"Sir," Miss Lavinia said to Monsieur Gustave, speaking at last, "the house would suit us in some respects, especially as regards rent. But we might find it too lonely: and I should hardly like to be bound for five years." All that was of course for mesdames' consideration, he frankly responded. But he thought that if the ladies were established in it with their ménage about them, they would not find it lonely. "We will give you an answer to-morrow or Monday," decided Miss Lavinia. They went about the town all that day with Madame Carimon; but nothing in the shape of an apartment could be found to suit them. Madame invited them again to tea in the evening. And by that time they had decided to take the house. Nancy was wild about it. What with the change from the monotony of their country house to the bright and busy streets, the gay outdoor life, the delights of the table d'hôte, Ann Preen looked upon Sainteville as an earthly paradise. "The house is certainly more suited to you than anything else we have seen," observed Madame Carimon. "I have nothing to say against the Petite Maison Rouge, except its dull situation." "Did it strike you, Mary, apart from its situation, as being gloomy?" asked Lavinia. "No. Once you are in the rooms they are cheerful enough." "It did me. Gloomy, with a peculiar gloom, you understand. I'm sure the passage was dark as night. It must have been its darkness that startled me as we were going in." "By the way, Lavinia, what was the matter with you then?" interrupted her sister. "I don't know, Nancy; I said at the time I did not know. With my first step into the passage, some horror seemed to meet me and drive me backward." "Some horror!" repeated Nancy. "I seemed to feel it so. I had still the glare of the streets and the fiery red walls in my eyes, which must have caused the house passage to look darker than it ought. That was all, I suppose--but it turned me sick with a sort of fear; sick and shivery." "That salon may be made as pretty a room as any in Sainteville," remarked Madame Carimon. "Many of the English residents here have only one salon in their apartments. You see, we don't go in for ceremony; France is not like England."