; then, raising his voice, he added, "neither
from Dutocq nor from any one else."

"Don't feel uneasy, Rabourdin," said his Excellency, kindly, but making
a movement to get away.

Rabourdin came forward respectfully, and the minister could not evade
him.

"Will your Excellency permit me to see you for a moment in private?" he
said, with a mysterious glance.

The minister looked at the clock and went towards the window, whither
the poor man followed him.

"When may I have the honor of submitting the matter of which I spoke to
your Excellency? I desire to fully explain the plan of administration to
which the paper that was taken belongs--"

"Plan of administration!" exclaimed the minister, frowning, and
hurriedly interrupting him. "If you have anything of that kind to
communicate you must wait for the regular day when we do business
together. I ought to be at the Council now; and I have an answer to
make to the Chamber on that point which the opposition raised before the
session ended yesterday. Your day is Wednesday next; I could not work
yesterday, for I had other things to attend to; political matters are
apt to interfere with purely administrative ones."

"I place my honor with all confidence in your Excellency's hands," said
Rabourdin gravely, "and I entreat you to remember that you have not
allowed me time to give you an immediate explanation of the stolen
paper--"

"Don't be uneasy," said des Lupeaulx, interposing between the minister
and Rabourdin, whom he thus interrupted; "in another week you will
probably be appointed--"

The minister smiled as he thought of des Lupeaulx's enthusiasm for
Madame Rabourdin, and he glanced knowingly at his wife. Rabourdin saw
the look, and tried to imagine its meaning; his attention was diverted
for a moment, and his Excellency took advantage of the fact to make his
escape.

"We will talk of all this, you and I," said des Lupeaulx, with whom
Rabourdin, much to his surprise, now found himself alone. "Don't be
angry with Dutocq; I'll answer for his discretion."

"Madame Rabourdin is charming," said the minister's wife, wishing to say
the civil thing to the head of a bureau.

The children all gazed at Rabourdin with curiosity. The poor man had
come there expecting some serious, even solemn, result, and he was like
a great fish caught in the threads of a flimsy net; he struggled with
himself.

"Madame la comtesse is very good," he said.

"Shall I not have the pleas