By two the
inspiration of their liquor had begun to wear off; they were weary
and humble, and after a great circuit found themselves in the same
street where they had begun their search, and in front of a French
hotel where they had already sought accommodation. Seeing the house
still open, they returned to the charge. A man in a white cap sat in
an office by the door. He seemed to welcome them more warmly than
when they had first presented themselves, and the charge for the
night had somewhat unaccountably fallen from a dollar to a quarter.
They thought him ill-looking, but paid their quarter apiece, and were
shown upstairs to the top of the house. There, in a small room, the
man in the white cap wished them pleasant slumbers.
It was furnished with a bed, a chair, and some conveniences. The
door did not lock on the inside; and the only sign of adornment was a
couple of framed pictures, one close above the head of the bed, and
the other opposite the foot, and both curtained, as we may sometimes
see valuable water-colours, or the portraits of the dead, or works of
art more than usually skittish in the subject.
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