A New Portrait of Paris: Painted from Life

In the conclusion to Chapter VIII, the author finishes the story of his first dinner at the Hotel Corneille. The author notes a dispute among the students in the dining room over the beauty of two popular female singers. This leads to a discussion among the parties gathered at the author's table about women, beauty, and the natures of ugly, beautiful, and "good" women. The author also mentions the group's plans to attend the Cafe Concert that evening and Squills's intentions of writing a sketch about the event for Household Words. The mention of Household Words leads to a discussion of Dickens and issues of "Copy-right and Copy-wrong" (1). The chapter ends with the author's dinner group headed to the Cafe Concert.