"Do you know where we're going here?" asked Joe of me, as we continued our way through mazes of gloomy lanes that grew gradually less and less frequented. "No," said I, in a whisper, "but 'tis best be on our guard here: we are in a bad neighborhood." "Well, there's three boys there," said he, pointing to his sons, who walked in front, "that will pay for all they get. Will you ax the fellows how far we 're to go yet, for they don't mind me." "Are we near this same lodging-house?" said I, bluntly, to the guides, and using French, to show that I was no unfledged arrival from beyond the seas. "Ah!" cried one, "a gaillard from the battery." "Where from, à la gueule de loup, young mounsieur?" said the other, familiarly catching me by the lapel of my coat. "Because I am not afraid of his teeth," said I, with an easy effrontery my heart gave a flat lie to. "Vrai?" said he, with a laugh of horrible meaning. "Vrai!" repeated I, with a sinking courage, but a very bold voice. "I wish we were in better company," whispered I to Joe; "what directions did you give these fellows?" "To show us the best lodging-house for the night, and that we 'd pay well for it." "Ah!" thought I, "that explains something." "Here we are, mounseers," said one, as, stopping at the door of a two-storied house, he knocked with his knuckles on the panel. "Nous filions, slick, en suite, here," said the other, holding out his hand. "They are going!" whispered I; "they want to be paid, and we are well rid of them." "It would be manners to wait and see if they 'll let us in," said Joe, who did not fancy this summary departure, while he fumbled in his pocket for a suitable coin. "Vite!--quick!--sharp time!" cried one of the fellows, who, as the sound of voices was heard from within, seemed impatient to be off; and so, snatching rather than taking the shilling which still lingered in Joe's reluctant fingers, he wheeled about and fled, followed rapidly by the other. "Qui va!" cried a sharp voice from within, as I knocked for the second time on the door-panel with a stone. "Friends," said I; "we want a lodging and something to eat." The door was at once opened, and, by the light of a lantern, we saw the figure of an old woman, whose eyes, bleared and bloodshot, glared at us fixedly. "'Tis a lodgen' yez want?" said she, in an accent that showed her to be Irish. "And who brought yez here?" "Two young fellows we met on the quay," said Joe; "one called the other 'Tony.'" "Ay, indeed!" muttered the hag; "I was sure of it: his own son! his own son!" These words she repeated in a tone of profound sorrow, and for a time seemed quite unmindful of our presence. "Are we to get in at all?" said the old man, in an accent of impatience. "What a hurry yer in; and maybe 'tis wishing yerself out again ye 'd be, after ye wor in!"