gateway. The wide court had an air of humid dreariness. On one side
stood a dozen of those moving caravansaras, the national vehicles, with
their leathern caps--like those of Danish sailors in a north-wester--
hanging half off, soaked with wet. Opposite was the range of offices,
busy with all the peculiar importance of French _bureaucracie._ Their
clerks, decorated with ribbons and crosses, wield their pens with all
the conscious dignity of secretaries of state; and "_book_" a bale or a
parcel as though they were signing a treaty, or granting an amnesty. The
meanest _employé_ seems to think himself invested with certain occult
powers. His civility savours of government patronage; and his frown is
inquisitorial. To his fellows, his address is abrupt and diplomatic. He
seems to speak in cipher, and to gesticulate by some rule of
freemasonry. But to the _uninitiated_ he is explanatory to a scruple, as
though mischief might ensue from his being misapprehended. He makes sure
of your understanding by an emphasis, which reminds one of the loudness
of tone used towards a person supposed to be hard of hearing--a
proceeding not very flattering where there happens to be neither dulness
nor deafness in the case. In a word, the measured pedantry of his whole
deportment betrays the happy conviction in which he rejoices of being
conversant with matters little dreamt of in your philosophy. Among the
bystanders, too, there are some who might, probably with more reason,
boast their proficiency in mysterious lore--fellows of smooth aspect and
polite demeanour, whom at first you imagine to have become casual
spectators from mere lack of better pastime, but whose furtive glances
and vagrant attention betray the familiars of the police--that complex
and mighty engine of modern structure, which, far more surely than the
"ear of Dionysius," conveys to the tympanum of power each echoed sigh
and reverberated whisper. It is a chilling thing to feel one's budding
confidence in a new acquaintance nipped by such frosty suspicions;
yet--Heaven forgive me!--the bare idea has, before now, caused me to