"So we right about face and started back again--stumbling as if we
were boozed, slipping, puffing, splashing and bespattering
ourselves. One of the boys cried to me through the wind and rain,
'We'll go back with you as far as your home, all the same. If we
haven't a house we've time enough.'

"'Where will you sleep?'

"'Oh, we'll find somewhere, don't worry, for the little time we have
to kill here.'

"'Yes, we'll find somewhere, all right,' I said. 'Come in again for
a minute meanwhile--I won't take no--and Mariette sees us enter once
more in single file, all five of us soaked like bread in soup.

"So there we all were, with only one little room to go round in and
go round again--the only room in the house, seeing that it isn't a
palace.

"'Tell me, madame,' says one of our friends, 'isn't there a cellar
here?'

"'There's water in it,' says Mariette; 'you can't see the bottom
step and it's only got two.'

"'Damn,' says the man, 'for I see there's no loft, either.'

"After a minute or two he gets up: 'Good-night, old pal,' he says to
me, and they get their hats on.