transcendent merits of two of the trinkets,
for the third had been set aside at once. Without leaving his book,
without a glance at the bracelets, the Prince looked at the jeweler's
assistant.

"Which would you choose for your sweetheart?" asked he.

The young man indicated one of the pair.

"In that case, take the other, you will make two women happy," said the
subtlest of modern diplomatists, "and make your sweetheart happy too, in
my name."

The two fair ladies smiled, and the young shopman took his departure,
delighted with the Prince's present and the implied compliment to his
taste.

A woman alights from her splendid carriage before one of the expensive
shops where shawls are sold in the Rue Vivienne. She is not alone; women
almost always go in pairs on these expeditions; always make the round
of half a score of shops before they make up their minds, and laugh
together in the intervals over the little comedies played for their
benefit. Let us see which of the two acts most in character--the fair
customer or the seller, and which has the best of it in such miniature
vaudevilles?

If you attempt to describe a sale, the central fact of Parisian trade,
you are in duty bound, if you attempt to give the gist of the matter,
to produce a type, and for this purpose a shawl or a chatelaine costing
some three thousand francs is a more exacting purchase than a length of
lawn or dress that costs three hundred. But know, oh foreign visitors
from the Old World and the New (if ever this study of the physiology
of the Invoice should be by you perused), that this selfsame comedy is
played in haberdashers' shops over a barege at two francs or a printed
muslin at four francs the yard.

And you, princess, or simple citizen's wife, whichever you may be, how
should you distrust that good-looking, very young man, with those frank,
innocent eyes, and a cheek like a peach covered with down? He is dressed
almost as well as your--cousin, let us say. His tones are soft as the
woolen stuffs which he spreads before you. There are three or four more
of his like. One has dark eyes, a decided expression, and an imperial
manner of saying, "This is what you wish"; another, that blue-eyed
youth, diffident of manner and meek of speech, prompts the remark, "Poor
boy! he was not born for business"; a third, with light auburn hair, and
laughing tawny eyes, has all the lively humor, and activity, and gaiety
of the South; while the fourth, he of