My Library

over it. Wine of the rarest graced his board; plate of the richest adorned it; servants most attentive served it; coffee of the best followed, and tobacco of the finest finished it; all of which strengthened Ravalette in my esteem. After partaking of his elegant hospitality, he proposed a walk, and accordingly we withdrew from the house together, and arm in arm strolled into the Rue du Temple, and kept that route until we reached the limit of Paris in that direction, and entered one of its suburbs known as Belleville. “Before quitting the street where I dined, I had taken the precaution to mark well the locality of the house, and to note its number on my ivory tablets, which I invariably carried with me. “And now we ascended the hills overlooking Paris; and then we descended to the plain, and gratified the eye in viewing the rich market gardens, and the conservatories of choice and rare flowers, cultured carefully for the triweekly markets on the esplanade de la Madeleine and the Château d’Eau. Again ascending the hill, we entered a café together, and together partook of some frozen coffee and other ices, after which he took me to see a guinguette—or tea garden—lately established for the common people, where the customer for ten sous might ape royalty, and sip his coffee from silver cups, and take his wine from Sèvres porcelain. Here we both talked to the proprietor concerning the novelty of his enterprise, and