Part 28 (1/2)

In each of our many sojourns in Paristhe while in the restaurants, at first the cheaper, like the Cafe de Progress and the Duval places; then the Boeuf a la Mode, the Cafe Voisin and the Cafe Anglais, with Chaular luncheon resort

At length, the children sorown, I said: ”We have never tried a Paris _pension_”

So with a half dozen recommended addresses we set out on a house hunt

We had not gone far when our search was rewarded by a veritable find

This was on the Avenue de Courcelles, not far froes; the lady er a beautiful well-mannered woman, half Scotch and half French

We moved in When dinner was called the boarders asse-room Madame presented us to Baron ---- Then followed introductions to Madame la duchesse and Mada doors opened and dinner was announced

The baron sat at the center of the table The ht or ten courses, served as if at a private house, and of surpassing quality

During the threehouse It appeared an aristocratic family into which we had been hospitably adhtful person Madame la duchesse was the

The Comtesse, the Napoleonic as at first a little forot acquainted, and, e took our departure, it was like leaving a veritable domestic circle

Years after we had the sequel The baron, a poor young nobleht to make it breed He had an equally poor Scotch cousin, who undertook to play hostess Both the duchess and the Countess were his kinswoe last?

He lost his all What becaers I never learned, but the venture coh-bred ladyas a stewardess on an ocean liner Nothing, however, could exceed the luxury, the felicity and the good company of those memorable three months _chez l'Avenue de Courcelles, Pare Monceau_

We never tried a _pension_ again We chose a delightful hotel in the Rue de Castiglione off the Rue de Rivoli, and remained there as fixtures until ere reckoned the oldest inhabitants But we never deserted the dear old Boeuf a la Mode, which we lived to see one of theand popular places in Paris

II

In the old days there was a little hotel on the Rue Dannou,became the Avenue de l'Opera, called the Hotel d'Orient It was conducted by a certain Madaenin, whose family had held the lease for more than a hundred years, and was typical of what the coht find before the modern tourist onrush overflowed all bounds and effaced the ancient land a resort instead of a hohtfully comfortable and fabulously cheap

The wayfarer entered a darksoe that led to an inner court

There were on the four sides of this seven or eight stories pierced by many s There was never a lift, or e Ao up you walked up; and after dark your single illuht The service could hardly be recommended, but cleanliness herself could find no fault with the beds and bedding; nor any queer people about; changeless; as still and stationary as a nook in the Rockies

A young girl ht dwell there year in and year out in perfect safety--irls did so--madame a kind of duenna The food--for it was a _pension_--was all a gour with an old Parisian friend

”What do you think of this vintage?” says he

”Very good,” I answered ”Coive you the mate to it”

”What--at the d'Orient?”

”Yes, at the d'Orient”

”Preposterous!”