"Well, what should you say, from what you have seen?" my companion
asked.

"Oh," said I, "you can see all there is immediately. It's very
simple."

"Sweet simplicity, eh? I'm afraid my two ladies will find it too
simple."

"Everything is very good," I went on. "And Madame Beaurepas is a
charming old woman. And then it's very cheap."

"Cheap, is it?" my friend repeated meditatively.

"Doesn't it strike you so?" I asked. I thought it very possible he
had not inquired the terms. But he appeared not to have heard me; he
sat there, clasping his knee and blinking, in a contemplative manner,
at the sunshine.

"Are you from the United States, sir?" he presently demanded, turning
his head again.

"Yes, sir," I replied; and I mentioned the place of my nativity.

"I presumed," he said, "that you were American or English. I'm from
the United States myself; from New York city. Many of our people
here?"

"Not so many as, I believe, there have sometimes been. There are two
or three ladies."