as to my next meal, and I have always enjoyed the creature comforts
of the respectable classes; never did Lisette pin her shawl
curtain-wise across my window. Sometimes, nowadays, I almost wish
she had. I never dreamed of glory, love, pleasure, madness, or
spent my lifetime in a moment, like the singer of the immortal
song. Often the weary moments seemed a lifetime.

And now that I am forty, "it is too late a week." Boon
companions, of whom I am thankful to say I have none, would drive
me crazy with their intolerable heartiness. I once spent an
evening at the Savage Club. As for the _folle maitresse_--as a
concomitant of my existence she transcends imagination.

"What are you thinking of?" asked Judith.

"I was thinking how the _'Dans un grenier qu'on est bien a vingt
ans'_ principle would have worked in my own case," I answered
truthfully, for the above reflections had been Passing through my
mind.

Judith laughed.

"You in a garret? Why, you haven't got a temperament!"

I suppose I haven't. It never occurred to me before. Beranger
omitted that from his list of attendant compensations.

"That's the difference between us," she added, after a pause. "I
have a temperament and you haven't."