B683 <=> B685 (BTG XXXVII France, p. 684)

“’What is most interesting of all is that nobody is offended at this “commission business” of this “solid firm,” but on the contrary it is “convenient” and “easy” and “profitable” for everyone. From this “commerce” of theirs, even the French, the hosts of the “capital of the world,” “gain,” but . . . it is true, they only grain in so far as they make profit out of the postage stamps which it is necessary to stick on the letters during correspondence between the customers and the Paris Branch.

“’As you see, everyone is satisfied and everyone is pleased, and even benefited; and the chief thing is that the axiom of political economy, not accepted by everybody, is justified, namely, that without international exchange of goods, countries cannot possibly exist.

“’But what am I? . . . I am only a poor dancing teacher! . . .’

“That jolly American was going to say something else, but at that moment a great hubbub arose in the next room of the restaurant and desperate voices of men and women who sat there were heard. We got up and only when we went out into the street did we find out that a being of the female sex from the community called ‘Spain’ had flung ‘vitriol’ into the face of another being, also of the female sex, from the community called ‘Belgium,’ because the latter had given a cigar case as a present, engraved with the inscription, ‘Always ready at your service’ to a being of the male sex from the community called ‘Georgia,’ whose Paris existence had been supported till this day by the first woman.

“When we got into the street it was very late; it was already dawn, and having parted from that amusing American, we went to our hotels.

“While pondering, on my way home from that famous Montmartre, over everything I had seen and heard, it was then that I well understood why and how such an opinion not corresponding to reality about the beings of that community France which they always have, had been formed in the beings belonging to other communities.