"Well, I guess I don't agree. See there," and he pointed to a respectable bourgeois citizen who had just sat down at one of the little marble tables with his wife and daughter on either side of him. "Why, they are only here for some music and coffee. They might be part of a Fifth Avenue congregation in a New York church. They certainly have no consciousness of immorality, and they seem ridiculously happy and contented. That sort of thing is quite impossible in my country, or yours either I guess. We are conscious of the presence of vice all the time, and console ourselves by feeling 'onco guid' as the Scotch say, whereas here in France they certainly make vice charming. No one observes anything immoral or improper in this place, and that is why everybody is happy and gay, and enjoys himself to the full. We Americans and Englishmen take our pleasures too seriously, and that is why we are nothing but a congregation of highly moral rakes. Virtue after all is merely a want of opportunity, and because the opportunity is to be found here, we set the place down as immoral. But we forget it is we who are immoral not the place. You English imagine that everybody will be damned who does not act or think exactly as you do. You forget that Paris has made pleasure and its pursuit a fine art. After six in the evening the entire town is engaged in nothing else. What do you suppose all these telegraph boys are hurrying around with 'petite bleus' for all day long except to enable Marie for four sous to inform her Alphonse that she is quite alone as her father has just left the house, or to warn Raoul or Charles that he must put off his visit to-night because her husband has unexpectedly returned from the country. My dear sir, I assure you that this great city is absorbed in toil all day long merely to procure the necessary money to purchase diamonds for Madame, to buy a new hat for Suzanne, or to pay the rent of Marguerite's flat in the Rue Pigalle."
"Good Lord!" exclaimed the young Englishman, "I had no idea that such shocking escapades went on."
"Perhaps that may be so, but it is all the more reason why you want to do them."
"But surely, my dear sir! you don't imagine for a moment that I would——"
"Yes, you may well say that, you old humbug," he interrupted, "but I can see by your eyes that you are just as bad as any of them," and the American nudged him and laughed heartily.
A pretty girl, charmingly dressed in evening costume, sided up to them at this moment, all laughter with sparkling eyes that beamed with merriment. "A bien venue mes enfants, allon boire un coup avec nous," and she dropped a little curtsey.
The American bowed politely and lead his companion away. But the younger one turned his head round and looked at her and smiled back.
"Oh, my dear fellow, do let's go and join her."
"I thought you were superior to all that sort of thing."
"Oh, well I've changed my mind."