midnight
On the mantle of the miserable room , where he lived with a milliner of Saint-Germain , was enthroned an ugly little Buddha in jade , fixing his hypnotized eyes on his navel , and holding his great toes in his hands . The German professor accorded to the idol the most profound veneration , but on the epoch of quarter-day he was sometimes forced to carry him to the Mont-de-piété , upon which he fell into a state of sombre chagrin , and did not recover his serenity until he was able to make amends for his impious act . He never failed , moreover , to renew his avowals in prosperous times , and finally to take his god out of pawn . As to Louis Miraz , he had the deep eyes , the pale complexion , and the long and dishevelled hair of all those young men who come to town in third-class carriages to conquer glory , who spend more for midnight oil than for beefsteaks , and who , rich already with some manuscripts , have thrown out to great Paris from the height of some hill in its environs the classic defiance of Rastignac . At that time my hair was archaic enough in length to grease the collar of my coat . Thus we were made to understand each other , and Louis Miraz soon took me to his attic-room in the Rue des Quatre-Vents , where he dragged two thousand alexandrines over me . -LSB- Illustration -RSB- Seriously , they were fresh and charming verses , with the inspiration of spring-tide , having the perfume of the first lilacs , and _ Forest Birds _ -LRB- the title of that collection of poems which Louis Miraz published a little while after he read them to me -RRB- will retain a place among the volumes in the first rank of belles-lettres , by the side of those poets of a single book -- of the Daudet of the Amoureuses , for example .