very few Dutchmen, but a great many grocers. The appartements in this
merchant-place have, naturally, no other outlook than that of the
common court on which all the windows give, so that rents are at a
minimum.

Monsieur Molineux lived in one of the angles, on the sixth floor for
sanitary reasons, the air not being pure at a less height than seventy
feet above the ground. At this altitude the worthy proprietor enjoyed
an enchanting view of the windmills of Montmartre as he walked among
the gutters on the roof, where he cultivated flowers, in spite of
police regulations against the hanging gardens of our modern Babylon.
His appartement was made up of four rooms, without counting the
precious _anglaises_ on the floor above him of which he had the key;
they belonged to him, he had made them, and he felt he was legally
entitled to them. On entering his appartement, a repulsive barrenness
plainly showed the avarice of the owner: in the antechamber were six
straw chairs and a porcelain stove; on the walls, which were covered
with a bottle-green paper, were four engravings bought at auction. In
the dining-room were two sideboards, two cages full of birds, a table
covered with oil-cloth, a barometer, a window-door which opened on the
hanging gardens, and chairs of dark mahogany covered with horse-hair.
The salon had little curtains of some old green-silk stuff, and
furniture of painted white-wood covered with green worsted velvet. As
to the chamber of the old celibate it was furnished with Louis XV.
articles, so dirty and disfigured through long usage that a woman
dressed in white would have been afraid of soiling herself by contact
with them. The chimney-piece was adorned by a clock with two columns,
between which was a dial-case that served as a pedestal to Pallas
brandishing her lance: a myth. The floor was covered with plates full
of scraps intended for the cats, on which there was much danger of