and farther on still, my two Henry
II. tables, such rare treasures that people came all the way from Paris
to see them.

Think! only think in what a state of mind I now was! I advanced,
haltingly, quivering with emotion, but I advanced, for I am brave--I
advanced like a knight of the dark ages.

At every step I found something that belonged to me; my brushes, my
books, my tables, my silks, my arms, everything, except the bureau full
of my letters, and that I could not discover.

I walked on, descending to the dark galleries, in order to ascend next
to the floors above. I was alone; I called out, nobody answered, I was
alone; there was no one in that house--a house as vast and tortuous as
a labyrinth.

Night came on, and I was compelled to sit down in the darkness on one
of my own chairs, for I had no desire to go away. From time to time I
shouted, "Hallo, hallo, somebody."

I had sat there, certainly, for more than an hour when I heard steps,
steps soft and slow, I knew not where. I was unable to locate them, but
bracing myself up, I called out anew, whereupon I perceived a glimmer
of light in the next chamber.

"Who is there?" said a voice.

"A buyer," I responded.

"It is too late to enter thus into a shop."

"I have been waiting for you for more than an hour," I answered.

"You can come back to-morrow."

"To-morrow I must quit Rouen."

I dared not advance, and he did not come to me. I saw always the
glimmer of his light, which was shining on a tapestry on which were two
angels flying over the dead on a field of battle. It belonged to me
also. I said:

"Well, come here."

"I am at your service," he answered.

I got up and went toward him.

Standing in the center of a large room, was a little man, very short,
and very fat, phenomenally fat, a hideous phenomenon.

He had a singular straggling beard, white and yellow, and not a hair on
his head--not a hair!

As he held his candle aloft at arm's length in order to see me, his
cranium appeared to me to resemble a little moon, in that vast chamber
encumbered with old furniture. His features were wrinkled and blown,
and his eyes could not be seen.

I bought three chairs which belonged to myself, and paid at once a
large sum for them, giving him merely the number of my room at the
hotel. They were to be delivered the next day before nine o'clock.

I then started off. He conducted me, with much politeness, as far as
the door.

I immediately repair