The words seemed like a knell to me...

Emma Duffin

VAD Nurse during the First and Second World Wars

‘Hôtel des Emigrants!’ The words seemed like a knell to me; The Palais, the Quai, even the Casino would have been preferable and I had friends at most of them and the sections, but knew nobody well at Emigrants but I knew the reputation only too well. It was a gloomy, dingy old hole and the Matron, I knew, was very unpopular.