The things we do!

It must be confessed, that the grandee loved the estaminet where he could
play billiards with the first comer; that he had a passion for the
gambling-house; that he was a loose and disorderly nobleman: but, in
whatever company he found himself, a certain kindness, simplicity, and
politeness distinguished him always. He bowed to the damsel who sold him
a penny cigar, as graciously as to a duchess; he crushed a manant's
impertinence or familiarity as haughtily as his noble ancestors ever did
at the Louvre, at Marli, or Versailles. He declined to obtemperer to his
landlady's request to pay his rent, but he refused with a dignity which
struck the woman with awe; and King Alfred, over the celebrated muffin
(on which Gandish and other painters have exercised their genius), could
not have looked more noble than Florac in a robe-de-chambre, once
gorgeous, but shady now as became its owner's clouded fortunes; toasting
his bit of bacon at his lodgings, when the fare even of his table-d'hote
had grown too dear for him.


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