of
applying all these three torments at once, and it was like being saved
from sudden death to wake up in the dark and smell the stale smoke of
the pipe he had enjoyed before putting out his light.

Then he fell asleep again and did not awake till morning, being
naturally a very good sleeper. It was raining when he got up, and he
looked out disconsolately upon the dull street. It seemed to him that
if it was going to rain in Paris he might as well go back to London,
where he had plenty to do, and he began to consider which train he
should take, revolving the advantages and disadvantages of reaching
London early in the evening or late at night. He knew the different
time-tables by heart.

But it stopped raining while he was dressing, and the sun came out, and
a bird began to sing somewhere at a window high above the street, and
it was suddenly spring again. It was a great thing to be alone in
spring. If he went back to London he must see people he knew, and dine
with people he hardly knew at all, and be asked out by others whom he
had not even met, because he was the distinguished critic, flattered
and feared and asked to dinner by everybody who had a seventh cousin in
danger of literary judgment. He belonged to the flock of dramatic lions
and must herd with them, eat with them and roar with them, for the
greater glory of London society and his native country generally. Under
ordinary circumstances such an existence was bearable and at times
delightful, but just now he wanted to roar in the wilderness and assert
his leonine right of roaming in desolate places not less than two
geographical degrees east of Pall Mall.

He went out at last and strolled towards the bridge, and across it and
much farther, but not aimlessly, for though he did not always take the
shortest way, he kept mainly in the same direction till he came to the
Avenue Hoche.

At the end of the street he stopped and looked at his watch. It was
five minutes to eleven. Looking along the pavement in front of him his
eye was attracted by the striped awning that distinguished Madame
Bonanni's house from the others on the same side, and he noticed an
extremely smart brougham that stood just before the door. The handsome
black horse stood perfectly motionless in the morning sunshine, the
stony-faced English coachman sat perfectly motionless on the box,
looking straight between the horse's ears; he wore a plain black livery
that fitted to perfection and there