another well, that youth and I. We talked of this and
that, and discussed ways of diverting oneself. Presently
we took a taxi together and were driven away.
"The taxi stopped in a narrow, solitary street with a
single gas-lamp flaring at the end. There were dark
puddles among the stones. Down one side ran the high,
blank wall of a convent. My guide led me to a tall,
ruinous house with shuttered windows, and knocked
several times at the door. Presently there was a sound of
footsteps and a shooting of bolts, and the door opened a
little. A hand came round the edge of it; it was a large,
crooked hand, that held itself palm upwards under our
noses, demanding money.
"My guide put his foot between the door and the step.
'How much do you want?' he said.
" 'A thousand francs,' said a woman's voice. 'Pay up
at once or you don't come in.'
"I put a thousand francs into the hand and gave the
remaining hundred to my guide: he said good night and
left me. I could hear the voice inside counting the notes,
and then a thin old crow of a woman in a black dress
put her nose out and regarded me suspiciously before
letting me in. It was very dark inside: I could see
nothing except a flaring gas jet that illuminated a patch
of plaster wall, throwing everything else into
deeper shadow.