here frequently. My husband will perhaps be able to tell you; he is
there."

"Lead on," said the police-officer; "take me to the place. I will see
to it myself."

They passed into the hotel through the inner portal, and up the stairs
to the first floor, where the principal rooms were situated--three of
them furnished and decorated magnificently, altogether out of keeping
with the miserable exterior of the house, having enormous mirrors from
ceiling to floor, gilt cornices, damask hangings, marble console
tables, and chairs and sofas in marqueterie and buhl. The first room
evidently served for reception; there was a sideboard in one corner,
on which were the remains of a succulent repast, and dozens of empty
bottles. The second and third rooms were more especially devoted to
the business of the establishment. Long tables, covered with green
cloth, filled up the centre of each, and were strewed with cards, dice
and their boxes, croupier's rakes, and other implements of gaming.

The third room had been the scene of the crime. There upon the floor
lay the body of a man, a well-dressed man, wearing the white
kerseymere trousers, the light waistcoat, and long-tailed green coat
which were then in vogue. His clothes were all spotted and bedrabbled
with gore; his shirt was torn open, and plainly revealed the great
gaping wound from which his life's blood was quickly ebbing away.

The wounded man's head rested on the knee of the night porter, a
personage wearing a kind of livery, a strongly built, truculent-looking
villain, whose duties, no doubt, comprised the putting of people out as
well as the letting them into the house.