etemps which were continually annoying me.

In winter or in spring, in summer or in autumn, the same thing always
happened. If I chanced to be caught by some sudden unexpected downpour,
I might kick my heels as long as I liked under a colonnade or in a shop,
waiting till the rain stopped and I could get home dry; but not on one
single occasion did I ever have the consolation of seeing out the
deluge; on the contrary, it invariably redoubled in fury, as though to
spite me. Goaded at last by the nuisance of this eternal useless
waiting, fretful and eager to find myself at home, I exposed myself in
all meekness to the deluge, and reached my dwelling wet to the skin,
dripping with water. But no sooner had I arrived in this pitiful plight,
unlocked the door, and taken shelter, than the clouds rolled by and the
sun began to show his face, just as though he meant to laugh at my
discomfort.

Eight times out of ten, through the whole course of my life, when I
hoped to be alone, and to occupy my leisure with reading or writing for
my own distraction and amusement, letters or unexpected visitors, more
tiresome even than worrying thoughts or importunate letters, would come
to interrupt me and put my patience on the rack. Eight times out of ten,
since I began to shave, no sooner had I set myself before the
looking-glass, than people arrived in urgent haste to speak with me on
business, or persons of importance, whom I could not keep waiting in the
ante-chamber. I had to wash the soap-suds from my face, and leave my
room half-shaved, to listen to such folk on business, or to people of
quality whom good manners forced me to oblige.

What I am going to relate is hardly decent, yet I shall tell it, because
it is the simple truth, and furnishes a good example of these
persecuting contrarieties. Almost every time when a sudden necessity
has compelled me to seek some lonely corner in a street, a door is sure
to open, and a couple of ladies appear. In a hurry I run up another
blind alley, and lo and behold another pair of ladies make their
entrance on the scene. The result is, that I am compelled to dodge from
pillar to post, suffering the gravest inconveniences, to which my
modesty exposes me. These, however, are but trifles, mere irritating
gnat-bites.

Those who have the patience to read the remaining chapters of my insipid
Memoirs, will admit that the evil star of these untoward circumstances
never ceased to plague me. Certainly the