staircase amid a perfect bevy of followers--the General walking
as though he had been hit over the head with a cudgel, and De
Griers seeming to be plunged in thought. Endeavouring to be left
behind, Mlle. Blanche next thought better of it, and followed
the rest, with the Prince in her wake. Only the German savant
and Madame de Cominges did not leave the General's apartments.


X

At spas--and, probably, all over Europe--hotel landlords and
managers are guided in their allotment of rooms to visitors, not
so much by the wishes and requirements of those visitors, as by
their personal estimate of the same. It may also be said that
these landlords and managers seldom make a mistake. To the
Grandmother, however, our landlord, for some reason or another,
allotted such a sumptuous suite that he fairly overreached
himself; for he assigned her a suite consisting of four
magnificently appointed rooms, with bathroom, servants'
quarters, a separate room for her maid, and so on. In fact,
during the previous week the suite had been occupied by no less
a personage than a Grand Duchess: which circumstance was duly
explained to the new occupant, as an excuse for raising the
price of these apartments. The Grandmother had herself carried--
or, rather, wheeled--through each room in turn, in order that she
might subject the whole to a close and attentive scrutiny; while
the landlord--an elderly, bald-headed man--walked respectfully by
her side.

What every one took the Grandmother to be I do not know, but it