"White wine, if you please; we prefer white wine. There is none on
the table? Then you will please to get some, and to remember to
place a bottle of it always here, between my daughter and myself."

"That lady seems to know what she wants," said Mr. Ruck, "and she
speaks so I can understand her. I can't understand every one, over
here. I should like to make that lady's acquaintance. Perhaps she
knows what _I_ want, too; it seems hard to find out. But I don't
want any of their sour white wine; that's one of the things I don't
want. I expect she'll be an addition to the pension."

Mr. Ruck made the acquaintance of Mrs. Church that evening in the
parlour, being presented to her by his wife, who presumed on the
rights conferred upon herself by the mutual proximity, at table, of
the two ladies. I suspected that in Mrs. Church's view Mrs. Ruck
presumed too far. The fugitive from the Pension Chamousset, as M.
Pigeonneau called her, was a little fresh, plump, comely woman,
looking less than her age, with a round, bright, serious face. She
was very simply and frugally dressed, not at all in the manner of Mr.
Ruck's companions, and she had an air of quiet distinction which was
an excellent defensive weapon. She exhibited a polite disposition to
listen to what Mr. Ruck might have to say, but her manner was
equivalent to an intimation that what she valued least in boarding-
house life was its social opportunities. She had placed herself near
a lamp, after carefully screwing it and turning it up, and she had
opened in her lap, with the assistance of a large embroidered marker,
an octavo volume, which I perceived to be in German. To Mrs. Ruck
and her daughter she was evidently a puzzle, with her economical
attire and her expensive culture. The two younger ladies, however,
had begun to fraternise very freely, and Miss Ruck presently went