The View from the Quai Voltaire

'T's been a long day. Tonight Friday showed up wanting lodging (crashing space) for himself and some female or other. He said she was a friend of his, homeless and freezing, waiting in the hall outside the door for me to open unto, recognize and be hospitable to. Like that would happen. "I had been hoping," I said drily, " that you would not spend the night." And so he departed, saying, "fine!" I could tell by the icy dignity with which he said it that, though disappointed, he hadn't expected me to behave differently. Thankfully, I never saw the object (cher objet); though it would have been my pleasure to tell her, or at least to demonstrate to her with deliberate bad manners, how much I resented her attempted intrusion. Checking with the Weather Service, I note that it's 57 degrees fahrenheit outside now, with a predicted low tonight of 35: If she's freezing now, by morning she should be dead.