English milords marvel at our splendour.
Those who, while spending their capital as their income, fail in their schemes of fortune, after one, two, three, or four years, vanish.

What becomes of them, I know no more than I do what becomes of the old moons.
Their place is immediately supplied by new candidates.

Paris is thus kept perennially sumptuous and splendid by the gold it engulfs.

But then some men succeed,--succeed prodigiously, preternaturally; they make colossal fortunes, which are magnificently expended.

They set an example of show and pomp, which is of course the more contagious because so many men say, 'The other day those millionnaires were as poor as we are; they never economized; why should we ?' Paris is thus doubly enriched,--by the fortunes it swallows up, and by the fortunes it casts up; the last being always reproductive, and the first never lost except to the individuals." "I understand: but what struck me forcibly at the scene we have left was the number of young men there; young men whom I should judge by their appearance to be gentlemen, evidently not mere spectators,--eager, anxious, with tablets in their hands.