B666 <=> B668 [BTG XXXVII France, p. 667]

“And thus, having sat down at a table in that famous Grand Cafe or rather in the street in front of the Grand Cafe, we began to watch the passing people just strolling by, passing and strolling on the other half of the pavement of this Grand Cafe.

“Among the strolling crowd were beings of almost all the separate groupings both of this continent Europe as well as of the other continents, mostly of course from those communities whose turn it was at that period to be rich; there predominated, however, in that crowd, beings of the continent America.

“The beings of the continent America had already there in Paris finally taken the place in recent times of the beings of the great community Russia after the ‘death’ of this latter.

“There strolled by there, beings chiefly belonging to the caste of the ruling class, who often come there, as they say, to the ‘capital of the world’ to ‘have a good time.’

“There were many businessmen also among them, who had come there to Paris for what are called the ‘fashion-goods,’ chiefly for perfumery and women’s clothes.

“Among the varied crowd walking on the Boulevard des Capucines, many young people could also be noticed who had come there to learn how to dance ‘fashionable dances’ and make ‘fashionable hats.’

“As we, while talking, were examining that mixed crowd, whose faces expressed their satisfaction at the fulfillment of a long-awaited dream, my new acquaintance, the young Persian, suddenly turned to me in surprise and pointing with his finger at a passing couple, exclaimed:

“’Look! Look! There go genuine French people!’

“I looked and saw that indeed this couple greatly resembled those beings whom I had seen in the provincial towns of that community France.