At last the cab drew up with a clatter at the side of a particularly dark and narrow street, ascending somewhat sharply to the north-west from the point where they stopped. 'Now for the _concierge_,' said David, looking round him, after he had paid the man. And conning Barbier's directions in his mind, he turned into the gateway, and made boldly for a curtained door behind which shone a light. The woman, who came out in answer to his knock, looked him all over from head to foot, while he explained himself in his best French. '_Tiens_,' she said, indifferently, to a man behind her, 'it's the people for No. 26--_des Anglais_--_M. Paul te l'a dit_. Hand me the key.' The _bonhomme_ addressed--a little, stooping, wizened creature, with china-blue eyes, showing widely in his withered face under the light of the paraffin-lamp his wife was holding--reached a key from a board on the wall and gave it to her. The woman again surveyed them both, the young man and the girl, and seemed to debate with herself whether she should take the trouble to be civil. Finally she said in an ungracious voice-- 'It's the fourth floor to the right. I must take you up, I suppose.' David thanked her, and she preceded them with the light through a door opposite and up some stone stairs. When they had mounted two flights, she turned abruptly on the landing-- 'You take the _appartement_ from M. Dubois?' 'Yes,' said David, enchanted to find that, thanks to old Barbier's constant lessons, he could both understand and reply with tolerable ease; 'for a fortnight.' 'Take care; the landlord will be descending on you; M. Dubois never pays; he may be turned out any day, and his things sold. Where is Mademoiselle going to sleep?' 'But in M. Dubois' _appartement_,' said David, hoping this time, in his dismay, that he did _not_ understand; 'he promised to arrange everything.' 'He has arranged nothing. Do you wish that I should provide some things? You can hire some furniture from me. And do you want service?' The woman had a grasping eye. David's frugal instincts took alarm. '_Merci_, Madame! My sister and I do not require much. We shall wait upon ourselves. If Madame will tell us the name of some restaurant near--' Instead, Madame made an angry sound and thrust the key abruptly into Louie's hand, David being laden with the bags. 'There are two more flights,' she said roughly; 'then turn to the left, and go up the staircase straight in front of you--first door to the right. You've got eyes; you'll find the way.' '_Mais, Madame_--' cried David, bewildered by these directions, and trying to detain her. But she was already half-way down the flight below them, throwing back remarks which, to judge from their tone, were not complimentary.