hat the old-fashioned wheels ran very smoothly. I even
began to appreciate the "stuffy" cars for their privacy. As I watched
the passing scenery from the car window, it seemed too beautiful to be
real. The bright-colored houses against the green background impressed
me as the work of some idealistic painter. Before we arrived in Paris,
there was awakened in my heart a love for France which continued to
grow stronger, a love which to-day makes that country for me the one
above all others to be desired.

We rolled into the station Saint Lazare about four o'clock in
the afternoon and drove immediately to the Hotel Continental. My
benefactor, humoring my curiosity and enthusiasm, which seemed to
please him very much, suggested that we take a short walk before
dinner. We stepped out of the hotel and turned to the right into the
rue de Rivoli. When the vista of the Place de la Concorde and the
Champs Elysees suddenly burst on me, I could hardly credit my own
eyes. I shall attempt no such supererogatory task as a description
of Paris. I wish only to give briefly the impressions which that
wonderful city made upon me. It impressed me as the perfect and
perfectly beautiful city; and even after I had been there for some
time, and seen not only its avenues and palaces, but its most squalid
alleys and hovels, this impression was not weakened. Paris became for
me a charmed spot, and whenever I have returned there, I have fallen
under the spell, a spell which compels admiration for all of its
manners and customs and justification of even its follies and sins.

We walked a short distance up the Champs Elysees and sat for a while
in chairs along the sidewalk, watching the passing crowds on foot and
in carriages. It was with reluctance that I went back to the hotel for
dinner. After dinner we went to one of the summer theatres, and after
the performance my friend took me to a large cafe on one of the Grands
Boulevards. Here it was that I had my first glimpse of the French life
of popular literature, so different from real French life. There were
several hundred people, men and women, in the place drinking, smoking,
talking, and listening to the music. My millionaire friend and I took
seats at a table, where we sat smoking and watching the crowd. It
was not long before we were joined by two or three good-looking,
well-dressed young women. My friend talked to them in French and
bought drinks for the whole party. I tried to recall my high