The country girls we observed on the banks of the river as we floated along, and the grisettes of the town who were promenading on the Quai when we arrived, wore a peculiarly elegant costume and their headdress appeared to me to be something Asiatic.

It was a large booth, somewhat over-full; and the company consisted mainly of Parisian blue blouses, little foot-soldiers, grisettes (for there were grisettes in those days, and plenty of them), with a sprinkling of farm-boys and dairy-maids from the villages round about.

The grisette from a certain point of view is the chef-d'oeuvre of Parisian industry; the bouquet of Parisian civilization.

Having hired a small private box in the least conspicuous part of the theatre, I had committed the cowardly mistake of endeavoring to transform my grisette into a woman of fashion.

Just as the affair of the Opera had dealt a final blow to my romance à la grisette on the one hand, so had the excursion to Courbevoie, the visit to the École de Natation, and the adventure of the Café Procope, fostered my intimacy with the artist on the other.