Having waited about a quarter of an hour, anxiously listening for the
rumbling of the expected wheels, I heard in the distance a strange kind
of noise, resembling that of a fire-shovel, a pair of tongs, a poker,
and an iron hoop tied loosely together with a string, and drawn over
the pavement! "What in the world is that?" said I. "It is the chaise,"
was the answer. The vehicle was quickly at the door. In we were
bundled, and orders given to drive us to the "St. Charles's." We
scarcely knew what this "St. Charles's" was; but, as all with whom we
had conversed seemed to take it for granted that we should go thither,
and as any one _saint_ was to us as good as any other, we echoed, "To
the St. Charles's." And now began such a course of jolting as we had
never before experienced. It seemed as if all the gutters and
splash-holes in the universe had been collected together, and we had to
drive over the whole. This continued about half an hour, by which we
learned that we were at first much further from the "St. Charles's"
than we supposed. The machine at last stopped, and we alighted,
thankful to have escaped a complete stoppage of our breath.

We were there. A waiter (he was not to be mistaken,--he bore a family
resemblance to all the waiters of the world) was instantly at the
coach-door, to help us _out_ and to help us _in_. He conducted us into
a lobby, up a flight of stairs, and through a long passage, to a large
saloon, where about 150 ladies and gentlemen were assembled,--some
sitting, some standing, some talking, some laughing, and some playing
with their fingers. But, no! we shrunk back. Thither we would not be
led, all wet and dirty as we were. We begged to be shown into a private
room. The waiter stared, and said he had none to take us to, except I
would first go to the "office." But what was to become of my
fellow-traveller in the meantime? No woman belonging to the