built for such as we.

But such a top story, and such a chamber therein! A great, wide, low
room; beams deep and black, with here and there a brass bit hanging;
waxed floors, polished to mirrory perfection; a great bed clad in snowy
draperies, with a snow-white _duvet_ of gigantic proportions. The walls
were gray with lovely bunches of faded rosebuds flung abroad on the
soft surface; and to give a quaint and antique note to the whole, over
the chimney was a bit of worn tapestry with formidable dungeon, a
Norman keep in the background, and well up in front, a stalwart young
master of the hounds, with dogs in leash, of the heavy Norman type of
bulging muscle and high cheekbones.

Altogether, there were worse fates in the world than to be travellers
of a night, with the destiny of such a room as part of the fate.

When we descended the steep, narrow spiral of steps to the dining-room,
it was to find the eyes of our hostess brighter than ever. The noise in
the streets had subsided. It was long after dusk, and Coutances was
evidently a good provincial. But in the gay little dining-room there
was an astonishing bustle and excitement.

The _fete_ and the court had brought a crowd of diners to the inn-
table; when we were all seated we made quite a company at the long,
narrow board. The candles and lamps lit up any number of Vandyke
pointed beards, of bald heads, of loosely-tied cravats, and a few
matronly bosoms straining at the buttons of silk holiday gowns. For the
_Fete-Dieu_ had brought visitors besides ourselves from all the country
round; and then "a first communion is like a marriage, all the
relatives must come, as doubtless we knew," was a baldhead's friendly