Page 105 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

XVI

ime went on and the Auberge de Jehan Cottard showed
Tno signs of opening. Boris and I went down there one
day during our afternoon interval and found that none of
the alterations had been done, except the indecent pictures,
and there were three duns instead of two. The PATRON
greeted us with his usual blandness, and the next instant
turned to me (his prospective dishwasher) and borrowed
five francs. After that I felt certain that the restaurant would
never get beyond talk. The PATRON, however, again named
the opening for ‘exactly a fortnight from today’, and intro-
duced us to the woman who was to do the cooking, a Baltic
Russian five feet tall and a yard across the hips. She told us
that she had been a singer before she came down to cooking,
and that she was very artistic and adored English literature,
especially LA CASE DE L’ONCLE TOM.
In a fortnight I had got so used to the routine of a PLON-
GEUR’S life that I could hardly imagine anything different.
It was a life without much variation. At a quarter to six one
woke with a sudden start, tumbled into grease-stiffened
clothes, and hurried out with dirty face and protesting mus-
cles. It was dawn, and the windows were dark except for the
workmen’s cafes. The sky was like a vast flat wall of cobalt,
with roofs and spires of black paper pasted upon it. Drowsy
men were sweeping the pavements with ten-foot besoms,

10 Down and Out in Paris and London