He opened his round window, listened to the murmur of the city, and saw above the roofs the glow which rose into the sky from the city of Paris.

He scented from afar all the amorous flesh gathered, on this winter's night, in the theatres and the great _cabarets_, the cafe-concerts and the bars.
Irritated by Felicie's denial of his desires, he had decided to satisfy them elsewhere, and as he was not conscious of any preference he believed that his only difficulty would be to make a choice; but he presently realized that he had no desire for any of the women of his acquaintance, nor did he even feel any desire for an unknown woman.

He closed his window, and seated himself before the fire.
It was a coke fire; Madame de Ligny, who wore cloaks costing a thousand pounds, was wont to economize in the matter of her table and her fires.
She would not allow wood to be burned in her house.
He reflected upon his own affairs, to which he had so far given little or no thought; upon the career he had embraced, and which he beheld obscurely before him.

The Minister was a great friend of his family.

A mountaineer of the Cevennes, brought up on chestnuts, his dazzled eyes blinked at the flower-bedecked tables of Paris.