like a hammock, with an exhilarating motion. For some while I was so

extremely pleased with these particulars that I thought I could never

be weary of beholding them: then dropped of a sudden into a causeless

sadness; and then, with the same swiftness and spontaneity, arrived at

the conclusion that I was drunk and had better get to bed.

It was but a step or two to my hotel, where I got my lighted candle from

the porter and mounted the four flights to my own room. Although I could

not deny that I was drunk, I was at the same time lucidly rational and

practical. I had but one preoccupation--to be up in time on the morrow

for my work; and when I observed the clock on my chimney-piece to have

stopped, I decided to go down stairs again and give directions to the

porter. Leaving the candle burning and my door open, to be a guide to me

on my return, I set forth accordingly. The house was quite dark; but as

there were only the three doors on each landing, it was impossible to

wander, and I had nothing to do but descend the stairs until I saw the

glimmer of the porter's night light. I counted four flights: no porter.

It was possible, of course, that I had reckoned incorrectly; so I went

down another and another, and another, still counting as I went, until

I had reached the preposterous figure of nine flights. It was now quite

clear that I had somehow passed the porter's lodge without remarking

it; indeed, I was, at the lowest figure, five pairs of stairs below

the street, and plunged in the very bowels of the earth. That my hotel

should thus be founded upon catacombs was a discovery of considerable

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