Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 3).djvu/50

 

BOUT the center of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and at the back of one of the most distinguished-looking mansions in this rich neighborhood, extended a large garden, whose widely spreading chestnut-trees raised their heads above the walls, high and solid as those of a rampart, scattering, each spring, a shower of delicate pink and white blossoms into the large stone vases placed at equal distances upon the two square pilasters, supporting an iron gate, of the reign of Louis XIV.

This noble entrance, however, spite of its striking appearance and the graceful effect of the geraniums planted in the two vases, as they waved in the wind their variegated leaves and their scarlet bloom, had fallen into utter disuse, from the period when the proprietors of the hotel (and many years had elapsed since then) had confined themselves to the possession of the hotel with its thickly planted court-yard, opening into the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and the garden shut in by this gate, which formerly communicated with a fine kitchen-garden of about an acre in extent.

But the demon of speculation having drawn a line, or in other words projected a street, at the extremity of this kitchen-garden, and even before the foundations of the said street were dug, its name being duly affixed upon an iron plate at the corner of the situation chosen, it was resolved to sell this kitehen-garden and build in the street, which was to rival the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, that great artery of Paris.

In matters of speculation, however, though "man proposes," yet "money disposes." The newly named street died almost in birth, and the purchaser of the "kitchen-garden," having paid a high price for it, could not resell it for the same sum; yet, still clinging to the belief that at some future day he should obtain a sum for it that would repay him,