arliamentary family; his
fortune, of about fifteen thousand francs a year, was not an offence
to anybody, especially as he had a son and three daughters. With such
a family, fifteen thousand francs a year are a mere nothing. Now when,
under these circumstances, the father of the family is above bribery,
it would be hard if the electors did not esteem him. Electors wax
enthusiastic over a _beau ideal_ of parliamentary virtue, just as the
audience in the pit do at the representation of the generous sentiments
they so little practise.

Madame de Chavoncourt, at this time a woman of forty, was one of the
beauties of Besancon. While the Chamber was sitting, she lived meagrely
in one of their country places to recoup herself by economy for Monsieur
de Chavoncourt's expenses in Paris. In the winter she received very
creditably once a week, on Tuesdays, understanding her business as
mistress of the house. Young Chavoncourt, a youth of two-and-twenty, and
another young gentleman, named Monsieur de Vauchelles, no richer than
Amedee and his school-friend, were his intimate allies. They made
excursions together to Granvelle, and sometimes went out shooting;
they were so well known to be inseparable that they were invited to the
country together.

Rosalie, who was intimate with the Chavoncourt girls, knew that the
three young men had no secrets from each other. She reflected that
if Monsieur de Soulas should repeat her words, it would be to his two
companions. Now, Monsieur de Vauchelles had his matrimonial plans,
as Amedee had his; he wished to marry Victoire, the eldest of the
Chavoncourts, on whom an old aunt was to settle an estate worth seven
thousand francs a year, and a hundred thousand francs in hard cash, when
the contract was to be signed. Victoire was this aunt's god-daughter
and favorite niece. Consequently, young Chavoncourt and his friend
Vauchelles would be sure to warn Monsieur de Chavoncourt of the danger
he was in from Albert's candidature.

But this did not satisfy Rosalie. She sent the Prefet of the department
a letter written with her left hand, signed "_A friend to Louis
Philippe_," in which she informed him of the secret intentions of
Monsieur Albert de Savarus, pointing out the serious support a Royalist
orator might give to Berryer, and revealing to him the deeply artful
course pursued by the lawyer during his two years' residence at
Besancon. The Prefet was a capable man, a personal enemy of the Royalist