was one of those refuges, growing scarcer and more scarce every day,
where unhappy men and women, who had been worsted in the battle of life,
could find a shelter in return for the change remaining from the last
five-franc piece. They treat it as the shipwrecked mariner uses the rock
upon which he climbs from the whirl of the angry waters, and breathes
a deep sigh of relief as he collects his forces for a fresh effort.
However wretched existence may be, a protracted sojourn in such a
shelter as the Hotel de Perou would be out of the question. The chambers
in every floor of the house are divided into small slips by partitions,
covered with canvas and paper, and pleasantly termed rooms by M.
Loupins. The partitions were in a terrible condition, rickety and
unstable, and the paper with which they were covered torn and hanging
down in tatters; but the state of the attics was even more deplorable,
the ceilings of which were so low that the occupants had to stoop
continually, while the dormer windows admitted but a small amount of
light. A bedstead, with a straw mattress, a rickety table, and two
broken chairs, formed the sole furniture of these rooms. Miserable
as these dormitories were, the landlady asked and obtained twenty-two
francs for them by the month, as there was a fireplace in each, which
she always pointed out to intending tenants.

The young woman whom M. Loupins alluded to by the name of Rose was
seated in one of these dreary dens on this bitter winter's day. Rose was
an exquisitely beautiful girl about eighteen years of age. She was very
fair; her long lashes partially concealed a pair of steely blue eyes,
and to a certain extent relieved their hard expression. Her ripe, red
lips, which seemed formed for love and kisses, permitted a glimpse of
a row of pearly teeth. Her bright waving hair grew low down upon her
forehead, and such of it as had escaped from the bondage of a cheap
comb, with which it was fastened, hung in wild luxuriance over her