My first visits were not made without trepidation.

I fancied that the beadle was colder, and that the keepers were shadowing me like a political suspect.

I thought it wise to change my side, so now I make out my list of books at the left-hand desk and occupy a seat on the left side of the room.
M.Charnot remains faithful to his post beneath the right-hand inkstand.
I have been watching him.

He is usually one of the first to arrive, with nimble, almost springy, step.

His hair, which he wears rather long, is always carefully parted in the middle, and he is always freshly shaven.
His habit of filling the pockets of his frock-coat with bundles of notes has made that garment swell out at the top into the shape of a basket.
He puts on a pair of spectacles mounted in very thin gold, and reads determinedly, very few books it is true, but they are all bound in vellum, and that fixes their date.