.

BESS.
On my way back I took the opposite side of the street from that I usually approached.

When I reached the little shop I paused.

First glancing at the various petty articles exposed in the window, I quietly stepped in.

A contracted and very low room met my eyes, faintly lighted by a row of panes in the upper half of the door and not at all by the window, which was hung on the inside with a heavy curtain.