EARLY RECOLLECTIONS. 7 



then the " grisette " small, sallow, and seldom 

 pretty she trips along with infinite grace in the 

 neat and tasteful costume of her class, and is far 

 more attractive than her insular sister, albeit the 

 latter is generally of superior physique and good 

 looks, but spoils all by a vulgar unsuccessful 

 attempt at copying the costume of the classes 

 above her, and only succeeds in exhibiting herself 

 as the personification of a fraud, often slatternly, 

 and always pretentious and vulgar. Chat for five 

 minutes with a French "grisette," and you will 

 find that she can speak her own language 

 pleasantly and correctly. Converse with an 

 English girl of the same class, and you will hear 

 Cockneyisms which will make you wish you were 

 deaf. 



At this period Paris, taken as a whole, was by 

 no means a handsome city ; its best and brightest 

 quarters were but of relatively small extent 

 Grouped, however, as these parts were, closely 

 together, and visible almost at a glance by visitors, 

 the effect of the first sight of the place was cer- 

 tainly cheery, and at the same time imposing ; and 

 as the visitor's carriage rolled down the Champs 

 Elysees, along the Rue de Rivoli, and through the 



