rest of my life if I had been able to do so, but when I took my degree of doctor I was obliged to leave the hospital.  The possessor of several thousand francs, I should have followed rigorously my dream of ambition.  While attending the mistress of one of my comrades I made the acquaintance of an upholsterer, who suggested that he should furnish an apartment for me, and that I might pay him later.  I yielded to temptation.  Remember, I had passed eight years in the Hotel du Senat, and I knew nothing of Paris life.  A home of my own!  My own furniture, and a servant in my anteroom!  I should be somebody!  My upholsterer could have installed me in his own quarter of Paris, and perhaps could have obtained some patients for me among his customers, who are rich and fashionable.  But he did not do this, probably concluding that with my awkward appearance I would not be a success with such people.  When you are successful it is original to be a peasant—­people find you clever; but before success comes to you it is a disgrace.  He furnished me an apartment in a very respectable house in the Rue Louis-le-Grand.  When I went into it I had debts to the amount of ten thousand francs behind me, the interest on this sum, the rent of two thousand four hundred francs, not a sou in my pocket, not a relative—­”

“That was courageous.”

“I did not know that in Paris everything is accomplished through influence, and I imagined that an intelligent man could make his way without assistance.  I was to learn by experience.  When a new doctor arrives anywhere his brother doctors do not receive him with much sympathy.  ‘What does this intruder want?’ ’Are there not enough of us already?’ He is watched, and the first patient that he loses is made use of as an example of his ignorance or imprudence, and his position becomes uncomfortable.  The chemists of my quarter whom I called upon did not receive me very warmly; they made me feel the distance that separates an honorable merchant from a beggar, and I was given to understand that they could patronize me only on condition that I ordered the specialties that they wished to profit by—­iron from this one and tar from that.  On commencing to practise I had as patients only the people of the quarter, whose principle was never to pay a doctor, and who wait for the arrival of a new one in order that they may be rid of the old one and this sort is numerous everywhere.  It happened that my concierge was from Auvergne like myself, and he considered it his duty to make me give free attendance to all those from our country that he could find in the quarter and everywhere else, so that I had the patriotic satisfaction of seeing all the charcoal-dealers from Auvergne sprawling in my beautiful armchairs.  Finally, by remaining religiously at home every Sunday in summer, while the other doctors were away, by rising quickly at night every time my bell rang, I was able to acquire a practice among a class of people who