The hotel itself, standing on the street, was old, and built on a grand scale; it had been the home of a French ducal family in the time of Louis XIV.

The rooms on the two lower floors were imposing and spacious; with ceilings of great height, gilded wainscoting and various quaint little medallion pictures of shepherds and shepherdesses, and other fancies of the time of Madame de Sevigne.

Those little shepherds were supposed to have looked down upon _la mere beaute_, and upon _la plus jolie fille de France_ as she danced her incomparable minuets.

Those grand saloons were now devoted to the humble service of a school for young ladies.

But on the third floor, to which one ascended by a fine stone stairway, broad and easy, with elaborate iron railings, there was a more simple set of rooms, comfortably furnished, where the American family were pleasantly provided for, in a home of their own.