s far as the lower flight
of steps, on my way to enter it, when, by the tramping of horses in the
court, I found that another coach was driving in. It was raining, and,
as my own carriage drove from the door to make way for the newcomer, I
stopped where I was, until it could return. The carriage-steps rattled,
and presently a large, heavy-moulded man appeared in the door of the
hotel. He was grey, and limped a little, walking with a cane. His
carriage immediately drove round, and was succeeded by mine, again; so I
descended. We passed each other on the stairs, bowing as a matter of
course. I had got to the door, and was about to enter the carriage, when
it flashed on my mind that the visit might be to myself. The two lower
floors of the hotel were occupied as a girl's boarding-school; the
reason of our dwelling in it, for our own daughters were in the
establishment; _au second_, there was nothing but our own _appartement_,
and above us, again, dwelt a family whose visitors never came in
carriages. The door of the boarding-school was below, and men seldom
came to it, at all. Strangers, moreover, sometimes did honour me with
calls. Under these impressions I paused, to see if the visitor went as
far as our flight of steps. All this time, I had not the slightest
suspicion of who he was, though I fancied both the face and form were
known to me.

The stranger got up the large stone steps slowly, leaning, with one
hand, on the iron railing, and with the other, on his cane. He was on
the first landing, as I stopped, and, turning towards the next flight,
our eyes met. The idea that I might be the person he wanted, seemed then
to strike him for the first time. "Est-ce Mons. ---- que j'ai l'honneur
de voir?" he asked, in French, and with but an indifferent accent.
"Monsieur, je m'appelle ----. Eh bien, donc--je suis Walter Scott."

I ran up to the landing, shook him by the hand, which he stood holding
out to me cordially, and expressed my sense of the honour he was
conferring. He told me, in substance, that the Princesse ---- had been
as good as her word, and having succeeded herself in getting hold of
him, she had good-naturedly given him my address. By way of cutting
short all ceremony, he had driven from his hotel to my lodgings. All
this time he was speaking French, while my answers and remarks were in
English. Suddenly recollecting himself, he said--"Well, here have I been
_parlez-vousing_ to you, in a way to surprise you, n