derstand better the duty
of women than you Frenchmen do. We cannot regulate our
manner of walking on that of a being subjected to us. Our
dignity forbids it. It is the woman's duty to follow us.
Consequently she must walk as we do,--we can't walk as she
does.'

"'_Ma foi!_' said I, 'I must admit that in progress you are
decidedly our masters. In France the law, it is true,
commands the wife to follow her husband; but it does not, I
confess, say that she must do so at the rate of a _quick
march_!'

"The contrasts between the two countries are in truth
inexhaustible. Indeed I defy the most patient observer, to
find any point of resemblance between them. In France,
houses are gay in appearance; in London, with the exception
of some streets in the centre, such as Regent-street or
Oxford-street, they are as dark and dismal as prisons. Our
windows open from the left to the right; windows in England
open from top to bottom. At Paris, to ring or knock too loud
is vulgar and ill-bred; at London, if you don't execute a
tattoo with the knocker or a symphony with the bell, you are
considered a poor wretch, and are left an hour at the door.
Our hack cabs take their stand on one side of the street; in
England they occupy the middle. Our coachmen get up in front
of their vehicles; in England they go behind. In Paris,
Englishmen are charming; at home they are--Englishmen. One
thing astonishes me greatly--that the English don't walk on
their hands, since we walk on our feet."

But the French gentlemen do not have it all their own way. The London
_Leader_ attacks them pleasantly in a similar spirit, yet it is always
tinged, upon both sides, with a shade of caustic feeling: "Jules Janin,
who has fallen in love with our fog and kindliness, announces to all
France the joyful news that there will be no Waterloo banquet this June:
the flag of France floating over the Crystal Palace suggests to the Duke
that the banquet would be a breach of hospitality, because it would
recall such "cruel souvenirs!" Janin believes that report; or at least
prints it, which is to give journalistic credence to it. We are sorry to
think how "cruelly" France will be disappointed; and we are amused at
the excessive pre-occupation of Frenchmen with this said battle of
Waterloo. It is the ineradicable belief of every Frenchman th