led out to him; "Monseigneur has gone with the
minister of war; they are going to see the King, and after that they
dine together, and we are to fetch him at ten o'clock. There's a Council
this evening."

Rabourdin walked slowly home, in a state of despondency not difficult to
imagine. It was seven o'clock, and he had barely time to dress.

"Well, you are appointed?" cried his wife, joyously, as he entered the
salon.

Rabourdin raised his head with a grievous motion of distress and
answered, "I fear I shall never again set foot in the ministry."

"What?" said his wife, quivering with sudden anxiety.

"My memorandum on the officials is known in all the offices; and I have
not been able to see the minister."

Celestine's eyes were opened to a sudden vision in which the devil,
in one of his infernal flashes, showed her the meaning of her last
conversation with des Lupeaulx.

"If I had behaved like a low woman," she thought, "we should have had
the place."

She looked at Rabourdin with grief in her heart. A sad silence fell
between them, and dinner was eaten in the midst of gloomy meditations.

"And it is my Wednesday," she said at last.

"All is not lost, dear Celestine," said Rabourdin, laying a kiss on his
wife's forehead; "perhaps to-morrow I shall be able to see the minister
and explain everything. Sebastien sat up all last night to finish the
writing; the papers are copied and collated; I shall place them on the
minister's desk and beg him to read them through. La Briere will help
me. A man is never condemned without a hearing."

"I am curious to see if Monsieur des Lupeaulx will come here to-night."

"He? Of course he will come," said Rabourdin; "there's something of the
tiger in him; he likes to lick the blood of the wounds he has given."

"My poor husband," said his wife, taking his hand, "I don't see how it
is that a man who could conceive so noble a reform did not also see that
it ought not to be communicated to a single person. It is one of those
ideas that a man should keep in his own mind, for he alone can apply
them. A statesman must do in our political sphere as Napoleon did in
his; he stooped, twisted, crawled. Yes, Bonaparte crawled! To be made
commander-in-chief of the Army of Italy he married Barrere's mistress.
You should have waited, got yourself elected deputy, followed the
politics of a party, sometimes down in the depths, at other times on the
crest of the wave, and you should have ta