To the sharp aroma
of tobacco were joined the stale and rancid odors peculiar to
fifth-rate eating-houses. I sought in vain upon all those faces youth's
gentle and poetical gayety, the exuberance of gifted natures, the
amiable cordiality of travelling-companions pressing on together in
different paths. The most salient characteristics of this bizarre
assembly were sickly smiles, an incredible mixture of triviality and
affectation, motions of wild beasts trying their teeth and claws,
starving attitudes, words tortured to make them look like ideas, a
brutal familiarity, and the evident desire to devour all their superiors
that they might next crush all their equals. I was glad when dinner was
over, for I felt ill at ease,--the sight before me differed so much from
that I had dreamed.
Monsieur Jules Sandeau gave me his arm, and we walked towards the Avenue
des Champs Elysees. It was nine o'clock when we reached the Rue de
Chaillot, where Madame Emile de Girardin resided. She lived in a sort of
Greek temple, built about thirty feet below the level of the street, and
down to which we had to go as if we were entering a cellar.
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