Odeon -- Balzac again --
His schemes, his greed -- Lireux more fortunate with other
authors -- Anglophobia on the French stage -- Gallophobia on the
English stage.

Even in those days "the Boulevards" meant to most of us nothing more
than the space between the present opera and the Rue Drouot. But the
Credit Lyonnais and other palatial buildings which have been erected
since were not as much as dreamt of; if I remember rightly, the site of
that bank was occupied by two or three "Chinese Baths." I suppose the
process of steaming and cleansing the human body was something analogous
to that practised in our Turkish baths, but I am unable to say from
experience, having never been inside, and, curious to relate, most of my
familiars were in a similar state of ignorance. We rarely crossed to
that side of the boulevard except to go and dine at the Cafe Anglais. At
the corner of the Rue Lafitte, opposite the Maison d'Or, was our
favourite tobacconist's, and the cigars we used to get there were vastly
superior to those we get at present in Paris at five times the cost. The
assistant who served us was a splendid creature. Alfred de Musset became
so enamoured of her that at one time his familiars apprehended an
"imprudence on his part." Of course, they were afraid he would marry
her.

In those days most of our journeys in the interior of France had still
to be made by the mails of Lafitte-Caillard, and the people these
conveyances brought up from the provinces were almost as great objects
of curiosity to us as we must have been to them. It was the third lustre
of Louis-Philippe's reign. "God," according to the coinage, "protected
France," and when the Almighty seemed somewhat tired of the task, Thiers
and Guizot alternately stepped in to do the safeguarding. Parliament
resounded with the eloquence of orators who are almost forgotten by now,
except by students of history; M. de Genoude was clamouring for
universal suffrage; M. de Cormenin, under the _nom de plume_ of "Timon,"
was the fashionable pamphleteer; the papers indulged in vituperation
against one another, compared to which the amenities of the rival
Eatanswill editors were compliments. Grocers and drapers objected to the
participation of M. de Lamartine in the affairs of State. The _Figaro_
of those days went by the title of _Corsaire-Satan_, and, though
extensively read, had the greatest difficulty in making both ends meet.
In order to improve the lot o