The whole course of proceeding seemed to have been invented for my peculiar convenience, and not a man in the island enjoyed a more luxurious existence than myself, not knowing all the while how dearly I was destined to pay for my little comforts.

Among my plenary after-dinner indulgences I had contracted an inveterate habit of sitting cross-legged, as I showed you.

Now, this was become a perfect necessity of existence to me.

I could have dispensed with cheese, with my glass of port, my pickled mango, my olive, my anchovy toast, my nutshell of curacoa, but not my favorite lounge.

You may smile; but I've read of a man who could never dance except in a room with an old hair-brush.