prototypes, have ensconced
themselves. The Chinese speak of outsiders as "barbarians." The French
ladies refer to such unfortunates as being "beyond the pale." Almost all
that has been written is arrant nonsense; that imaginary barrier exists
to-day on as firm a foundation, and is guarded by sentinels as vigilant
as when, forty years ago, Napoleon (third of the name) and his Spanish
spouse mounted to its assault.

Their repulse was a bitter humiliation to the _parvenue_ Empress, whose
resentment took the form (along with many other curious results) of
opening the present Boulevard St. Germain, its line being intentionally
carried through the heart of that quarter, teeming with historic "Hotels"
of the old aristocracy, where beautiful constructions were mercilessly
torn down to make way for the new avenue. The cajoleries which Eugenie
first tried and the blows that followed were alike unavailing. Even her
worship of Marie Antoinette, between whom and herself she found imaginary
resemblances, failed to warm the stony hearts of the proud old ladies, to
whom it was as gall and wormwood to see a nobody crowned in the palace of
their kings. Like religious communities, persecution only drew this old
society more firmly together and made them stand by each other in their
distress. When the Bois was remodelled by Napoleon and the lake with its
winding drive laid out, the new Court drove of an afternoon along this
water front. That was enough for the old swells! They retired to the
remote "Allee of the Acacias," and solemnly took their airing away from
the bustle of the new world, incidentally setting a fashion that has held
good to this day; the lakeside being now deserted, and the "Acacias"
crowded of an afternoon, by all that Paris holds of elegant and
inelegant.

Where the brilliant Second Empire failed, the Republic had little chance
of success. With each succeeding year the "Old Faubourg" withdrew more
and more into its shell, going so far, after the fall of Mac Mahon, as to
change its "season" to the spring, so that the balls and _fetes_ it gave
should not coincide with the "official" entertainments during the winter.

The next people to have a "shy" at the "Old Faubourg's" Gothic
battlements were the Jews, who were victorious in a few light skirmishes
and succeeded in capturing one or two illustrious husbands for their
daughters. The wily Israelites, however, discovered that titled sons-in-
law were expensive