The notary's nose;

42 THE NOTARY'S NOSE.
Paris buys the harvest of Parthenay with
beautiful louis d'or, and the sturdy peasants whom you see trudging along slowly,
a watering-pot in each hand, are little capitalists.
They eat meat twice a day, scorn boiled
hen, and prefer roasted capon. They pay
the salaries of a schoolmaster and a doctor employed for the general good. They
have built a house for the mayor, and a
church, without running into debt, and vote
for my ingenious friend, Dr. Vron in the
elections for the Corps Legislalif. Their
girls are pretty, if my memory serves me
rightly. The learned archaeologist Cubaudet, recorder of the sub-prefecture of
Sceaux, declares that Parthenay is a Greek
colony, and that it gets its name from the
word Parthenos, a virgin or young girl (it
is all one among people of high civilization). But this discussion would lead
us away from our good Ayvaz.