emorse in turning
against you. To-morrow evening when you offer me a cup of tea, you will
be offering me a thing I no longer care for. All is over. Ah! when a man
is forty years of age women may take pains to catch him, but they won't
love him."

He looked himself over in a mirror, admitting honestly that though he
did very well as a politician he was a wreck on the shores of Cythera.
At the same moment Madame Rabourdin was gathering herself together for
a becoming exit. She wished to make a last graceful impression on
the minds of all, and she succeeded. Contrary to the usual custom in
society, every one cried out as soon as she was gone, "What a charming
woman!" and the minister himself took her to the outer door.

"I am quite sure you will think of me to-morrow," he said, alluding to
the appointment.

"There are so few high functionaries who have agreeable wives," remarked
his Excellency on re-entering the room, "that I am very well satisfied
with our new acquisition."

"Don't you think her a little overpowering?" said des Lupeaulx with a
piqued air.

The women present all exchanged expressive glances; the rivalry between
the minister and his secretary amused them and instigated one of those
pretty little comedies which Parisian women play so well. They excited
and led on his Excellency and des Lupeaulx by a series of comments on
Madame Rabourdin: one thought her too studied in manner, too eager to
appear clever; another compared the graces of the middle classes with
the manners of high life, while des Lupeaulx defended his pretended
mistress as we all defend an enemy in society.

"Do her justice, ladies," he said; "is it not extraordinary that the
daughter of an auctioneer should appear as well as she does? See where
she came from, and what she is. She will end in the Tuileries; that is
what she intends,--she told me so."

"Suppose she is the daughter of an auctioneer," said the Comtesse
Feraud, smiling, "that will not hinder her husband's rise to power."

"Not in these days, you mean," said the minister's wife, tightening her
lips.

"Madame," said his Excellency to the countess, sternly, "such sentiments
and such speeches lead to revolutions; unhappily, the court and the
great world do not restrain them. You would hardly believe, however, how
the injudicious conduct of the aristocracy in this respect displeases
certain clear-sighted personages at the palace. If I were a great lord,
instead of being, as