with us!"

Mr. Arbuton thought he had better get another carriage; he should
incommode Mrs. Ellison; but Mrs. Ellison protested that he would not at
all; and, to cut the matter short, he mounted to the colonel's side. It
was another stroke of fate.

At the hotel they found a line of people reaching half-way down the
outer steps from the inside of the office.

"Hallo! what's this?" asked the colonel of the last man in the queue.

"O, it's a little procession to the hotel register! We've been three
quarters of an hour in passing a given point," said the man, who was
plainly a fellow-citizen.

"And haven't got by yet," said the colonel, taking to the speaker. "Then
the house is full?"

"Well, no; they haven't begun to throw them out of the window."

"His humor is degenerating, Dick," said Kitty; and "Hadn't you better go
inside and inquire?" asked Mrs. Ellison. It was part of the Ellison
travelling joke for her thus to prompt the colonel in his duty.

"I'm glad you mentioned it, Fanny. I was just going to drive off in
despair." The colonel vanished within doors, and after long delay came
out flushed, but not with triumph. "On the express condition that I have
ladies with me, one an invalid, I am promised a room on the fifth floor
some time during the day. They tell me the other hotel is crammed and