To reach the restaurant, for which they were deviously steering, was the first relief.

To hear Michael bespeak a private room was a second and a still greater.

Nor, as they mounted the stair under the guidance of an unintelligible alien, did he fail to note with gratitude the fewness of the persons present, or the still more cheering fact that the greater part of these were exiles from the land of France.

It was thus a blessed thought that none of them would be connected with the Seminary; for even the French professor, though admittedly a Papist, he could scarce imagine frequenting so rakish an establishment.
The alien introduced them into a small bare room with a single table, a sofa, and a dwarfish fire; and Michael called promptly for more coals and a couple of brandies and sodas.
'O, no,' said Pitman, 'surely not--no more to drink.' 'I don't know what you would be at,' said Michael plaintively.

'It's positively necessary to do something; and one shouldn't smoke before meals I thought that was understood.