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CHAPTER IV
THE GROPINGS OF FLIGHT
In order to understand what follows, it is requisite to form
an exact idea of the Droit-Mur lane, and, in particular, of
the angle which one leaves on the left when one emerges
from the Rue Polonceau into this lane. Droit-Mur lane was
almost entirely bordered on the right, as far as the Rue Petit-
Picpus, by houses of mean aspect; on the left by a solitary
building of severe outlines, composed of numerous parts
which grew gradually higher by a story or two as they ap-
proached the Rue Petit-Picpus side; so that this building,
which was very lofty on the Rue Petit-Picpus side, was tol-
erably low on the side adjoining the Rue Polonceau. There,
at the angle of which we have spoken, it descended to such
a degree that it consisted of merely a wall. This wall did not
abut directly on the Street; it formed a deeply retreating
niche, concealed by its two corners from two observers who
might have been, one in the Rue Polonceau, the other in the
Rue Droit-Mur.
Beginning with these angles of the niche, the wall ex-
tended along the Rue Polonceau as far as a house which bore
the number 49, and along the Rue Droit-Mur, where the