They had now turned from the road encircling the lake, and were driving through leafy avenues which reminded Sylvia of a London suburb where she had once stayed.

The chalets and villas by which they passed were not so large nor so prosperous-looking as those that bordered the lake, but still many of them were pretty and fantastic-looking little houses, and the gardens were gay with flowers.

“I suppose no one lives here in the winter!” said Sylvia suddenly.

She had noticed, for in some ways she was very observant though in other ways strangely unseeing, that all the flowers were of the bedding-out varieties; there were luxuriant creepers, but not a single garden that she passed had that indefinable look of being an old or a well-tended garden.

“In the winter?  Why, in the winter Lacville is an absolute desert,” said Anna laughing.  “You see, the Casino only has a summer Concession; it cannot open till April 15.  Of course there are people who will tell you that Lacville is the plague-pit of Paris, but that’s all nonsense!  Lacville is neither better nor worse than other towns near the capital!”

The carriage had now drawn up before a large, plain, white house, across which was painted in huge, black letters, “Hotel-Pension Malfait.”

“This is the place I have found!” exclaimed Anna.  “Would you care to come in and see the room I’ve engaged from next Monday week?”

Sylvia followed her into the house with curiosity and interest.  Somehow she did not like the Pension Malfait, though it was clear that it had once been a handsome private mansion standing in large grounds of its own.  The garden, however, had now been cut down to a small strip, and the whole place formed a great contrast to the gay and charming Villa du Lac.

What garden there was seemed uncared for, though an attempt had been made to make it look pretty with the aid of a few geraniums and marguerites.

M. Malfait, the proprietor of the Pension, whom Sylvia had already seen with Anna at the Casino, now came forward in the hall, and Sylvia compared him greatly to his disadvantage, to the merry M. Polperro.

“Madame has brought her friend?” he said eagerly, and staring at Sylvia as he spoke.  “I hope that Madame’s friend will come and stay with us too?  I have a charming room which I could give this lady; but later on we shall be very full—­full all the summer!  The hot weather is a godsend for Lacville; for it drives the Parisians out from their unhealthy city.”

He beckoned to his wife, a disagreeable-looking woman who was sitting in a little glass cage made in an angle of the square hall.

“Madame Wolsky has brought this good lady to see our Pension!” he exclaimed, “and perhaps she is also coming to stay with us—­”

In vain Sylvia smilingly shook her head.  She was made to go all over the large, rather gloomy house, and to peep into each of the bare, ugly bed-rooms.