CALAIS ROYAL. 4'6$ 



tainly a very moderate compenfation for the hurry and 

 buftle and the fleeplefs nights he experiences from one 

 end of the year to the other. Accordingly, he is not 

 xich, though he indulges in no kinds of extravagance. 



Thus you fee, how, by the incredible dearnefs of 

 living in Paris, one may fpend a hand fo me fortune, 

 and how the greateft receipts are always attended by 

 proportionable expences. Thus it is with all the other 

 inftitutions of this kind in the Palais Royal. All of 

 them take monftrous fums, and yet no one is rich. 



By the way, you are not to imagine that you will 

 here find entertaining and lively company. Every one 

 is bufy in eating his portion, and but rarely does a 

 man enter into conversation with his neighbour. Be- 

 fore the revolution a man Was never fure that a joke or 

 a bold fentiment might not prefently conduct him from 

 the reftaurateur's to the baftille; and therefore he chofe 

 to fpeak but little to people with whom he was not on 

 an intimate footing. At prefent it is fomewhat more 

 animated ; but a general converfation is not to be ex- 

 pected, unlefs with fome acquaintances you have 

 brought with you. The people here are far more 

 ego iftic ally than diver tingly inclined ; and by reafon of 

 the fwarms of adventurers of every fpecies, who know 

 how to conceal their true character under a very decent 

 and referved exterior, and of the danger one runs of 

 being enfnared by them, it is always better to keep to 

 onefelf in all public places, and to take no notice of 

 one's neighbour. 



But the fnug dinners and petits foupers among friends 

 and acquaintance that are had here by appointment in 

 private rooms, are exceedingly chearful and lively. Even 



vol. ir. h h families 



