He chanced to see the portfolio I had brought with me leaning against the wall, and asked if there were any sketches in it.

I told him there were a few which I had made during my recent stay in Paris; "In Paris ?" he repeated, with a look of interest; "may I see them ?" I gave him the permission he asked as a matter of course.

Sitting down, he took the portfolio on his knee, and began to look through it.

He turned over the first five sketches rapidly enough; but when he came to the sixth, I saw his face flush directly, and observed that he took the drawing out of the portfolio, carried it to the window, and remained silently absorbed in the contemplation of it for full five minutes.
After that, he turned round to me, and asked very anxiously if I had any objection to part with that sketch.
It was the least interesting drawing of the collection--merely a view in one of the streets running by the backs of the houses in the Palais Royal.

Some four or five of these houses were comprised in the view, which was of no particular use to me in any way; and which was too valueless, as a work of art, for me to think of selling it.