No response! Just as he was consulting the _Telegraph_ to make sure of the number, the door silently swung back, and disclosed the figure of a middle-aged woman in black silk, who regarded him with a stern astonishment.
"Is this---- ?" he began, nervous and abashed by her formidable stare.
"Were you wanting rooms ?" she asked.
"Yes," said he.

"I was.

If I could just see----" "Will you come in ?" she said.

And her morose face, under stringent commands from her brain, began an imitation of a smile which, as an imitation, was wonderful.

It made you wonder how she had ever taught her face to do it.
Priam Farll found himself blushing on a Turkey carpet, and a sort of cathedral gloom around him.