she said, with a wan smile. "Andre found it on a doorstep in
the Rue Mogador, and he brought it home, saying, 'It won't make much
difference; Nature laid the table for two infants.'"

The Parisian is a born lounger. Balzac had said, "Flaner est une
science, c'est la gastronomie de l'oeil." Seeing that it is the only
gastronomy they can enjoy under the circumstances, the Parisians take to
it with a vengeance during those months of October and November, and
their favourite halting-places are the rare provision-shops that have
still a fowl, or a goose, or a pigeon in their windows. The sight of a
turkey causes an obstruction, and the would-be purchaser of a rabbit is
mobbed like the winner of a great prize in the lottery. Nine times out
of ten the negotiations do not go beyond the preliminary stage of
inquiring the price, because vendors are obstinate, though polite.

"How much for the rabbit?" says the supposed Nabob, for the very fact of
inquiring implies wealth.

"Forty-five francs, monsieur."

"You are joking. Forty-five francs! It's simply ridiculous," protests
the other one.

"I am not joking, monsieur; and I cannot take a farthing less."

The would-be diner goes away; but he has scarcely gone a few steps, when
the dealer calls him back. "Listen, monsieur," he cries.

Hope revives in the other's breast. His fancy conjures up a savoury
rabbit-stew, and he leaps rather than walks the distance that separates
him from the stall.

"Ventre affame a des oreilles pour sur," says a bystander.[85]

[Footnote 85: The proverb is, "Ventre affame n'a pas
d'oreilles."--EDITOR.]

"Well, how much are you going to take off?"

"I am not going to take off a penny, but I thought I might tell you that
this rabbit plays the drum."

Some of the jokes, though, were not equally innocent, and revealed a
callousness on the part of the perpetrators which it is not pleasant to
have to record. True, they did not affect the very poor, whose poverty
was, as it were, a guarantee against them; but it is a moot point
whether the well-to-do should be shamelessly robbed by the well-to-do
tradesmen for no other reason than to increase the latter's hoard.
Greed, that abominable feature in the character of the French
middle-classes, showed itself again and again under circumstances which
ought to have suspended its manifestations for the time being.

I have already noted that one member of the Academie des Sciences had
ins