sition of a deputy served as levers. Making use of
every cordiality as a weapon, he had always worked under the smiling
mask of a good fellow; but he only employed men whom he had sounded,
tried, and proved; whom he knew to be crafty, bold, and supple. Duroy,
appointed chief of the reporting staff, seemed to him a valuable fellow.

This duty had been filled up till then by the chief sub-editor, Monsieur
Boisrenard, an old journalist, as correct, punctual, and scrupulous as a
clerk. In course of thirty years he had been sub-editor of eleven
different papers, without in any way modifying his way of thinking or
acting. He passed from one office to another as one changes one's
restaurant, scarcely noticing that the cookery was not quite the same.
Political and religious opinions were foreign to him. He was devoted to
his paper, whatever it might be, well up in his work, and valuable from
his experience. He worked like a blind man who sees nothing, like a deaf
man who hears nothing, and like a dumb man who never speaks of anything.
He had, however, a strong instinct of professional loyalty, and would
not stoop to aught he did not think honest and right from the special
point of view of his business.

Monsieur Walter, who thoroughly appreciated him, had however, often
wished for another man to whom to entrust the "Echoes," which he held to
be the very marrow of the paper. It is through them that rumors are set
afloat and the public and the funds influenced. It is necessary to know
how to slip the all-important matter, rather hinted at than said right
out, in between the description of two fashionable entertainments,
without appearing to intend it. It is necessary to imply a thing by
judicious reservations; let what is desired be guessed at; contradict in
such a fashion as to confirm, or affirm in such a way that no one shall
believe the statement. It is necessary that in the "Echoes" everyone
shall find every day at least one line of interest, in order that every
one may read them. Every one must be thought of, all classes, all
professions, Paris and the provinces, the army and the art world, the
clergy and the university, the bar and the world of gallantry. The man
who has the conduct of them, and who commands an army of reporters, must
be always on the alert and always on his guard; mistrustful, far-seeing,
cunning, alert, and supple; armed with every kind of cunning, and gifted
with an infallible knack of spotting false ne