f the Ellison
travelling joke for her thus to prompt the colonel in his duty.

"I'm glad you mentioned it, Fanny. I was just going to drive off in
despair." The colonel vanished within doors, and after long delay came
out flushed, but not with triumph. "On the express condition that I have
ladies with me, one an invalid, I am promised a room on the fifth floor
some time during the day. They tell me the other hotel is crammed and
it's no use to go there."

Mrs. Ellison was ready to weep, and for the first time since her
accident she harbored some bitterness against Mr. Arbuton. They all sat
silent, and the colonel on the sidewalk silently wiped his brow.

Mr. Arbuton, in the poverty of his invention, wondered if there was not
some lodging-house where they could find shelter.

"Of course there is," cried Mrs. Ellison, beaming upon her hero, and
calling Kitty's attention to his ingenuity by a pressure with her well
foot. "Richard, we must look up a boarding-house."

"Do you know of any good boarding-houses?" asked the colonel of the
driver, mechanically.

"Plenty," answered the man.

"Well, drive us to twenty or thirty first-class ones," commanded the
colonel; and the search began.

The colonel first asked prices and looked at rooms, and if he pronounced
any apartment unsuitable, Kitty was despatched by Mrs. Ellison to view
it and refute him. As often as she confirmed him, Mrs. Ellison was sure
that they were both too fastidious, and they never turned away from a
door but they closed the gates of paradise upon that afflicted lady. She
began to believe that they should find no place whatever, when at last
they stopped before a portal so unboarding-house-like in all outward
signs, that she maintained it was of no use to ring, and imparted so
much of her distrust to the colonel that, after ringing, he prefaced his
demand for rooms with an apology for supposing that there were rooms to
let there. Then, after looking at them, he returned to the carriage and
reported that the whole affair was perfect, and that he should look no
farther. Mrs. Ellison replied that she never could trust his judgment,
he was so careless. Kitty inspected the premises, and came back in a
transport that alarmed the worst fears of Mrs. Ellison. She was sure
that they had better look farther, she knew there were plenty of nicer
places. Even if the rooms were nice and the situation pleasant, she was
certain that there must be some drawbacks which