the account of what had been expended of the one or made use of of the other, during his absence. But, I was quite sure, no possible objection could be raised to any expense undertaken in behalf of the Book. I would be responsible for that. For the rest, I need not say how glad I should be to see him (Strachan) here in Paris, but it would be, I thought, impossible for me to see Mrs. Strachan or his daughters. For this reason: there was with me now one who had given up all she had for my sake, for which I loved and reverenced her, and, considering that the only reason that she was not my wife was because I did not believe in what was known as 'marriage,' I would go nowhere where she could not come with me, and be assured of the same respect as if she were my wife. This I knew was more than I could ask (my first form of the sentence was: than either I could ask or desire) of Mrs. Strachan, with the beliefs that I knew she held. I repeated that I should be indeed glad to see him here, I hoped in my own house, and have some opportunity of returning him some little of the hospitality which he and his had given to me while I was in London.
There was, I thought, no more to be said than this. If he were a true man, it would be enough: if he were not, then let each go on his separate way. It was as nothing to me. Only one acquaintance the less.… Should I never have a friend?
In the morning Rosy and I set out together in pursuit of a house, or rather a flat, to suit us. After some trouble, I remembered that, when I had been at the pension in the Avenue de Fontenoi, I had noticed a flat that was to let, some way up the street, which had impressed me favourably for some reason or other. I suggested that we should go there now, and we did. The place suited us, and we took it.
We, or rather I, began with a delightful scheme of doing each room (there were seven, not counting the kitchen, all opening into one another) in some particular style: as, for instance, there was to be a terracotta room, and a brass room, and a silvered room, and so on, I got through the first two pretty well, I think, but with some trouble, in the next three or four days.
