"At Paris just a Paris just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18- I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum in company with my friend C. Auguste Dupin in his little back library or book-closet au troisiême No. 33 Rue Dunôt Faubourg St. Germain. For one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence; while each to any casual observer might have seemed intently and exclusively occupied with the curling eddies of smoke that oppressed the atmosphere of the chamber. For myself however I was mentally discussing certain topics which had formed matter for conversation between us at an earlier period of the evening; I mean the affair of the Rue Morgue and the mystery attending the murder of Marie Rogêt. I looked upon it therefore as something of a coincidence when the door of our apartment was thrown open and admitted our old acquaintance Monsieur G the Prefect of the Parisian police."