Women were sitting bareheaded everywhere, chatting, laughing, eating, drinking and chaffing with their male companions. Then men were immaculate in evening dress, dazzling white shirts and shiny silk hats.
Already it seemed that every table was taken, for it was Grand Prix night, and all Paris was dining outdoors. From the Place de la Concorde up to the Avenue Matignon stretched the white tables with their little lamps, and the bottles of red wine flickering in the light.
It was like fairyland. The fountains were splashing and tinkling, bands of music were heard everywhere, and the voices of singers came from the café chantants, sounding shrilly above the chorus of rattling china. Hundreds of people were laughing and talking, and on the avenue the cabs rumbled by, their lamps approaching and disappearing like thousands of flickering fireflies.
From one restaurant to another the boys wandered, finding all the tables filled, much to their dismay.
“Who would have thought it could be like this so early in the evening!” said Frank, disconsolately. “There are hundreds waiting for tables already.”
“An’ I’m hongry enough to eat a stew made uv old boot-tops,” declared the boy from Vermont. “Seein’ all these folks stowin’ the good fodder away makes me hongrier. I’ve gotter eat purty soon, ur I’ll lay right daown an’ cough up the ghost, Frank.”
“We’ll try the Ambassadeurs,” said Frank. “It’s the best place I know of, and I don’t suppose there is one chance in a thousand of getting a table there; but it will do no harm to try.”
So to the Ambassadeurs they went, and, by a rare piece of fortune, they chanced to obtain a table.
“Gol derned ef this ain’t slick,” chuckled the Yankee lad, as he settled down in a satisfied way. “Here we kin eat, and we’ll see a show at the same time.”
“Well, I don’t know as we’ll see much at this distance from the stage,” said Frank; “but we can hear the music of the songs, without being bothered to make out the words. This beats the roof gardens of New York, for it is on the ground, and there’s gravel under foot and trees over our heads.”