f which stretch to your bed and prick yours whilst you
are still plunged in the soft delights of your first awakening. A clock,
whose voice cries to you, 'Ting, ting, ting; it is the hour for
business. Leave your charming dream, escape from the caresses of your
visions, and sometimes of realities. Put on your hat and boots. It is
cold, it rains, but go about your business. It is time--ting, ting.' It
is quite enough already to have an almanac. Let my clock remain
paralyzed, or---."

Whilst delivering this monologue he was examining his new dwelling, and
felt himself moved by the secret uneasiness which one almost always
feels when going into a fresh lodging.

"I have noticed," he reflected, "that the places we inhabit exercise a
mysterious influence upon our thoughts, and consequently upon our
actions. This room is cold and silent as a tomb. If ever mirth reigns
here it will be brought in from without, and even then it will not be
for long, for laughter will die away without echoes under this low
ceiling, cold and white as a snowy sky. Alas! What will my life be like
within these four walls?"

However, a few days later this room, erst so sad, was full of light, and
rang with joyous sounds, it was the house warming, and numerous bottles
explained the lively humor of the guests. Rodolphe allowed himself to be
won upon by the contagious good humor of his guests. Isolated in a
corner with a young woman who had come there by chance, and whom he had
taken possession of, the poet was sonnetteering with her with tongue and
hands. Towards the close of the festivities he had obtained a rendezvous
for the next day.

"Well!" said he to himself when he was alone, "the evening hasn't been
such a bad one. My stay here hasn't begun amiss."

The next day Mademoiselle Juliet called at the appointed hour. The
evening was spent only in explanations. Juliet had learned the recent
rupture of Rodolphe with the blue eyed girl whom he had so dearly loved;
she knew that after having already left her once before Rodolphe had
taken her back, and she was afraid of being the victim of a similar
reawakening of love.

"You see," said she, with a pretty little pout, "I don't at all care
about playing a ridiculous part. I warn you that I am very forward, and
once _mistress_ here," and she underlined by a look the meaning she gave
to the word, "I remain, and do not give up my place."

Rodolphe summoned all his eloquence to the rescue to convince