ets of Paris; for them
encyclopaedias of carnival frippery and a score of illustrated books are
brought out every year, to say nothing of caricatures by the hundred,
and vignettes, lithographs, and prints by the thousand. To please those
eyes, fifteen thousand francs' worth of gas must blaze every night; and,
to conclude, for their delectation the great city yearly spends several
millions of francs in opening up views and planting trees. And even yet
this is as nothing--it is only the material side of the question; in
truth, a mere trifle compared with the expenditure of brain power on the
shifts, worthy of Moliere, invented by some sixty thousand assistants
and forty thousand damsels of the counter, who fasten upon the
customer's purse, much as myriads of Seine whitebait fall upon a chance
crust floating down the river.

Gaudissart in the mart is at least the equal of his illustrious
namesake, now become the typical commercial traveler. Take him away from
his shop and his line of business, he is like a collapsed balloon; only
among his bales of merchandise do his faculties return, much as an actor
is sublime only upon the boards. A French shopman is better educated
than his fellows in other European countries; he can at need talk
asphalt, Bal Mabille, polkas, literature, illustrated books, railways,
politics, parliament, and revolution; transplant him, take away his
stage, his yardstick, his artificial graces; he is foolish beyond
belief; but on his own boards, on the tight-rope of the counter, as he
displays a shawl with a speech at his tongue's end, and his eye on his
customer, he puts the great Talleyrand into the shade; he is a match for
a Monrose and a Moliere to boot. Talleyrand in his own house would
have outwitted Gaudissart, but in the shop the parts would have been
reversed.

An incident will illustrate the paradox.

Two charming duchesses were chatting with the above-mentioned great
diplomatist. The ladies wished for a bracelet; they were waiting for the
arrival of a man from a great Parisian jeweler. A Gaudissart accordingly
appeared with three bracelets of marvelous workmanship. The great ladies
hesitated. Choice is a mental lightning flash; hesitate--there is no
more to be said, you are at fault. Inspiration in matters of taste will
not come twice. At last, after about ten minutes the Prince was called
in. He saw the two duchesses confronting doubt with its thousand facets,
unable to decide between the