Excerpt from The Felon's Bequest: A Novel of the Prison and the Boudoir A bright December day, a clear blue sky overhead, and a cold, invigorating breeze blowing, one of those days on which the Parisians love to walk on the boulevards. The men bury their hands in the pockets of their over coats, and with their sticks tucked away under their arm, move along briskly, in order to promote circulation. The women make the heels of their little boots ring on the asphalte, and as they gaze in at the shop windows cast sly glances at the passers-by through their veils. There is nothing more pleasant in life than to be able to go wherever one's fancy leads one, and to have no given duty to perform. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.