That may be a bit
beyond them sometimes, but usually there is someone in the crowd who
is "flush," and that means who will pay. For the Villagers are not
parsimonious; they stand in no danger of ever making themselves rich
and thus acquiring place in the accursed class called the Philistines!
It is beyond question that the French have a genius for hospitality.
It must be rooted in their beautiful, national tact, that gracious
impulse combining chivalry to women, friendliness to men and courtesy
to all which is so characteristic of "the world's sweetheart" France.
I have never seen a French restaurant where the most casual visitor
was not made personally and charmingly welcome, and I have never seen
such typically French restaurants as the Lafayette and the Brevoort.
And the Villagers feel it too. From the shabbiest socialist to the
most flagrantly painted little artist's model, they drift in
thankfully to that atmosphere of gaiety and sympathy and thoughtful
kindliness which is, after all, just--the air of France.
Next let us take a restaurant of quite another type, not far from the
Brevoort--all the Village eating places are close together--walk
across the square, a block further, and you are there.
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