But you must come in until the rain is over, and try and dry yourself." "But how about the hall, Maria ?" said the man.

"There'll be a dreadful slop!" "Oh, I'll make that all right," she said.

She disappeared, and quickly returned with a couple of rugs, which she laid, wrong side up, on the polished floor of the hallway.

"Now you can step on those, sir, and come into the kitchen.

There's a fire there." I thanked her, and presently found myself before a large stove, on which it was evident, from the odors, that supper was preparing.