Great troops, regular mobs of poor men, women
and children in rags, dispersed like ghosts at dawn, fled away hurriedly
and vanished, as soon as a policeman approached and made sign to them to
pass on. There was nothing corresponding to it to be seen in Paris.
Crime, too, bore a very different aspect here. In Paris, it was decked
out and audacious, but retained a certain dignity; here, in the evening,
in thickly frequented streets, whole swarms of ugly, wretchedly dressed,
half or wholly drunken women could be seen reeling about, falling, and
often lying in the street.
Both the tendency of the English to isolate themselves and their social
instincts were quite different from those of the French. I was permitted
to see the comfortably furnished Athenaeum Club in Pall Mall, membership
of which was so much desired that people of high standing would have
their names on the list for years beforehand, and these clubs
corresponded to the cafes in Paris, which were open to every passer-by.
I noticed that in the restaurants the tables were often hidden behind
high screens, that the different parties who were dining might not be
able to see one another.
XX.
The house in London where I was happiest was Antonio Gallenga's. A
letter from the Hauchs was my introduction there, and I was received and
taken up by them as if they had known me and liked me for years.
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