t peculiar to unoccupied
women who are driven to find some occupation for empty days, she
had pondered the President's private opinions, until at length she
discovered what he meant to do, and for some time past she had advised
Camusot to declare war. The young Count's affair was an excellent
opportunity. Was it not obviously Camusot's part to make a
stepping-stone of this criminal case by favoring the d'Esgrignons, a
family with power of a very different kind from the power of the du
Croisier party?

"Sauvager will never marry Mlle. Duval. They are dangling her before
him, but he will be the dupe of those Machiavels in the Val-Noble to
whom he is going to sacrifice his position. Camusot, this affair, so
unfortunate as it is for the d'Esgrignons, so insidiously brought on by
the President for du Croisier's benefit, will turn out well for nobody
but _you_," she had said, as they went in.

The shrewd Parisienne had likewise guessed the President's underhand
manoeuvres with the Blandureaus, and his object in baffling old
Blondet's efforts, but she saw nothing to be gained by opening the eyes
of father or son to the perils of the situation; she was enjoying the
beginning of the comedy; she knew about the proposals made by Chesnel's
successor on behalf of Fabien du Ronceret, but she did not suspect
how important that secret might be to her. If she or her husband were
threatened by the President, Mme. Camusot could threaten too, in her
turn, to call the amateur gardener's attention to a scheme for carrying
off the flower which he meant to transplant into his house.

Chesnel had not penetrated, like Mme. Camusot, into the means by which
Sauvager had been won over; but by dint of looking into the various
lives and interests of the men grouped about the Lilies of the Tribunal,
he knew that he could count upon the public prosecutor, upon Camusot,
and M. Michu. Two judges for the d'Esgrignons would paralyze the rest.
And, finally, Chesnel knew old Blondet well enough to feel sure that if
he ever swerved from impartiality, it would be for the sake of the work
of his whole lifetime,--to secure his son's appointment. So Chesnel
slept, full of confidence, on the resolve to go to M. Blondet and offer
to realize his so long cherished hopes, while he opened his eyes to
President du Ronceret's treachery. Blondet won over, he would take a
peremptory tone with the examining magistrate, to whom he hoped to prove
that if Victurnien was not