From the Belleville pothouse I went to the Faubourg St.Germain.In this solemn abode of a fossil aristocracy I have a relative--a countess.

She is, I believe, my cousin about sixteen times removed, but as she is the only person of rank with whom my family can claim the most distant relationship, we stick to the cousinship and send her every year cheap presents, which she reciprocates with still more meretricious _bonbons_.

When I was ushered into her drawing-room, I found her taking afternoon tea with two old gentlemen, also a mild young man, and a priest.

A "Lady of the Faubourg," who has any pretensions to beauty, but who is of Cornelia's mood, always has two or three old gentlemen, a mild young man, and a priest, who drop in to see her almost every afternoon.

"Are you come to congratulate us ?" said my cousin, as I entered.