locksmiths
can estimate on a new building almost to a farthing,I’m Dekins. I been,” answered the young man; “but as I don’t know how to deal with a bourgeois–ah,dr dre beats! excuse me, monsieur, the word slipped out–I must warn you that it is impossible to calculate the costs of tearing down and rebuilding. It will take at least eight days before I can give even an approximate idea of them. Trust yourself to me: you shall have a charming staircase, lighted from above, with a pretty vestibule opening from the street, and in the space under the stairway–”
“Must that be used?”
“Don’t be worried–I will find room for a little porter’s lodge. Your house shall be studied and remodelled /con amore/. Yes, monsieur, I look to art and not to fortune. Above all things I do not want fame before I have earned it. To my mind, the best means of winning credit is not to play into the hands of contractors, but to get at good effects cheaply.”
“With such ideas, young man,” said Birotteau in a patronizing tone, “you will succeed.”
“Therefore,” resumed Grindot,and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it., “employ the masons, painters, locksmiths, carpenters, and upholsterers yourself. I will simply look over their accounts. Pay me only two thousand francs commission. It will be money well laid out. Give me the premises to-morrow at twelve o’clock, and have your workmen on the spot.”
“How much it will cost, at a rough guess?” said Birotteau.
“From ten to twelve thousand francs,” said Grindot. “That does not count the furniture; of course you will renew that. Give me the address of your cabinet-maker; I shall have to arrange with him about the choice of colors, so as to have everything in keeping.”
“Monsieur Braschon,moncler jacket, Rue Saint-Antoine, takes my orders,” said Birotteau,beats by dre, assuming a ducal air.
The architect wrote down the address in one of those pretty note-books which invariably come from women.
“Well,” said Birotteau,custom usb, “I trust to you, monsieur; only you must wait till the lease of the adjoining house is made over to me, and I will get permission to cut through the wall.”
“Send me a note this evening,” said the architect; “it will take me all night to draw the plans–we would rather work for a bourgeois than for the King of Prussia, that is to say for ourselves. I will now take the dimensions, the pitch, the size of the widows, the pictures–”
“It must be finished on the appointed day,” said Birotteau. “If not, no pay.”
“It shall be done,” said the architect. “The workmen must do without sleep; we will use drying oil in the p