July 7th, seven o'clock
This servile vanity is not less natural or less common than the vanity of dominion . Whoever feels himself incapable of command , at least desires to obey a powerful chief . Serfs have been known to consider themselves dishonored when they became the property of a mere count after having been that of a prince , and Saint-Simon mentions a valet who would only wait upon marquises . July 7th , seven o'clock P. M. -- I have just now been up the Boulevards ; it was the opera night , and there was a crowd of carriages in the Rue Lepelletier . The foot-passengers who were stopped at a crossing recognized the persons in some of these as we went by , and mentioned their names ; they were those of celebrated or powerful men , the successful ones of the day . Near me there was a man looking on with hollow cheeks and eager eyes , whose thin black coat was threadbare . He followed with envious looks these possessors of the privileges of power or of fame , and I read on his lips , which curled with a bitter smile , all that passed in his mind .