Edith's next task was to identify the house. She stepped out into the street again and crossed to the opposite pavement. She looked up to the second storey, but, owing to the short distance--barely fourteen feet--that separated her from the house--she could discern nothing, save that the windows on that floor were closely shuttered. She rapidly noted that the door was the third removed from the lamp. Whilst wondering what to do next, a couple of girls approached her. They were young and of course inquisitive. Without any dissimulation, they stood in front of her and scrutinized her face, wondering, no doubt, who this tall and graceful newcomer could be. "What is your name?" said one. "Where do you live? Have you just come here? Are you staying with old Mother Peter?" With difficulty Edith caught the drift of their questions. But she answered smilingly-- "No, I do not live here, and I do not know Mother Peter. But I want you to tell me who lives in the house opposite?" Her Parisian French greatly surprised the two girls, who giggled at each other, and one of them cried-- "Oh, here's a lark!" But they scented an intrigue, and were quite ready to give all the information in their power. "A lot of people live there," said the elder one, trying, with the ready tact of her nation, to accommodate her words to the understanding of the stranger. "It all depends who you want to know about. On the ground floor is Josef the barber and his wife, with three little ones. It cannot be them, I am sure, and it cannot be Monsieur Ducrot, who is their lodger, for he is seventy years old and a sacristan in the Church of the Sacred Heart. Then on the first floor there are three men, not a woman amongst them. One is a bill-sticker, another a fisherman, and the third a waiter in the Café du Midi. I do not know their proper names. We call the bill-sticker 'Paste-pot,' and the fisherman 'Crab.' The waiter is called 'Thomas' in the café, but when a letter comes for him it is in another name. Then, on the second floor--by the way, Marie, who is it that lives on the second floor?" Edith with difficulty restrained her excitement. She felt that if only these youngsters rattled on a little longer she might gain some valuable information. Marie, thus appealed to, was evidently of a more cautious temperament than her companion. "If the young lady will tell us why she wants to know, we may be able to help her?" she stipulated.