Sinopsis

One sultry Saturday afternoon in the summer of 1847 I sat at my desk in the junior school room, or salle d'études des petits, of the Institution F. Brossard, Rond point de l'Avenue de St. Cloud; or, as it is called now, Avenue du Bois de Boulogne—or, as it was called during the Second Empire, Avenue du Prince Impérial, or else de l'Impératrice; I'm not sure.
There is not much stability in such French names, I fancy; but their sound is charming, and always gives me the nostalgia of Paris—Royal Paris, Impérial Paris, Republican Paris!