ABOUT BUYING A HORSE. 41 



leading to passage, where stands^ paicsing, Blucher with two 

 candlesticks and candles lis^hted, preceding weary Traveller 

 with hand-bag. Myself in the ce7itre, with bag and stick, 

 in a stiu'dy CroinwelliaJi-take-away-that-bauble sort of atti- 

 tude. Welliiigton Boots going sulkily back to his bed some- 

 where on the left. Growling accompaniment at i?itervals 

 from tinder the table. 



N.B. As they say in play-books, with regard to stage- 

 directions, the reader is supposed to be on the stage facing 

 the audience. 



"Are the rooms," I demand, "at the top of the House?" 



" They are," returns the Long Boots, scowhng, as though 

 the admission had been wrung from him by my severe cross- 

 examination. 



" Then," I say to my Chance Companion, " you take 'em : 

 I shan't. I shall go to the Hotel de Paris." 



My Chance Companion, clearly wearied by the strife, 

 throws towards me one despairing glance, with something, 

 too, of reproach in it, which he perhaps means should haunt 

 me to my dying day, and follows the Short Boots as though 

 I had ordered him away to instant execution in a private 

 room. 



" Farewell, Brave Spaniard ! and when next ", but 



he has walked off. 



I go to the Hotel de Paris, Aiiglice superior sort of 

 English tavern. Brisk person to welcome me. Room first 

 floor. Large bed. Gigantic washing-stand. Everything 

 thoroughly English in the Hotel de Paris. Prints on the 

 walls ; a sufticiently rare collection to distract me for some 



