"Yes," said Mrs. Jones; "it includes cooking and attendance, and everything."

"Fire ?" asked Grimkie.

"No, not fire," said Mrs. Jones. "If you have a fire that will be two shillings a week besides."

"That will make twenty-seven shillings a week, then, in all," said Grimkie.

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Exactly so," said Mrs. Jones.

Twenty-seven shillings a week is at the rate of about one dollar a day.

Grimkie and Florence then took leave of Mrs. Jones after Grimkie had first made a memorandum of the street and number-and then went back to the hotel. They found Mrs. Morelle sitting before the fire in the little sittingroom, reading the stories in a bound volume of an illustrated newspaper. They reported to her the result of their inquiries. Mrs. Morelle was much pleased with the account they gave of the

rooms.

"Where is the house ?" she asked.

"It is in David Place, Bath Street," said Grimkie. At the same time he took the memorandum out of his pocket to look at the number. "Is it too far from here for me to walk ?" asked Mrs. Morelle.

"We don't know how far it is, by the nearest

way," replied Grimkie. "We went by a very round-about way, both in going and in coming home. In fact we don't know the nearest way, and so we had better take a carriage."

"Very well," said Mrs. Morelle, "ring the bell and order a carriage, and I will go with you and see the rooms."

So Grimkie rang the bell and ordered a carriage, while Mrs. Morelle made her preparations. When the carriage was ready she took her traveling bag in her hand and went down stairs. Grimkie and Florence went with her. Fortunately they met John at the door, coming home from his walk upon the piers. They all entered the carriage, and Grimkie gave his memorandum to the coachman. In about ten minutes the carriage stopped at Mrs. Jones's door.

Mrs. Morelle was very much pleased with the situation of the house, and she was still better pleased with the rooms when she went in and saw them. Every thing in the bed-rooms looked very nice and clean, and this was a point of the utmost consequence in her eyes. She liked the cheerful and comfortable appearance of the drawing-room, and was pleased with the prospect from the windows. In a word, she determined at once to take he rooms for a week.

"We will consider the rent as settled at

twenty-five shillings a week," she said to Mrs. Jones, "but as to the coal for the fires, if you please, we will not make any bargain about that, for I may use more than most people would, and I may wish for a fire in my bed-room sometimes, if the evenings should be cold. So I will burn

just as much as I like, and then you can charge me at the end of the week whatever you think it is worth."

Mrs. Jones readily acceded to this proposal.

"And now, Grimkie," said she, "do you think that you and John can go back to the hotel and pay the bill there ?"

"Yes, mother. We can do it just as well as not," said John.

"There will be the use of the room and the fire to pay for," said Mrs. Morelle, "and you must give each of the servants a shilling besides -the girl that brought the books to me, and the chambermaid, and the porter who puts the baggage on the carriage for you."

Grimkie was very ready to undertake this commission.

"And Florence and I will stay here till you come. We can have a fire made at once, I suppose, Mrs. Jones."

Mrs. Jones said she would go down immediately and send Fanny to make a fire. But

Florence preferred to go back in the carriage with Grimkie and John, for the sake of the ride. Mrs. Morelle consented to this, and the carriage drove away.

Fanny, a nice-looking servant girl, came up immediately and made a fire, and Mrs. Morelle established herself in an arm-chair by the side of it, and amused herself by looking at the books which filled a pretty little bookcase in a corner of the room, until the carriage came back with the baggage.

The system of living in a lodging-house, as practised in English towns, is a very excellent imitation of housekeeping. The rooms that the lodger hires are her home. The landlady and her girl are her servants. Their services for taking care of the rooms, going to market, cooking the food, and doing every thing else that is required, are included in the payment of the rooms. The lady herself may go to market if she chooses. English ladies when living thus in lodgings generally do. Or, the landlady will make the purchases for her, and charge exactly what she pays. The lady can thus have what she likes for breakfast and dinner, and at such times as she likes, and live by herself with her own children and family, just as if she were at her own home.

If she has a maid in her own service whom

she is accustomed to depend upon, as a personal attendant, she brings her with her.

The lodging-houses in the country, and in country towns and small watering-places, are usually on a moderate scale in respect to style and expense. For such rooms as a family like Mrs. Morelle's would require, the price would ordinarily be from five to fifteen dollars per week, according to the character of the town and the size and the furnishing of the apartments. In London, however, and in some of the large and fashionable watering-places, there are lodginghouses quite elegant in their arrangements, with men-servants to wait upon the family, and facilities for giving dinners and evening parties, and for providing carriages and horses when the lodgers wish to ride. The expense, of course, in these establishments, is much greater than in the others; but it is very much less than it would be for the same accommodations at a hotel.

When Mrs. Morelle was in lodgings—and she generally took lodgings when she expected to remain in town for a week-it cost usually for her party from twenty to forty dollars a week, according to the size of the town and the style of the rooms. Whereas at the hotels the bills, including fees and gratuities to servants, amounted usually to about ten dollars a day-making