They walked about the streets at hazard, looking at the people and the houses, the shops and the vehicles, the blazing blue sky and the muddy crossings, the hurrying men and the slow-strolling maidens, the fresh red bricks and the bright green trees, the extraordinary mixture of smartness and shabbiness.
From one hour to another the day had grown vernal; even in the bustling streets there was an odor of earth and blossom.

Felix was immensely entertained.

He had called it a comical country, and he went about laughing at everything he saw.

You would have said that American civilization expressed itself to his sense in a tissue of capital jokes.
The jokes were certainly excellent, and the young man's merriment was joyous and genial.

He possessed what is called the pictorial sense; and this first glimpse of democratic manners stirred the same sort of attention that he would have given to the movements of a lively young person with a bright complexion.