Everything within it looked quiet, comfortable, and substantial; and as in the book of one's every-day life there is nothing like beginning from the very beginning, before I allowed myself to go into the street, or even to look out of my window at the charming noveltiesfor everything in Paris was new to my eyesthat were passing and repassing, I unpacked my little property, put my clothes into my two chests of drawers, my papers into my secretaire, my portfolio, inkstand, pens, and pencil on a good-sized table, and then, completing my arrangements by carrying to and placing before the latter a comfortable arm-chair, like Robinson Crusoe I looked around me with an inward satisfaction it would be difficult to describe; and I was standing very much in the attitude of a young artist joyously admiring the painting he has just concluded, when, with great velocity, there shot past my nose-to tell the truth, it actually hit it-an arrow of air, about a foot long, but no thicker than a piece of packthread, that did not smell as it ought to do. "It is the breath of envy," said I to myself, "mortified at my happiness!" and discarding the green-eyed monster from my thoughts, and again admiring my location, I bade it a short adieu, and descended into the street.

At about six o'clock I returned to my apartment, and, like a young lover, was again admiring its charms, when another little arrow, from an unpleasant quiver, flew by me.

"It's all fancy!" said I to myself; "it can't come from my kind landlady, nor from my chests of drawers. I'm two stories above the drains, and two stories below the gutters of this world. Paris is outside my window, and a passage outside my door. The thing "- I did not exactly know what to call it" is impossible."

I had a most amusing dinner. I had left it entirely to my landlady to decide what was good for me; and as I sat alone, sometimes I could scarcely help laughing aloud at her prescription, and from the end of a silver fork I was placing between my lips a small portion of one of the unknown ingredients, for the purpose of analysing its composition, when, as nearly as I could guess, about an inch and a half above it there whizzed by another very little arrow. In less than the twinkling of an eye it had completely passed, and where it had come from, or where it had gone to, I was alike utterly ignorant.

After dinner I rambled about the streets until it was time to go to my bed, which proved clean and comfortable. In the morning-quite

contrary to my habit-I awoke with a slight headache, and I was lying on my back conscientiously recapitulating the nameless items of my dinner, when there rushed past the uppermost feature of my face, not an arrow, but a javelin.

During the day, on being half a dozen times similarly assailed, I became slightly dispirited for a few moments, until, rallying my forces,I mean looking at my chests of drawers, secretaire, and other comforts that surrounded me,and muttering the words "home, sweet home! I determined during the day not to notice the contemptible little demon that was assailing me, but at night to remove my bedding from its alcove to the floor near the window. I did so; but again awaking with rather a worse headache, I felt it was in vain to endeavour to hold out, and that I had therefore better at once sound a retreat. Accordingly, ringing my bell, I requested the garçon to ascertain whether Madame would be visible to me?

In a few minutes she entered my room, with the same placid smile which had adorned her countenance when it last left me.

66

What," she kindly inquired, " could she do to serve me?"

It required the whole of my resolution, and,

indeed, almost more than I possessed, to answer her friendly query by telling her, in broken sentences and in faltering accents, that the room was in every respect all I could desire, "BUT that. it .. had at times

a very unpleasant smell.”

"Non, Monsieur!" she replied, with great gentleness. I assured her that it was the

case.

"Non, Monsieur!!" she replied, with greater gentleness.

"Madame," said I, "it has twice over given me a headache, from which," laying my right hand flat on my forehead, "I am suffering at this moment."

"Non, Monsieur!!!" she replied, so gently and so faintly that I could hardly hear it.

"But, Madame," I added, "I have no desire to leave you. Would you be kind enough to allow me to remove to the apartment at the top of the house which I first saw, for which I should wish to pay the same as for this one?"

"Certainement, Monsieur!" she replied, gently bowing her head, and looking as placid, as kind, and as anxious to oblige me as ever, and, accordingly, in less than a quarter of an hour, with the assistance of the garçon and a com1 Certainly, Sir!

1

missionnaire, not only the migration but the distribution of my property was effected.

"On retourne toujours, toujours,

A son premier amour!"1

From the above anecdote, trifling as it may sound, Mr. Chadwick and the Board of Health would no doubt be able to draw a most important moral. Leaving them, however, two stories below me, to trace to its secret source a tiny cause which in a region high above cesspools and drains had created a stratum of impure air, which, had it been inodorous, I should most certainly have remained in, and which, in a locality where nobody would look for it, has been and ever is ready to nourish fever, I must proceed with the history of my new abode, the outward appearance of which was, as if in a looking-glass, "veluti in speculum," reflected to me from the opposite side of the street by a range of windows each forming a sort of portico, opening to the floor exactly as mine did, and communicating with a narrow leaded passage, protected by a line of substantial iron balustrades.

In the roof above me there was (at least so I conjectured from what I saw in the opposite

'One always returns to one's first love!