Alfred de Rosann — page 177: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

168 ALFRED DE ROSANN. uneasy. He seemed to draw his breath with diffi- culty as he walked along; he saw not things as they usually were; a change was perceptibly taking place, but a change of what he could not determine. Paris wore an air of confusion, dismay, and alarm; the atmosphere, that hung over her head, appeared preg- nant with a storm about to burst; the looks of her citizens, as they walked or stood in the streets, were foreboding and prophetic. Still our hero was ata loss to imagine how those looks were foreboding, and the nature of the events they had the air of prophesy- ing. He essayed to persuade himself that all was calm and tranquil as usual, and that a disordered imagination tortured things into unnatural shapes. But he could not satisfy his mind that it was an illu- sion—he was no Pyrrhonian—he confounded not ideas and matter—he saw strange sights, and he be- lieved in their existence. He walked with a rapid, though uneven step, and at length arrived opposite to Tortoni’s. At nine o’clock in the morning there are generally very few — loungers outside. The politicians discuss their news- ‘paper with their: breakfast in the gilded salons; the speculator, the banker, the discounter, and the corres- pondents of the Z%imes, Advertiser, Herald, Post, ~ and Chronicle, do not throng opposite the door, and - form into separate groups, till later. But De Rosann saw that they had already arrived—that the specula- tor had left his accounts, the banker his warm bed, the discounter his cabriolet, in which he visited the merchants or tradesmen with whom he did business, and the correspondent of the English journals had deserted his desk. They were gathered into separate knots; each knot appeared to ‘have a spokesman to explain something of vital importance to the rest; and the others listened with attention. They conversed in low whispers, as if afraid that the very walls should hear their opinions; they east frequent glances of uneasy anxiety around, fearful of being overheard by one who would betray them. And yet the topic of CORNICLOOKSa(€)