B668 <=> B670 (BTG XXXVII France, p. 669)

“I agreed, and we went from that Grand Cafe, first of all to what is called a ‘brothel’ situated nearby.

“There, in the first place, I learned that the owner of this ‘noble establishment’ was a certain Spaniard.

“In the rooms of this house was a crowd of women: ‘Poles,’ ‘Viennese,’ and ‘Italians,’ and even two ‘Negresses’ were there.

“I had wanted to see how genuine Frenchwomen appeared in this setting, but from my inquiries it became clear that there was not even one Frenchwoman in this establishment.

“After this brothel we again went on to the Boulevards, and began to walk and observe the strolling, varied crowd.

“And there also everywhere we met large numbers of the beings of the feminine sex with the obvious signs on them of the aim of their ‘nocturnal quests’ on these Boulevards.

“All these women belonged to the already enumerated nationalities, as well as to others, namely, there were also ‘Swedes,’ ‘English,’ ‘Russian,’ ‘Spaniards,’ ‘Moldavians,’ and so on there, but scarcely one genuine Frenchwoman.

“Soon some dubious-looking beings of the male sex began to accost us and proposed to us that we do with them a certain ‘Grand Duke.’

“At first I did not understand what ‘Grand Duke’ meant, but on various inquiries it became clear that these strange words had acquired there a definite meaning quite recently, namely, from the time when the now dead ‘monarchic Russia’ flourished there.

“It turned out that the beings there of that time, belonging to the caste of the ruling class of that dead Russia were very fond of the ‘capital of the world’ and often went there; and almost every one of them, out of ‘swank,’ gave himself out as a titled individual, such as ‘Count,’ ‘Baron,’ or ‘Prince,’ but most frequently of all, as a ‘Grand Duke.’ And, since all of them obligatorily paid ‘visits’ to dubious places of ‘foreign Paris,’ the professional guides now call such a ‘tour’ the tournee du Grand Duc (which in English means ‘the Grand Duke’s Tour’).