Lacville is neither better nor worse than other towns near the capital!"

The carriage had now drawn up before a large, plain, white house, across
which was painted in huge, black letters, "Hôtel-Pension Malfait."

"This is the place I have found!" exclaimed Anna. "Would you care to come
in and see the room I've engaged from next Monday week?"

Sylvia followed her into the house with curiosity and interest. Somehow
she did not like the Pension Malfait, though it was clear that it had
once been a handsome private mansion standing in large grounds of its
own. The garden, however, had now been cut down to a small strip, and the
whole place formed a great contrast to the gay and charming Villa du Lac.

What garden there was seemed uncared for, though an attempt had been made
to make it look pretty with the aid of a few geraniums and marguerites.

M. Malfait, the proprietor of the Pension, whom Sylvia had already seen
with Anna at the Casino, now came forward in the hall, and Sylvia
compared him greatly to his disadvantage, to the merry M. Polperro.

"Madame has brought her friend?" he said eagerly, and staring at Sylvia
as he spoke. "I hope that Madame's friend will come and stay with us too?
I have a charming room which I could give this lady; but later on we
shall be very full--full all the summer! The hot weather is a godsend
for Lacville; for it drives the Parisians out from their unhealthy city."

He beckoned to his wife, a disagreeable-looking woman who was sitting in
a little glass cage made in an angle of the square hall.