And now, believe that the writer would not, for the wealth of England,
steal from poesy a single lie with which to embellish this narrative.
The following is a true history, on which you may safely spend the
treasures of your sensibility--if you have any.

In these days the French language has as many idioms and represents as
many idiosyncracies as there are varieties of men in the great family
of France. It is extremely curious and amusing to listen to the
different interpretations or versions of the same thing or the same
event by the various species which compose the genus Parisian,
--"Parisian" is here used merely to generalize our remark.

Therefore, if you should say to an individual of the species
Practical, "Do you know Madame Firmiani?" he would present that lady
to your mind by the following inventory: "Fine house in the rue du
Bac, salons handsomely furnished, good pictures, one hundred thousand
francs a year, husband formerly receiver-general of the department of
Montenotte." So saying, the Practical man, rotund and fat and usually
dressed in black, will project his lower lip and wrap it over the
upper, nodding his head as if to add: "Solid people, those; nothing to
be said against them." Ask no further; Practical men settle
everybody's status by figures, incomes, or solid acres,--a phrase of
their lexicon.

Turn to the right, and put the same question to that other man, who
belongs to the species Lounger. "Madame Firmiani?" he says; "yes, yes,
I know her well; I go to her parties; receives Wednesdays; highly
creditable house."--Madame Firmiani is metamorphosed into a house! but
the house is not a pile of stones architecturally superposed, of