y was
flush, rolls and milk when it was not -- A fortune-teller in the
Rue de Tournon -- Her prediction as to the future of Josephine de
Beauharnais -- The allowance to students in those days -- The
Odeon deserted -- Students' habits -- The Chaumiere -- Rural
excursions -- Pere Bonvin's.

Long before Baron Haussmann began his architectural transformation, many
parts of Paris had undergone changes, perceptible only to those who had
been brought up among the inhabitants, though distinct from them in
nationality, education, habits, and tastes. Paris became to a certain
extent, and not altogether voluntarily, cosmopolitan before the palatial
mansions, the broad avenues, the handsome public squares which
subsequently excited the admiration of the civilized world had been
dreamt of, and while its outer aspect was as yet scarcely modified. This
was mainly due to the establishment of railways, which caused in the end
large influxes of foreigners and provincials, who as it were drove the
real Parisian from his haunts. Those visitors rarely penetrated in large
numbers to the very heart of the Quartier-Latin. When they crossed the
bridges that span the Seine, it was to see the Sorbonne, the Pantheon,
the Observatory, the Odeon, and the Luxembourg; they rarely stayed after
nightfall. The Prado, the Theatre Bobino, the students' taverns, escaped
their observation when there was really something to see; and now, when
the Closerie des Lilas has become the Bal Bullier, when the small
theatre has been demolished, and when the taverns are in no way
distinguished from other Parisian taverns--when, in short, commonplace
pervades the whole--people flock thither very often. But during the
whole of the forties, and even later, the _rive gauche_, with its
Quartier-Latin and adjacent Faubourg St. Germain, were almost entirely
sacred from the desecrating stare of the deliberate sightseer; and,
consequently, the former especially, preserved its individuality, not
only materially, but mentally and morally--immorally would perhaps have
been the word that would have risen to the lips of the observer who
lacked the time and inclination to study the life led there deeper than
it appeared merely on the surface. For though there was a good deal of
roystering and practical joking, and short-lasted _liaison_, there was
little of deliberate vice, of strategic libertinism--if I may be allowed
to coin the expression. True, every Ja