leep on straw in return for making them sleep on
rosewood. But when their beauty is bought by the ounce at the
perfumer's, and will not stand three drops of water on a rag; then their
wit consists in a couplet of a farce, and their talent lies in the hand
of the _claqueur_, it is hard indeed to understand how respectable men
with good names, ordinary sense, and decent coats, can let themselves be
carried away by a common place passion for these most mercenary
creatures.

The actress in question was one of these belles of the day. She called
herself Delores, and professed to be a Spaniard, although she was born
in that Parisian Andalusia known as the Rue Coquenard. From there to the
Rue de Provence is about ten minute's walk, but it had cost her seven
years to make the transit. Her prosperity had begun with the decline of
her personal charms. She had a horse the day when her first false tooth
was inserted, and a pair the day of her second. Now she was living at a
great rate, lodging in a palace, driving four horses on holidays, and
giving balls to which all Paris came--the "all Paris" of these
ladies--that is to say, that collection of lazy seekers after jokes and
scandal; the "all Paris" that plays lansquenet; the sluggards of head
and hand, who kill their own time and other people's; the writers who
turn literary men to get some use out of the feather which nature placed
on their backs; the bullies of the revel, the clipped and sweated
gentlemen, the chevaliers of doubtful orders, all the vagabonds of
kid-glove-dom, that come from God knows where, and go back tither again
some day; all the marked and remarked notorieties; all those daughters
of Eve who retail what they once sold wholesale; all that race of
beings, corrupt from their cradle to their coffin, whom one sees on
first nights at the theater, with Golconda on foreheads and Thibet on
their shoulders, and for whom, notwithstanding, bloom the first violets
of spring and the first passions of youth--all this world which the
chronicles of gossip call "all Paris," was received by Delores who owned
the parrot aforesaid.

This bird, celebrated for its oratorical talents among all the
neighbors, had gradually become the terror of the nearest. Hung out on
the balcony, it made a pulpit of its perch and spouted interminable
harangues from morning to night. It had learned certain parliamentary
topics from some political friends of the mistress, and was very strong
on the