Behold me, then, by noon of that same day domiciled in an apartment
next to the one whose door bore that scarlet sign which had aroused
within me such feverish hopes the night before. Clad in the seedy
garments of a broken down French artist whose acquaintance I had once
made, with something of his air and general appearance and with a few
of his wretched daubs hung about on the whitewashed wall, I commenced
with every prospect of success as I thought, that quiet espionage of
the hall and its inhabitants which I considered necessary to a proper
attainment of the end I had in view.
A racking cough was one of the peculiarities of my friend, and
determined to assume the character in toto, I allowed myself to
startle the silence now and then with a series of gasps and chokings
that whether agreeable or not, certainly were of a character to show
that I had no desire to conceal my presence from those I had come
among. Indeed it was my desire to acquaint them as fully and as soon
as possible with the fact of their having a neighbor: a weak-eyed
half-alive innocent to be sure, but yet a neighbor who would keep his
door open night and day--for the warmth of the hall of course--and who
with the fretful habit of an old man who had once been a gentleman
and a beau, went rambling about through the hall speaking to those he
met and expecting a civil word in return.
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