Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/439



ONSIEUR PLANCHE, the proprietor of a highly respectable pension on one of the Swiss lakes, sat in his office considering a letter that lay open before him. The letter contained a request that he would receive into his establishment a child of eighteen months and its nurse, an elderly, responsible woman. The request came from a former pensionnaire upon whose recommendation he could place perfect reliance.

The child had never been strong, the letter stated, and it was hoped that the air of the mountains would build him up. Neither father nor mother would accompany him, for the sad and sufficient reason that neither of them was living.

The obstacle that confronted monsieur, in answering the letter favorably, was that there existed a tacit understanding between him and his clientele that no small children, to say nothing of babies, were to be received by him. He had never made a promise to that effect, nevertheless it was a plank in his platform.

Gradually—because of it—the pension had become a favorite one with elderly women. It might, indeed, have passed