tence in Paris has come to mean something far different from the
facts of a generation ago. Wages have always been fixed at a standard
barely above subsistence; but, even under these conditions, French
frugality has succeeded not only in living, but in putting by a trifle
month by month. As the great manufactories have sprung up, possibilities
have lessened and altered, till the workwoman, however cheerfully she
may face conditions, knows that saving has become impossible. If, in
some cases, wages have risen, prices have advanced with them till only
necessities are possible, the useful having dropped away from the plan,
and the agreeable ceased to have place even in thought. Even before the
long siege, and the semi-starvation that came to all within the walls of
Paris, prices had been rising, and no reduction has come which even
approximates to the old figures. Every article of daily need is at the
highest point, sugar alone being an illustration of what the
determination to protect an industry has brought about. The London
workwoman buys a pound for one penny, or at the most twopence. The
French workwoman must give eleven or twelve sous, and then have only
beet sugar, which has not much over half the saccharine quality of cane
sugar. Flour, milk, eggs, all are equally high, meat alone being at
nearly the same prices as in London. Fruit is a nearly impossible
luxury, and fuel so dear that shivering is the law for all but the rich,
while rents are also far beyond London prices, with no "improved
dwellings" system to give the utmost for the scanty sum at disposal. For
the needlewoman the food question has resolved itself into bread alone,
for at least one meal, with a little coffee, chiefly chicory, and
possibly some vegetable for the others. But many a one lives on bread
for six days in the week, reserving the few sous that can be saved for a
Sunday bit of meat, or bones for soup. Even the system which allows of
buying "portions," just enough for a single individual, is valueless for
her, since the smallest and poorest portion is far beyond the sum which
can never be made to stretch far enough for such indulgence.

"I have tried it, madame," said the same speaker, who had mourned over
the degeneration of finish among the workwomen. "It was the siege that
compelled it in the beginning, and then there was no complaining, since
it was the will of the good God for all. But there came a time when
sickness had been with me long