You may believe that I entered on my mission with many unpleasant forebodings; but there was in that fat, admirably washed, little man such a profound contempt for mankind that it amounted to a species of good nature; which, unlike the milk of genuine kindness, was never in danger of turning sour.

Then, once, during a pause in business, while we were waiting for the production of a document for which he had sent (perhaps to the cellar ?) I happened to remark, glancing round the room, that I had never seen so many fine things assembled together out of a collection.
Whether this was unconscious diplomacy on my part, or not, I shouldn't like to say--but the remark was true enough, and it pleased him extremely.

"It _is_ a collection," he said emphatically.

"Only I live right in it, which most collectors don't.

But I see that you know what you are looking at.