So it happened that the boys left the hotel shortly after the professor went out. Later they were seated at the corner table of the Café de la Paix, which juts the farthest out into the Avenue de l’Opera and the Boulevard Capucines.
This particular table afforded them the finest boulevard view to be obtained in Paris, and they were fortunate in obtaining it. It was located exactly under the “de la” of the “Café de la Paix,” which was painted in red letters on the awning over their heads.
About this table flowed the tide of pedestrians from the avenue and the boulevard, and from their admirable position the boys could watch the square in front of the opera house, the boulevard and the three great streets running into it from the river.
Of course the boys were obliged to order drinks that they might sit there at that table, but the liquid remained untouched, while they watched the throngs that came and went like great waves of life.
“There,” said Frank, with a sigh of relief. “If we remain here an hour or so, we’ll see everybody worth seeing in Paris.”
Near them was a crowd of New Yorkers, young men and women, drinking wine and making merry in the open air after a fashion that would have filled them with horror had they seen a similar party doing such a thing at the corner of Broadway and Fifth Avenue.
It was near six in the afternoon, one of the most propitious times for seeing the boulevards.
“These air French youngsters make me sick,” drawled Ephraim, as he watched some boys with broad velvet collars and stocks go by. “What makes ’em dress that air way?”
“They think it is English, you know,” smiled Frank.
“Wal, the only place I’ve been where folks don’t seem to be tryin’ to do something English is in Africy, among the niggers. In New York they was tryin’ to be English, an’ it was the same in Valparaiso and Buenos Ayres. Naow they seem to have it here in Paris. By gum! I am a Yankee from the crown uv my feet to the sole uv my head, an’ I don’t make no monkey uv myself tryin’ to act like the English an’ dress like um.”