“No, no.... Come in here.” And he pushed me into a long, narrow room with two windows looking on to the street, just on a level with the street lamp. “I was expecting a pupil at this very moment” (it was six o’clock); “but she has telegraphed to say she can’t come. I am so glad to see you.” He laid his poker down on a small table, and, as though apologizing for his appearance: “Madame de La Pérouse’s maid-servant has let the stove go out. She only comes in the morning; I’ve been obliged to empty it.” “Shall I help you light it?” “No, no; it’s dirty work.... Will you excuse me while I go and put my coat on?” He trotted out of the room and came back almost immediately dressed in an alpaca coat, with its buttons torn off, its elbows in holes, and its general appearance so threadbare, that one wouldn’t have dared give it to a beggar. We sat down. “You think I’m changed, don’t you?” I wanted to protest, but could hardly find anything to say, I was so painfully affected by the harassed expression of his face, which had once been so beautiful. He went on: “Yes, I’ve grown very old lately. I’m beginning to lose my memory. When I want to go over one of Bach’s fugues, I am obliged to refer to the book....” “There are many young people who would be glad to have a memory like yours.” He replied with a shrug: “Oh, it’s not only my memory that’s failing. For instance, I think I still walk pretty quickly; but all the same everybody in the street passes me.” “Oh,” said I, “people walk much quicker nowadays.” “Yes, don’t they?... It’s the same with my lessons--my pupils think that my teaching keeps them back; they want to go quicker than I do. I’m losing them.... Everyone’s in a hurry nowadays.” He added in a whisper so low that I could hardly hear him: “I’ve scarcely any left.” I felt that he was in such great distress that I didn’t dare question him. “Madame de La Pérouse won’t understand. She says I don’t set about it in the right way--that I don’t do anything to keep them and still less to get new ones.” “The pupil you were expecting just now....” I asked awkwardly. “Oh, she! I’m preparing her for the Conservatoire. She comes here to practise every day.” “Which means she doesn’t pay you.”