Little Pierre . that resembled mine not tobelieve that thou, too, wast restless and as mine, thy quest was vain. Our search isbootless. We seek and only find—ourselves. For,to every one of us, the world is only what we havewithin us. Poor Mitzi, thou hadst not, as had I, abrain with many convolutions, and speech, and com-plex apparatus, and books rich with the spoils oftime to illumine thy path withal. The light of thineeyes is extinguished, and the world with it; thatworld whereof thou knewest scarcely anything. Oh,if thy beloved little shade could but hear me speak,I would say
Little Pierre . that resembled mine not tobelieve that thou, too, wast restless and as mine, thy quest was vain. Our search isbootless. We seek and only find—ourselves. For,to every one of us, the world is only what we havewithin us. Poor Mitzi, thou hadst not, as had I, abrain with many convolutions, and speech, and com-plex apparatus, and books rich with the spoils oftime to illumine thy path withal. The light of thineeyes is extinguished, and the world with it; thatworld whereof thou knewest scarcely anything. Oh,if thy beloved little shade could but hear me speak,I would say to it: A little while and my eyes, too,will close for ever, and I shall have learnt but littlemore than thou concerning the mystery of Life andDeath. As for that Unknown World which I wasseeking, rightly did I think when I was a little childthat it was close at hand. The Unknown World isall about us; it is everything that is outside us. And,since we can never escape from ourselves, we shalldiscover it CHAPTER XV MONSIEUR MENAGE NDER the personal direction of thelandlord, M. Bellaguet, our blockof flats on the quay was respectable,quiet, and, as the saying goes, welllet. Although he had made a for-tune during the Restoration and theJuly government, M. Bellaguet looked after the let-ting himself, drew up the leases, managed the repairswith parsimony, and, whenever a suite of rooms fellto be redecorated, a thing that rarely happened, su-pervised the work in person. You never heard of adozen yards of wall-paper at fourpence the piecebeing hung anywhere in the building, without thelandlords being there to see it done. For the rest,he was kindly, affable and anxious to oblige his ten-ants, provided always it didnt cost him money. Hedwelt among us as a father among his children, andI used to see his bright blue bedroom curtains frommy window. He was not thought any the less of forkeeping a close eye on his property. Possibly peo-pie esteemed him the more for it, for what en
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