0:00 ABOUT TWO-THIRDS OF THE WAY ALONG THE FOBURG SANANOR, and Thisbe. About two-thirds of the way along the Foburg-Sanonur, and in the rear of one of the most
0:28 imposing mansions in this rich neighborhood, where the various houses vie with each other for
0:33 elegance of design and magnificence of construction, extended a large garden, where the
0:39 widespreading chestnut trees raised their heads high above the walls in a solid rampart, and with the coming of every
0:46 spring scattered a shower of delicate pink and white blossoms into the large stone vases that
0:52 stood upon the two square pilasters of a curiously wrought iron gate that dated from the time of Louis
0:59 XII. This noble entrance, however, in spite of its striking appearance and the graceful effect
1:04 of the geraniums planted in the two vases,
1:07 as they waved their variegated leaves in the wind and charmed the eye with their scarlet bloom,
1:13 had fallen into utter disuse.
1:16 The proprietors of the mansion had many years before thought it best to confine themselves to the possession of the house itself,
1:23 with its thickly planted courtyard,
1:31 opening into the faubourg Saint-Honor, and to the garden shut in by this gate, which formerly communicated with a fine kitchen-garden of about an acre.
1:35 For the demon of speculation drew a line, or, in other words, projected a street, at
1:41 the farther side of the kitchen-garden.
1:43 The street was laid out, a name was chosen,
1:46 and posted up on an iron plate, but before construction was begun, it occurred to the
1:51 possessor of the property that a handsome sum might be obtained for the ground then devoted
1:56 to fruits and vegetables, by building along the line of the proposed street, and so making it a
2:02 branch of communication with the Faubourg Saint-Honor itself, one of the most important thoroughfares in the city of Paris.
2:09 In matters of speculation, however, though man proposes, money disposes.
2:15 From some such difficulty, the newly named street died almost in birth,
2:20 and the purchaser of the kitchen garden, having paid a high price for it,
2:24 and being quite unable to find anyone willing to take his bargain off his hands without a
2:29 considerable loss, yet still clinging to the belief that at some future day he should obtain
2:34 a sum for it that would repay him, not only for his past outlay, but also the interest upon the
2:40 capital locked up in his new acquisition, contented himself with letting the ground
2:45 temporarily to some market-gardeners at a yearly rental of five hundred francs.
2:51 And so, as we have said, the iron gate leading into the kitchen-garden had been closed up and
2:56 left to the rust, which bade fair before long to eat off its hinges, while to prevent the ignoble
3:02 glances of the diggers and delvers of the ground from
3:05 presuming to sully the aristocratic enclosure belonging to the mansion, the gate had been
3:11 boarded up to a height of six feet. True, the planks were not so closely adjusted but that a
3:16 hasty peep might be obtained through their interstices, but the strict decorum and rigid
3:22 propriety of the inhabitants of the house left no grounds for apprehending that advantage would be taken of that circumstance.
3:31 Horticulture seemed, however, to have been abandoned in the deserted kitchen garden,
3:34 and where cabbages, carrots, radishes, peas, and melons had once flourished,
3:40 a scanty crop of lucerne alone bore evidence of its being deemed worthy of cultivation.
3:45 A small low door gave egress from the walled space we have been describing into the projected street,
3:52 the ground having been abandoned as unproductive by its various renters, and had now fallen so
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