Will you be a workman, a pedlar, an elderly gentleman from the Provinces, or a street beggar ?" "I think the elderly gentleman from the Provinces would suit me best," I answered, "while it will not necessitate a change of dress." "Very good then, so it shall be," he replied.

"We'll be a couple of elderly gentlemen in Paris for the first time.

Let me conduct you to my dressing-room, where you will find all that is necessary for your make-up." He thereupon showed me to a room leading out of that in which we had hitherto been sitting.

It was very small, and lighted by means of a skylight.

Indeed, it was that very skylight, so he always declared, that induced him to take the flat.
"If this room looked out over the back, or front, it would have been necessary for me either to have curtains, which I abominate, or to run the risk of being observed, which would have been far worse," he had remarked to me once.