tied back at the sides with silken cords. The red-tiled
floor showed at the edges of an old tapestry carpet too small to cover
the whole room. The woodwork was painted gray. The plastered ceiling,
divided in two parts by a heavy beam which started from the fireplace,
seemed a concession tardily made to luxury. Armchairs, with their
woodwork painted white, were covered with tapestry. A paltry clock,
between two copper-gilt candlesticks, decorated the mantel-shelf. Beside
Madame de la Chanterie was an ancient table with spindle legs, on which
lay her balls of worsted in a wicker basket. A hydrostatic lamp lighted
the scene. The four men, who were seated there, silent, immovable, like
bronze statues, had evidently stopped their conversation with Madame de
la Chanterie when they heard the stranger returning. They all had cold,
discreet faces, in keeping with the room, the house, the quarter of the
town.

Madame de la Chanterie admitted the justice of Godefroid's observations;
but told him that she did not wish to make any change until she knew the
intentions of her lodger, or rather her boarder. If he would conform to
the customs of the house he could become her boarder; but these customs
were widely different from those of Paris. Life in the rue Chanoinesse
was like provincial life: the lodger must always be in by ten o'clock at
night; they disliked noise; and could have no women or children to break
up their customary habits. An ecclesiastic might conform to these ways.
Madame de la Chanterie desired, above all, some one of simple life,
who would not be exacting; she could afford to put only the strictest
necessaries into the apartment. Monsieur Alain (here she designated
one of the four men present) was satisfied, and she woul