oms and a parlor.'

"'I will take it,' I said, with composure.

"'On probation,' muttered the clerk, insolently.

"Swallowing the insult, I followed the bell-boy up the stairs, keeping
between him and Wilhelmina, for I dreaded to see him walk through her
as if she were thin air. A trim maid rose to meet us and conducted us
through a hallway into a large apartment. She threw open all the
bedroom-doors and said, 'Will monsieur have the goodness to choose?'

"'Which will you take,' I began, turning to Wilhelmina.

"'I? Monsieur!' cried the startled maid.

"That completely upset me. 'Here,' I muttered, slipping some silver
into her hand; 'now, for the love of Heaven, run away!'

"When she had vanished with a doubtful 'Merci, monsieur!' I handed the
professor the keys and asked him to settle the thing with Wilhelmina.

"Wilhelmina took the corner room, the professor rambled into the next
one, and I said good-night and crept wearily into my own chamber. I
sat down and tried to think. A great feeling of fatigue weighted my
spirits.

"'I can think better with my clothes off,' I said, and slipped the
coat from my shoulders. How tired I was! 'I can think better in bed,'
I muttered, flinging my cravat on the dresser and tossing my
shirt-studs after it. I was certainly very tired. 'Now,' I yawned,
grasping the pillow and drawing it under my head--'now I can think a
bit.' But before my head fell on the pillow sleep closed my eyes.

"I began to dream at once. It seemed as though my eyes were wide open
and the professor was standing beside my bed.

"'Young man,' he said, 'you've won my daughter and you must pay the
piper!'

"'What piper?' I said.

"'The Pied Piper of Hamelin, I don't think,' replied the professor,
vulgarly, and before I could realize what he was doing he had drawn a
reed pipe from his dressing-gown and was playing a strangely annoying
air. Then an awful thing occurred. Cats began to troop into the room,
cats by the hundred--toms and tabbies, gray, yellow, Maltese, Persian,
Manx--all purring and all marching round and round, rubbing against
the furniture, the professor, and even against me. I struggled with
the nightmare.

"'Take them away!' I tried to gasp.

"'Nonsense!' he said; 'here is an old friend.'

"I saw the white tabby cat of the Hotel St. Antoine.

"'An old friend,' he repeated, and played a dismal melody on his
reed.

"I saw Wilhelmina enter the room, lift the white tabby in her arms,