u are a minister."

"Not yet."

"You are so in point of fact, and I call you monseigneur accordingly;
besides, you are my seigneur for me, and that is sufficient; if you
dislike my calling you monseigneur before others, allow me, at least, to
call you so in private."

Colbert raised his head as if to read, or to try to read, upon Vanel's
face how much actual sincerity entered into this protestation of
devotion. But the counselor knew perfectly well how to sustain the
weight of his look, even were it armed with the full authority of the
title he had conferred. Colbert sighed; he could not read anything in
Vanel's face, and Vanel might possibly be honest in his profession, but
Colbert recollected that this man, inferior to himself in every other
respect, was actually his superior through the fact of his having a wife
unfaithful to him. At the moment he was pitying this man's lot, Vanel
coldly drew from his pocket a perfumed letter, sealed with Spanish wax,
and held it toward Colbert saying, "A letter from my wife, monseigneur."

Colbert coughed, took, opened, and read the letter, and then put it
carefully away in his pocket, while Vanel turned over the leaves of the
papers he had brought with him with an unmoved and unconcerned air.
"Vanel," he said suddenly to his protege, "you are a hard-working man,
I know; would twelve hours' daily labor frighten you?"

"I work fifteen hours every day."

"Impossible. A counselor need not work more than three hours a day in
the parliament."

"Oh! I am working up some returns for a friend of mine in the department
of accounts, and, as I still have time left on my hands, I am studying
Hebrew."

"Your reputation stands high in the parliament, Vanel."

"I believe so, monseigneur."

"You must not grow rusty in your post of counselor."

"What must I do to avoid it?"

"Purchase a high place. Mean and low ambitions are very difficult to
satisfy."

"Small purses are the most difficult to fill, monseigneur."

"What post have you in view?" said Colbert.

"I see none--not one."

"There is one, certainly, but one need be almost the king himself to be
able to buy it without inconvenience! and the king will not be inclined,
I suppose, to purchase the post of procureur-general."

At these words, Vanel fixed his at once humble and dull look upon
Colbert, who could hardly tell whether Vanel had comprehended him or
not. "Why do you speak to me, monseigneur," said Vanel, "of the post