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Lowndes, Marie Adelaide Belloc, 1868-1947

"The Chink in the Armour"

"
They were walking through the lower part of the house, and then suddenly
M. Malfait exclaimed, "I was forgetting the bath-room! I know how
important to English gentlemen the bath-room is!"
The pleasant vista of a good hot bath floated before Chester's weary
brain and body. Really the house was not as primitive as he had thought
it when he had seen the landlord come forward with a candle.
M. Malfait turned round and flung open a door.
"It was an idea of my wife's," he said proudly. "You see, M'sieur, the
apartment serves a double purpose--"
And it did! For the odd little room into which Chester was shown by his
host served as store cupboard as well as bath-room. It was lined with
shelves on which stood serried rows of pots of home-made jam, jars of oil
and vinegar, and huge tins of rice, vermicelli, and tapioca, in a corner
a round zinc basin--but a basin of Brobdignagian size--stood under a cold
water tap.
"The bath is for those of our visitors who do not follow the regular
hydropathic treatment for which Lacville is still famous," said the
landlord pompously.


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