Rollo in Paris | Page 5

not?" asked Rollo.
"Yes," replied Mr. George, "very nearly. But you had better not reckon by dollars, now, at all, but by francs altogether. That's a franc."
So saying, Mr. George took a silver coin out of his pocket, and showed it to Rollo. It was nearly as large as a quarter of a dollar, or an English shilling, but not quite. A quarter of a dollar is worth twenty-five cents, an English shilling twenty-four, and a franc about twenty cents.
"You can have five of those a day to pay your own board with."
"And how much would it cost me at a boarding house, in Paris, to pay my board?" asked Rollo.
"Why, we don't board at boarding houses in Paris," said Mr. George. "We have rooms at a hotel, and then we get breakfast and dinner wherever we please, at coffee rooms and dining rooms all over the city, wherever we happen to be, or wherever we take a fancy to go. You can get a very excellent breakfast for a franc and a half. A beefsteak, or an omelet, and bread and butter and coffee."
"That's enough for breakfast," said Rollo. "And then, dinner?"
"You can get a first-rate dinner for two francs, or even less. That makes three francs and a half."
"And tea?"
"They never take tea in Paris," said Mr. George. "The French don't take tea."
"Why not?" asked Rollo.
"I don't know," replied Mr. George, "unless it is because the English do. Whatever is done in London, you generally find that just the contrary is done in Paris."
"Don't we have any thing, then, after dinner?" asked Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "The French generally go and take a seat at a little round table on the sidewalk, and have a little glass of brandy and a cigar."
Here Rollo threw his head back, and laughed loud and long. He was greatly amused at the idea of his making an allowance, in calculating how far his five francs would go, for a glass of brandy and a cigar. Mr. George himself, sedate as he was, could not but smile.
"The fact is," said he, at length, "there are only two meals to calculate for, and they will not cost, upon an average, more than three francs and a half, if we are prudent and economical, and go to plain and not expensive places. But then there is the immense amount that you will be always wishing to spend for cakes, and candy, and oranges, and nuts, and bonbons of all sorts and kinds. There is an endless variety of such things in Paris. You will find half a dozen cake shops in every street, with fifty different kinds of gingerbread and cake in them, all of the richest and most delicious description."
"Yes," said Rollo, "I shall want some of those things."
"No doubt," said Mr. George, "you will make yourself sick eating them, I'll venture to say, before you have been in Paris twenty-four hours."
"No," said Rollo, shaking his head resolutely; "and I think I had better take the five francs and pay my own board."
"Very well," said Mr. George, "and that provides for every thing except incidentals. Your father said that I might pay you five francs a day for incidentals and pocket money. That is to include all your personal expenses of every kind, except what we have already provided for. There will be excursions, and tickets to concerts and shows, and carriage hire, and toys that you will want to buy, and all such things. The amount of it is, that your father pays all your expenses for transportation, for lodging, and for casualties. You pay every thing else, and are allowed ten francs a day for it. I am to be treasurer, and to have the whole charge of your funds, except so far as I find it prudent and safe to intrust them to you, and you are to buy nothing at all against my consent."
"Nothing at all?" asked Rollo.
"No," said Mr. George, "nothing at all. You are not to expend a single centime in any way that I object to."
"What is a centime?" asked Rollo.
"It is of the value of less than one fourth of a cent," replied Mr. George.
"But I should think I might buy such little things as that would come to, of myself," said Rollo. "Suppose I should wish to buy a small piece of gingerbread for a cent."
"Say for a sou,"[A] replied Mr. George. "There are no cents in Paris."
[A] Pronounced soo.
"Well," rejoined Rollo, "suppose I should wish to spend a sou for gingerbread, and eat it, and you should object to it."
"Very well," replied Mr. George; "and suppose you were to wish to spend a sou for poison, and drink it."
"But I should not be likely to buy poison," said Rollo, laughing.
"Nor should I be likely to