pricked up
his ears when anyone accused the Republicans of wishing to pillage the
houses of the rich; whereupon he would colour up to such a degree as
to make one fear an approaching apoplectic fit, and mutter low
imprecations, in which the words "idlers," "scoundrels," "thieves," and
"assassins" frequently recurred.

All those who frequented the yellow drawing-room were not, however,
as heavy as this fat goose. A rich landowner, Monsieur Roudier, with a
plump, insinuating face, used to discourse there for hours altogether,
with all the passion of an Orleanist whose calculations had been upset
by the fall of Louis Philippe. He had formerly been a hosier at Paris,
and a purveyor to the Court, but had now retired to Plassans. He had
made his son a magistrate, relying on the Orleanist party to promote him
to the highest dignities. The revolution having ruined all his hopes, he
had rushed wildly into the reaction. His fortune, his former commercial
relations with the Tuileries, which he transformed into friendly
intercourse, that prestige which is enjoyed by every man in the
provinces who has made his money in Paris and deigns to come and spend
it in a far away department, gave him great influence in the district;
some persons listened to him as though he were an oracle.

However, the strongest intellect of the yellow drawing-room was
certainly Commander Sicardot, Aristide's father-in-law. Of Herculean
frame, with a brick-red face, scarred and planted with tufts of grey
hair, he was one of the most glorious old dolts of the Grande Armee.
During the February Revolution he had been exasperated with the
street warfare and never wearied of referring to it, proclaiming with
indignation that this kind of fighting was shameful: whereupon he
recalled with pride the grand reign of Napoleon.

Another person seen at the Rougons' house was an individual with clammy
hands and equivocal look, one Monsieur Vuillet, a bookseller, who
supplied all the devout ladies of the town with holy images and
rosaries. Vuillet dealt in both classical and religious works; he was
a strict Catholic, a circumstance which insured him the custom of the
numerous convents and parish churches. Further, by a stroke of genius he
had added to his business the publication of a little bi-weekly
journal, the "Gazette de Plassans," which was devoted exclusively to
the interests of the clergy. This paper involved an annual loss of a
thousand francs, but it made him