CHAPTER V.
"What do you think of the Bourse ?" asked Lemercier, as their carriage took the way to the Bois.
"I cannot think of it yet; I am stunned.

It seems to me as if I had been at a 'Sabbat,' of which the wizards were 'agents de change,' but not less bent upon raising Satan." "Pooh! the best way to exorcise Satan is to get rich enough not to be tempted by him.

The fiend always loved to haunt empty places; and of all places nowadays he prefers empty purses and empty stomachs." "But do all people get rich at the Bourse?
or is not one man's wealth many men's ruin ?" "That is a question not very easy to answer; but under our present system Paris gets rich, though at the expense of individual Parisians.

I will try and explain.

The average luxury is enormously increased even in my experience; what were once considered refinements and fopperies are now called necessary comforts.