"If m'sieur so desires, I will conduct him out.

The exit is in a back street which leads on to the Catherine Canal." "Excellent!" I said.

"Let us go.

Of course you will say nothing ?" "Not a word, m'sieur," and he gathered up the notes plus twenty roubles with which I paid my bill, and taking my hat I followed him to the end of the _salle-a-manger_ behind a high wooden screen, across the huge kitchen, and then through a long stone corridor at the end of which sat a gruff old doorkeeper.

My guide spoke a word to him, and then the door opened and I found myself in a narrow back slum with the canal beyond.
My first visit was to a clothier's, where I purchased and put on a new light overcoat and then to a hatter's for a hat of different shape to that I was wearing.