down--and it conducts itself in a thousand ill-natured ways like a
sulky child that has been waked up too early in the morning, and
not properly whipped into good behavior. The Individual, however,
entered the doors, unabashed by the malignant scowl which was
visible all over the face of the unamiable mansion, and stumbled
through a narrow, dirty hall, up two flights of groaning stairs,
before he discovered any sign of the whereabouts of Madame. She
evidently did not occupy the entire of this sulky edifice, or he
would have seen some of the servants or retainers, who would have
been only too happy to direct him to the head-quarters of the
sorceress. But the few people he saw about the place seemed to be
each one occupied with his or her own private affairs, and to be
too much taken up therewith to pay the slightest attention to the
new-comer. Their attentions to each other were confined to reproaches,
uncomplimentary assertions, and sundry maledictory remarks, accompanied,
in case of the younger members of the various tribes, with pinches,
pokes, punches, and small but frequent showers of brickbats.

The Individual disregarded these evidences of good feeling, not
considering himself called upon to reply to any which were not
addressed to him individually, and plodded on till his roving
eye rested on a tin sign, on which was inscribed, "Madame Fleury,
Room No. 4." There were no mysterious emblems or cabalistic
flourishes accompanying this simple announcement.

He pulled the knob and the door was instantly opened by the lady
herself, so quickly that the bell had no time to ring until all
necessity for it was over--she had evidently heard the advancing
footsteps of her customer, and had stood ready to pounce upon
him. She ushered him into the apartment, where he soon recovered
his self-possession, and took an observation.

The room was a small square one, shabbily furnished with very few
articles of furniture, and these were dimly visible through the
snuffy mist which filled the apartment; there was snuff
everywhere; there was a snuffy dust on the chairs; there was a
precipitate of snuff on the floor, and, if snuff was capable of
crystallization, there would undoubtedly have been stalactitic
formations of snuff depending from the ceiling; the Madame
herself was snuff-colored, as if she had been boiled in a
decoction of tobacco.

She is a Frenchwoman, and has had about half a century's
experience of her present flesh