We were obliged to wait some time in the station before we could claim our baggage, and while we were standing there Euphemia drew my attention to a placard on the wall.  “Look at that!” she exclaimed.  “Even here, on our very entrance to the city, we see signs of that politeness which is the very heart of the nation.  I can’t read the whole of that notice from here, but those words in large letters show that it refers to the observance of the ancient etiquettes.  Think of it!  Here in a railroad station people are expected to behave to each other with the old-time dignity and gallantry of our forefathers.  I tell you it thrills my very soul to think I am among such a people, and I am glad they can’t understand what I say, so that I may speak right out.”

I never had the heart to throw cold water on Euphemia’s noble emotions, and so I did not tell her that the notice merely requested travellers to remove from their trunks the anciennes etiquettes, or old railway labels.

We were not rich tourists, and we all took lodgings in a small hotel to which we had been recommended.  It was in the Latin Quarter, near the river, and opposite the vast palace of the Louvre, into whose labyrinth of picture-galleries Euphemia and I were eager to plunge.

But first we all went to the office of the American Consul, and consulted him in regard to the proper measures to be taken for searching for the little Corinne in Paris.  After that, for some days, Jonas and Pomona spent all their time, and Euphemia and I part of ours, in looking for the child.  Euphemia’s Parisian exhilaration continued to increase, but there were some things that disappointed her.

“I thought,” said she, “that people in France took their morning coffee in bed, but they do not bring it up to us.”

“But, my dear,” said I, “I am sure you said before we came here that you considered taking coffee in bed as an abominable habit, and that nothing could ever make you like it.”

“I know,” said she, “that I have always thought it a lazy custom, and not a bit nice, and I think so yet.  But still, when we are in a strange country, I expect to live as other people do.”

It was quite evident that Euphemia had been looking forward for some time to the novel experience of taking her coffee in bed.  But the gray-haired old gentleman who acted as our chambermaid never hinted that he supposed we wanted anything of the kind.

Nothing, however, excited Euphemia’s indignation so much as the practice of giving a pourboire to cabmen and others.  “It is simply feeding the flames of intemperance,” she said.  When she had occasion to take a cab by herself, she never conformed to this reprehensible custom.  When she paid the driver, she would add something to the regular fare, but as she gave it to him she would say in her most distinct French:  “Pour manger.  Comprenezvous?” The cocher would generally nod his head, and thank her very kindly, which he had good reason to do, for she never forgot that it took more money to buy food than drink.