aux Milles Colonnes is not far off, up-stairs about half-way down the next branch. I lounged up to it and was disappointed. A decent _salle_ enough, which, being everywhere panelled with mirrors, the green marble columns are reflected so repeatedly as to give some colour to the appellation assumed by the establishment. There are several rooms; but whether the place is only frequented at night on certain days, or that something _fâcheux_ had occurred, I know not--certain it was not in a state to receive company, wherefore I made no further advance than to the door, and having peeped in, wheeled down-stairs again. Amongst other curiosities of Paris I have often stood and contemplated the air of importance and grave bustle of an establishment unknown to us in London, where the operation in question is performed in a very modest manner in the public streets. This morning I walked into the shop of a fashionable _décrotteur_, that I might see more perfectly all the detail of this most useful business. The _salon_, a large room, was lighted by numerous windows near the ceiling (these, like other artists, affecting a preference for light coming from above: thus I have seen many receiving it through skylights). The handsomest establishment of this kind is in the Passage des Panoramas. A certain degree of taste, too, was visible in the decorations and arrangement of several large mirrors (mirrors are indispensable to a Frenchman). A sort of divan, a few feet broad, extended nearly round the apartment, on which were many gentlemen seated on chairs, gravely reading the daily papers; whilst one foot, raised on a sort of iron resembling the scraper at a door, was being operated on by a journeyman _décrotteur_, who rubbed and polished away with most admirable despatch and dexterity. In the middle of the room stood the master-spirit, superintending the active operations of his myrmidons, receiving the acknowledgment for services performed, ushering the one out of the shop and the other up to the divans, conversing with the newly-arrived aspirants, and doing the amiable everywhere. A good-looking, well-dressed man this master-shoeblack, who might easily be mistaken for a minister.