uatorzieme!" cried I, in amazement; "I never heard of any one living
so high up. Are there really houses in Paris fourteen stories high?"

They both burst into a fit of laughter as I said this, and it was some
time ere the clerk could recover his gravity sufficiently to reply; at
last he said, "I perceive that Monsieur is a stranger to Paris and its
ways, or he would know that a quatorzieme is not an apartment fourteen
stories high, but an individual who holds himself always in readiness
at the dining-hours of his neighborhood, to make the fourteenth at any
table, where, by accident, the unlucky number of thirteen should be
assembled,--a party which every well-informed person would otherwise
scruple to sit down with. This, sir, is a quatorzieme; and here is a
gentleman desirous of disposing of his interest in such an enviable
property."

To my question as to what were the necessary qualifications, they both
answered in a kind of duet, by volubly recapitulating that nothing was
needed but a suit of black, and clean gloves; unobtrusive demeanor and
a moderate appetite being the certain recommendations to a high
professional success. I saw the chief requirement well,--to eat little,
and to talk less; to come in with the soup, and go out with the salad;
never to partake of an _entree_, nor drink save the "ordinaire:" these
were the duties; the reward was ten francs. "It used to be a Napoleon,
Monsieur," said the old mau, wiping his eyes. "In the time of Charles
the Tenth it was always a Napoleon; but these 'canailles' nowadays have
no reverence for anything; I have known even the ministry dine thirteen
on a Friday,--to be sure, the king was fired at two days afterwards for
it; but nothing can teach them."

The old gentleman grew most communicative on the subject of his "walk,"
which he was only abandoning in consequence of the rheumatism, and
the difficulty of ascending to dinner-parties on a high elevation. He
depicted with enthusiasm the enjoyments of a profession that demanded,
as he observed, so little previous study, was removed from all the
vicissitudes of commerce, pleasant in practice, and remunerative in pay.
He also insinuated the possible advantages to a young and handsome
man, who could scarcely fail to secure a good marriage, by observing a
discreet and decorous demeanor; and, in fact, he represented his calling
in such a light as at least to give me the liveliest curiosity to enter
upon it for a brief space,