do press forward and keep him
from my mind's eye; there they pass, Spaniard and Moor, Gypsy, Turk, and
livid Jew. But who is that? what that thick pursy man in the loose,
snuff-coloured greatcoat, with the white stockings, drab breeches, and
silver buckles on his shoes; that man with the bull neck, and singular
head, immense in the lower part, especially about the jaws, but tapering
upward like a pear; the man with the bushy brows, small grey eyes replete
with catlike expression, whose grizzled hair is cut close, and whose
ear-lobes are pierced with small golden rings? Oh! that is not my dear
old master, but a widely different personage. Bon jour, Monsieur Vidocq!
expressions de ma part a Monsieur Le Baron Taylor. But here he comes at
last, my veritable old master!

A more respectable-looking individual was never seen; he really looked
what he was, a gentleman of the law--there was nothing of the pettifogger
about him: somewhat under the middle size, and somewhat rotund in person,
he was always dressed in a full suit of black, never worn long enough to
become threadbare. His face was rubicund, and not without keenness; but
the most remarkable thing about him was the crown of his head, which was
bald, and shone like polished ivory, nothing more white, smooth, and
lustrous. Some people have said that he wore false calves, probably
because his black silk stockings never exhibited a wrinkle; they might
just as well have said that he waddled, because his shoes creaked; for
these last, which were always without a speck, and polished as his crown,
though of a different hue, did creak, as he walked rather slowly. I
cannot say that I ever saw him walk fast.

He had a handsome practice, and might have died a very rich man, much
richer than he did, had he not been in the habit of giving rather
expensive dinners to certain great people, who gave him nothing in return
except their company; I could never discover his reasons for doing so, as
he always appeared to me a remarkably quiet man, by nature averse to
noise and bustle; but in all dispositions there are anomalies: I have
already said that he lived in a handsome house, and I may as well here
add that he had a very handsome wife, who both dressed and talked
exceedingly well.

So I sat behind the deal desk, engaged in copying documents of various
kinds; and in the apartment in which I sat, and in the adjoining ones,
there were others, some of whom likewise copied docume