xime, you must provide a better-laid plot
than that. From your manner this morning I supposed there was really
something in all this, and so I ventured to disturb our excellent
attorney-general, who knows how I value his advice. But really, your
scheme seems to me too transparent and also too narrow not to be doomed
to inevitable defeat. If I were not married, and could pretend to the
hand of Mademoiselle Beauvisage, perhaps I should feel differently; of
course you will do as you think best. I do not say that the government
will not wish you well in your attempt, but it certainly cannot descend
to make it with you."

"But see," said Vinet, interposing to cut off Maxime's reply, which
would doubtless have been bitter; "suppose we send the affair to the
criminal courts, and the peasant-woman, instigated by the Beauvisage
couple, should denounce the man who had sworn before a notary, and
offered himself for election falsely, as a Sallenauve: the question is
one for the court of assizes."

"But proofs? I return to that, you must have proof," said Rastignac.
"Have you even a shadow of it?"

"You said yourself, just now," remarked Maxime, "that it was always
possible to bring a bad case."

"A civil case, yes; but to fail in a criminal case is a far more serious
matter. It would be a pretty thing if you were shown not to have a
leg to stand on, and the case ended in a decision of _non-lieu_. You
couldn't find a better way to put our enemy on a pedestal as high as the
column of July."

"So," said Maxime, "you see absolutely nothing that can be done?"

"For us, no. For you, my dear Maxime, who have no official character,
and who, if need be, can support the attack on Monsieur de Sallenauve
pistol in hand, as it were, nothing hinders you from proceeding in the
matter."

"Oh, yes!" said Maxime, bitterly, "I'm a sort of free lance."

"Not at all; you are a man intuitively convinced of facts impossible
to prove legally, and you do not give way before the judgment of God or
man."

Monsieur de Trailles rose angrily. Vinet rose also, and, shaking hands
with Rastignac as he took leave of him, he said,--

"I don't deny that your course is a prudent one, and I don't say that in
your place I should not do the same thing."

"Adieu, Maxime; without bitterness, I hope," said Rastignac to Monsieur
de Trailles, who bowed coldly and with dignity.

When the two conspirators were alone in the antechamber, Maxime turned
to his compa