ng the room, profiting by
the absence of its mistress to do this household work, for there was no
one else to be seen in the room, and yet it was clear it was not she who
inhabited it. All at once the head of the greyhound--whose great eyes
had been wandering till then, with the aristocratic indifference
characteristic of that animal--became animated. She leaned her head
over into the street; then, with a miraculous lightness and address,
jumped on to the window-sill, pricking up her long-ears, and raising one
of her paws. The chevalier understood by these signs that the tenant of
the little room was approaching. He opened his window directly;
unfortunately it was already too late, the street was solitary.

At the same moment the greyhound leaped from the window into the room
and ran to the door. D'Harmental concluded that the young lady was
mounting the stairs. In order to see her at his ease, he threw himself
back and hid behind the curtain, but the old woman came to the window
and closed it. The chevalier did not expect this denouement. There was
nothing for him but to close his window also, and to come back and put
his feet on the hobs. This was not amusing, and the chevalier began to
feel how solitary he should be in this retreat. He remembered that
formerly he also used to play and draw, and he thought that if he had
the smallest spinet and some chalks, he could bear it with patience.

He rang for the porter, and asked where he could procure these things.
The porter replied that every increase of furniture must be at his own
expense. That if he wished for a harpsichord he must hire it, and that
as to pencils, he could get them at the shop at the corner of the Rue de
Clery.

D'Harmental gave a double louis to the porter, telling him that in half
an hour he wished to have a spinet and some pencils. The double louis
was an argument of which he had before found the advantage; reproaching
himself, however, with having used it this time with a carelessness
which gave the lie to his apparent position, he recalled the porter, and
told him that he expected for his double louis to have, not only paper
and pencils, but a month's hire of his instrument.

The porter replied that as he would speak as if it were for himself, the
thing was possible; but that he must certainly pay the carriage.
D'Harmental consented, and half an hour afterward was in possession of
the desired objects. Such a wonderful place is Paris for every e