;
especially the women, who wear exaggerated styles, and flaunt their
furs and jewels, which deceive no one.

[Illustration: DOOR OF MADAME HUARD'S HOME--PARIS]

"They buy everything, so long as it is expensive," explained an
antiquity dealer. "They want everything, and want it at once!"

The few old artisans still to be found who are versed in the art of
repairing antiques, are rushed to death, and their ill humour is almost
comic, for in spite of the fact that they are being well paid for their
work, they cannot bear to see these precious treasures falling into the
hands of the vulgar.

"This is for Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So," they inform you with an ironical
smile, quite certain that you have never heard the name before.

It would almost seem as if a vast wave of prosperity had enveloped the
country, were one to judge of the stories of millions made in a minute,
fortunes sprung up over night, new factories erected where work never
ceases; prices paid for real estate, monster strokes on the Bourse.
Little wonder then that in May just past, with the Germans scarcely
sixty miles from Paris, the sale of Degas' studio attained the
extraordinary total of nearly two million dollars; an Ingres drawing
which in 1889 brought eight hundred and fifty francs, selling for
fourteen thousand, and a Greco portrait for which Degas himself gave
four hundred and twenty francs in 1894, fetching eighty-two thousand
francs.

Yes, such things happen even in France, and one hears but too often of
fortunes accumulated in the past four years--but alas! how much more
numerous are those which have been lost. The _nouveaux-pauvres_ far
outnumber the _nouveaux-riches_; but these former seem to go into
hiding.

The Parisian bourgeois was essentially a property owner. His delight
was in houses; the stone-front six-story kind, the serious rent-paying
proposition, containing ten or a dozen moderate-priced apartments, and
two good stores, from which he derived a comfortable income. Such was
the ultimate desire of the little shop-keeper, desire which spurred him
on to sell and to economise.

A house, some French rentes, government bonds (chiefly Russian in
recent years) and a few city obligations, were the extent of his
investments, and formed not only the nucleus but the better part of
many a French fortune.

Imagine then the predicament of such people under the moratorium. Few
and far between are the tenants who have paid a sou of rent si