at night with a
greasy candle than with a diamond of the first water."

"You speak in paradox--" Sulpice began.

"And you think I am making paradoxes? Not in the least, I will give
you--not at cost, for it has cost me dearly, but in block,--my stock of
experience. Do with it what you please, and, above all, beware of _alle
donne!_"

"Women?" asked the minister, with involuntary disquiet.

"Women, exactly. Encircling every minister there is a squadron of
seductive women, who though perhaps more fully clothed than the flying
squadron of the Medicis, is certainly not less dangerous. Women who
complain that they are denied political rights, have in reality all,
since they are able to rule administrations and knock ministers off, as
the Du Barry did her oranges! When I speak of women, you will observe
well that I do not speak of your admirable wife," said Ramel, with a
respect that was most touching, coming from this honest veteran.

"While we are gossiping," he resumed, "I am going to tell you frankly
what strikes me most clearly in the present conjuncture. You will gather
from it what you choose. In these days, my dear Vaudrey, what is most
remarkable is the facility men have for destroying their credit and
wearing themselves out. Politics, especially, entails a formidable
consumption. It seems that the modern being is not cut out to wear long.
This, perhaps, is due to the fact that public business, whichever party
wins, is always committed to men who are ill-prepared for their good
fortune. I do not say this of you, who, intellectually speaking, are an
exception. But men are no longer bathed in the Styx, or perhaps they
show the heel too quickly. For some years, moreover, the strange
phenomenon has presented itself of the provincial towns being the prey
of Parisian manufacturers, who reconstruct them and demolish their
picturesque antiquity, in order to garnish their boulevards and fine
mansions, while Paris, on the contrary, is directed and governed by
provincials, who provincialize it just as the Parisian companies
parisianize the provinces. Our provincials, astonished to find
themselves at the head of Parisian movement, lose their heads somewhat
and rush with immoderate appetites at the delicate feast. They have the
gluttony of famished children, and on the most perilous question they
are simply gourmands. It is _woman_ again to whom I refer. The country
squires and gentlemen riders, who have grown old in their pr