The Count of Monte Cristo

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geraniums planted in the two vases, as they waved their variegated
leaves in the wind and charmed the eye with their scarlet bloom, had
fallen into utter disuse. The proprietors of the mansion had many years
before thought it best to confine themselves to the possession of the
house itself, with its thickly planted court-yard, opening into the
Faubourg Saint-Honore, and to the garden shut in by this gate, which
formerly communicated with a fine kitchen-garden of about an acre. For
the demon of speculation drew a line, or in other words projected a
street, at the farther side of the kitchen-garden. The street was
laid out, a name was chosen and posted up on an iron plate, but before
construction was begun, it occurred to the possessor of the property
that a handsome sum might be obtained for the ground then devoted
to fruits and vegetables, by building along the line of the proposed
street, and so making it a branch of communication with the Faubourg
Saint-Honore itself, one of the most important thoroughfares in the city
of Paris.