, as all men lie. The real truth is that the fox can go no
farther, that he is at the end of his breath and his courage, ready to
fall into the ditch, and if the hound persists in his pursuit--"

Mora started, became a little paler, as all the blood in his veins
rushed back to his heart. Two darkly flashing glances met, two words
were swiftly exchanged with the ends of the lips; then the duke bowed
low and walked away with a step as brisk and light as if the gods were
carrying him.

There was only one man in the palace as happy as he at that moment, and
that was the Nabob. Escorted by his friends, he occupied, filled the
main aisle all by himself, talking in a loud tone, gesticulating, so
proud that he seemed almost handsome, as if, by dint of gazing long at
his bust in artless admiration, he had caught a little of the splendid
idealization with which the artist had softened the vulgarity of the
type. The head at an elevation of three-fourths, free from the high
rolling collar, gave rise to contradictory opinions from the spectators
concerning the resemblance; and Jansoulet's name, which had been
repeated so many times by the electoral urns, was echoed by the
prettiest lips in Paris, by its most influential voices. Any other than
the Nabob would have been embarrassed by hearing as he passed the
exclamations of these curious bystanders, who were not always in
sympathy with him. But the platform and the springboard were congenial
to that nature, which was always braver under the fire of staring eyes,
like those women who are beautiful and clever only in society, and whom
the slightest admiration transfigures and perfects.

When he felt that that delirious joy was subsiding, when he thought that
he had drained the cup of his proud intoxication, he had only to say to
himself: "Deputy! I am a deputy!" and the triumphal cup was brimming
full once more. It meant the raising of the embargo from all his
property, the awakening from a nightmare of two months' duration, the
blast of the mistral sweeping away all vexations, all anxieties, even to
the insult at Saint-Romans, heavily as it weighed on his memory.

Deputy!

He laughed all by himself as he thought of the baron's face when he
heard the news, of the bey's stupefaction when he was taken to look at
his bust; and suddenly, at the thought that he was no longer a mere
adventurer gorged with gold, arousing the senseless admiration of the
vulgar like an enormous nugget in a