u will never
marry Cecile, my old fellow."

"Why not?" said Giguet, ironically.

"My dear friend, Madame Beauvisage and her daughter spend four
evenings every week in the salon of your aunt; your aunt is the most
distinguished woman in Arcis; and she is, though twenty years the elder,
an object of envy to Madame Beauvisage; don't you see, therefore, that
they wished to wrap up their refusal in certain civilities?"

"Not to say entire yes or no in such cases," said Vinet, "is to say
_no_, with due regard to the intimacy of the two families. Though Madame
Beauvisage has the largest fortune in Arcis, Madame Marion is the
most esteemed woman in the place; for, with the exception of our
chief-justice's wife, who sees no one now, she is the only woman who
knows how to hold a salon; she is the queen of Arcis. Madame Beauvisage
has tried to make her refusal polite, that's all."

"I think that old Grevin was fooling your mother," said Frederic Marest.

"Yesterday you attacked the Comte de Gondreville, you insulted and
grievously affronted him, and he is to be consulted about your marriage
to Cecile!"

"Pere Grevin is a sly old dog," said Vinet.

"Madame Beauvisage is very ambitious," pursued Antonin Goulard. "She
knows very well her daughter is to have two millions; she means to be
mother-in-law of a minister, or an ambassador, in order to play the
great lady in Paris."

"Well, why not?" said Simon Giguet.

"I wish you may get it!" replied the sub-prefect looking at Vinet,
with whom he went off into a hearty laugh as soon as they were out of
hearing. "He won't even be deputy," added Antonin, addressing Vinet;
"the ministry have other views. You will find a letter from your father
when you get home, enjoining you to make sure of the votes of all the
persons in your department, and see that they go for the ministerial
candidate. Your own promotion depends on this; and he requests you to be
very discreet."

"But who is the candidate for whom our ushers and sheriffs and clerks,
and solicitors and notaries are to vote?" asked Vinet.

"The one I shall name to you."

"How do you know my father has written to me, and what he wrote?"

"The stranger told me--"

"The man after water?"

"My dear Vinet, you and I are not to know; we must treat him as a
stranger. He saw your father at Provins as he came through. Just now
this same man gave me a note from the prefect instructing me to
follow in every particular the instruct