"The lorettes live in the Chaussée d'Antin, the Nouvelle-Athènes, the Champs-Élysées, the quarter of _sport_, of the _turf_, or, if you prefer, of the horse traders. They are found, too, in quite large numbers, in the new streets. When a fine house is completed--that is to say, when the stairs are in place, so that the different floors are accessible, the proprietor lets apartments to lorettes, _to dry the walls_, as they say. They hire dainty suites, freshly decorated; everyone knows that they won't pay their rent, but the rooms are let to them because they draw people to the house; they attract other tenants; not honest bourgeois--nay, nay!--but fashionable young men, rich old bachelors, and sometimes men with stylish carriages. "By the way, the lorette is exceedingly frank in this respect. One of them was inspecting a beautiful suite on Rue Mazagran, when the concierge, who probably did not know whom he was dealing with, was simple enough to tell her the price, repeating several times that she could not have it for less than fifteen hundred francs. Irritated by his persistence, the lorette stared at him as if he were a monstrosity, exclaiming: "'Look you, monsieur, who do you think you're talking to? What difference does it make to me what the rent is, when I never pay?' "The lorette dresses stylishly and coquettishly; she leaves a trail of perfume behind her. She has magnificent bouquets, and her gloves are the object of much solicitude. At a distance, one might take her for a lady of rank and fashion; but to hear her speak is fatal, and the illusion vanishes at once, her language being infinitely less pure than the polish on her boots. "The lorette seeks to eclipse the grisette, whom she pretends to look down upon, but to whom she is vastly inferior, none the less. She has no lover, she has keepers. And yet she is not a kept woman, for such a one sometimes remains a long while with the same _monsieur_, whereas the lorette is constantly changing. "The grisette likes young men; the lorette prefers men of mature years. "The Hippodrome and the Cirque des Champs-Élysées are the resorts which the lorettes particularly affect. In the afternoon, they go thither to admire the bold horse-men jumping fences, or the women driving chariots in the ring. The Hippodrome audience being, as a rule, frivolous, dandified, and fashionable,--especially on weekdays,--these ladies are almost certain to make their expenses. "In the evening, they go to admire Baucher; they jump up and down in ecstasy on their benches when Auriol makes some new hair-raising plunge. The lorette is never tired of repeating to her _spouse_--for so she calls her friend of the moment--that she knows nothing more beautiful than a horse.