in
thunder don't you open the door?"

At this Mrs. Winslow plucked up the courage of desperation, and asked in
a loud and injured voice, "Who's there?"

"Why, me, of course; Barker, Jones's partner. I want to see Jones!"

"What Jones do you want?" asked Mrs. Winslow, to get time to think
further what to do.

"Jones, of Rochester, of course," yelled Fox. "Two ship-loads of spoiled
grain's just come in; don't know what to do with 'em."

"Sink 'em!" responded Mrs. Winslow, breathing freer.

"Where's Jones?" persisted Fox, banging away at the door again.

"There's no Jones here, you fool!" answered the woman hotly.

"Yes there is, too," insisted Fox. "Landlord told me so."

"Well," parried the female, raising her voice again, "Jones ain't in the
wheat trade at all; he's a professor of music; and besides that, he
ain't in here, either."

"Oh, beg pardon, ma'am," said Fox apologetically, "It isn't your Jones
I want _this time_, then. Hope I haven't disturbed you, madam," and he
walked away, having clinched the matter quite thoroughly enough for any
twelve honest and true men under the sun.

Mrs. Winslow stuck her head out of the door, launched a threat, coupled
with a well-defined oath, against Fox, who was leisurely strolling along
the hall, to the effect that he ought to be ashamed of himself for
"insulting a defenceless woman in that way, and that if he came there
again she would have him arrested." To which he cheerily responded, "No
offence meant, ma'am; 'fraid the wheat'd spoil, ye see;" and as he went
whistling down the stairs, she slammed the door, locked it, drew the
trembling Le Compte from under the bed, and amid a chime of crockery set
him upon his feet again with a snap to it, and then threw herself into a
rocking-chair and burst into tears, insisting that she was the most
abused woman on the face of earth, and that Le Compte, with his
"_Sacres!_" and "_Diables!_" hadn't the sense of a moth or the muscle of
an oyster, or he would have followed the brute and given him a sound
beating!

Not desiring to be seen by Fox, I ordered my dinner sent to my room, as
did the unhappy couple in the adjoining apartment, who seemed to be
greatly put out by the intrusion, and who were for an hour after
speculating as to the cause of the interruption, and as to whether it
was accidental or not.

"We mustn't come here any more, Le Compte," said the woman dolefully.

"And for why, my angel precious?" anxiously aske