room _chez_ Delle Josephine Boulanger, nothing whatever of any
interest took place until I had been there quite a week. I lived
most regularly and monotonously; rising at eight I partook of coffee
made by my landlady, accompanied by tinned fruit for which I formed
a great taste. Then I went out, getting my mid-day meal where I could,
eggs and bacon at a farmhouse, or tough steak at the hotel, and
sometimes not getting anything at all until I returned ravenously
hungry to my lodging. On these occasions the little Frenchwoman
showed herself equal to the extent of cooking a chicken or liver and
bacon very creditably and then I would write and read in my own room
till eleven. I must not forget to say that I never failed to look at
the wonderful scarlet hat in the window every time I went out or
came in. Purchasers for it would be rare I thought; I half formed
the idea of buying it myself when I went away as a "Souvenir."
One day I came home very tired. After walking about, vainly waiting
for a terrific snowstorm to pass over that I might go on with my work--
the frozen fall of Montmorenci, framed in the dark pines and somber
rocks that made such a back ground for its glittering thread of ice,
I gave it up, chilled in every limb, and began to consider whether I
was not a fool for pains. Although I started quite early in the
afternoon on my homeward walk, the snow, piled in great masses
everywhere along the route, impeded my progress to such an extent
that it was nearly seven o'clock and pitch-dark when I got into the
village. Bonneroy was very quiet. Shutters were up to every shop,
nobody was out except a dog or two and the snow kept falling, falling,
still in as persistent a fashion as if it had not been doing the
same thing for six hours already. I found the shop shut up and the
door locked. I looked everywhere for a bell or knocker of some
description. There was neither, so I began to thump as hard as I
could with my feet against the door. In a minute or two I heard
Delle Josephine coming. Perhaps I had alarmed the poor soul. She did
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