the highest order are moving, subterraneously, beneath
the surface of the children's ball.

Arriving from Ville d'Avray late in the afternoon, Sallenauve had
brought Madame de l'Estorade ill news of Marie-Gaston. Under an
appearance of resignation, he was gloomy, and, singular to say, he had
not visited the grave of his wife,--as if he feared an emotion he might
not have the power to master. It seemed to Sallenauve that his friend
had come to the end of his strength, and that a mental prostration of
the worst character was succeeding the over-excitement he had shown at
his election. One thing reassured the new deputy, and enabled him to
come to Paris for, at any rate, a few hours. A friend of Marie-Gaston,
an English nobleman with whom he had been intimate in Florence, came out
to see him, and the sad man greeted the new-comer with apparent joy.

In order to distract Sallenauve's thoughts from this anxiety, Madame de
l'Estorade introduced him to Monsieur Octave de Camps, the latter having
expressed a great desire to know him. The deputy had not talked
ten minutes with the iron-master before he reached his heart by the
magnitude of the metallurgical knowledge his conversation indicated.

During the year in which he had been preparing for a parliamentary life,
Sallenauve had busied himself by acquiring the practical knowledge which
enables an orator of the Chamber to take part in all discussions and
have reasons to give for his general views. He had turned his attention
more especially to matters connected with the great question of the
revenue and taxation; such, for instance, as the custom-house, laws of
exchange, stamp duties, and taxation, direct and indirect. Approaching
in this manner that problematical science--which is, nevertheless, so
sure of itself!--called political economy, Sallenauve had also studied
the sources which contribute to form the great current of national
prosperity; and in this connection the subject of mines, the topic
at this moment most interesting to Monsieur de Camps, had not been
neglected by him. We can imagine the admiration of the iron-master, who
had studied too exclusively the subject of iron ore to know much about
the other branches of metallurgy, when the young deputy told him,
apropos of the wealth of our soil, a sort of Arabian Nights tale, which,
if science would only take hold of it, might become a reality.

"But, monsieur, do you really believe," cried Monsieur de Camps, "that