Just one word as to the natural effects of architecture, optical
science, and house decoration; one short, decisive, terrible word, of
history made on the spot. The work which contains this instructive
page is sold at number 76 Rue de Richelieu, where above an elegant
shop, all white and gold and crimson velvet, there is an entresol into
which the light pours straight from the Rue de Menars, as into a
painter's studio--clean, clear, even daylight. What idler in the
streets has not beheld the Persian, that Asiatic potentate, ruffling
it above the door at the corner of the Rue de la Bourse and the Rue de
Richelieu, with a message to deliver _urbi et orbi_, "Here I reign more
tranquilly than at Lahore"? Perhaps but for this immortal analytical
study, archaeologists might begin to puzzle their heads about him five
hundred years hence, and set about writing quartos with plates (like
M. Quatremere's work on Olympian Jove) to prove that Napoleon was
something of a Sofi in the East before he became "Emperor of the
French." Well, the wealthy shop laid siege to the poor little
entresol; and after a bombardment with banknotes, entered and took
possession. The Human Comedy gave way before the comedy of cashmeres.
The Persian sacrificed a diamond or two from his crown to buy that so
necessary daylight; for a ray of sunlight shows the play of the
colors, brings out the charms of a shawl, and doubles its value; 'tis
an irresistible light; literally, a golden ray. From this fact you may
judge how far Paris shops are arranged with a view to effect.

But to return to the young assistants, to the beribboned man of forty
whom the King of the French receives at his table, to the red-bearded
head of the department with his autocrat's air. Week by week these
meritus Gaudissarts are brought in contact with whims past counting;
they know every vibration of the cashmere chord in the heart of woman.