had the imprudence to
express the wish to sit on the ministerial benches. The minister guessed
at the real meaning of the desire, which simply was that des Lupeaulx
wanted to strengthen a precarious position, so that he might throw off
all dependence on his chief. The harrier turned against the huntsman;
the minister gave him cuts with the whip and caresses, alternately, and
set up rivals to him. But des Lupeaulx behaved like an adroit courtier
with all competitors; he laid traps into which they fell, and then he
did prompt justice upon them. The more he felt himself in danger the
more anxious he became for an irremovable position; yet he was compelled
to play low; one moment's indiscretion, and he might lose everything. A
pen-stroke might demolish his civilian epaulets, his place at court,
his sinecure, his two offices and their advantages; in all, six
salaries retained under fire of the law against pluralists. Sometimes he
threatened his minister as a mistress threatens her lover; telling him
he was about to marry a rich widow. At such times the minister petted
and cajoled des Lupeaulx. After one of these reconciliations he received
the formal promise of a place in the Academy of Belles-lettres on the
first vacancy. "It would pay," he said, "the keep of a horse." His
position, so far as it went, was a good one, and Clement Chardin des
Lupeaulx flourished in it like a tree planted in good soil. He could
satisfy his vices, his caprices, his virtues and his defects.

The following were the toils of his life. He was obliged to choose,
among five or six daily invitations, the house where he could be sure
of the best dinner. Every morning he went to his minister's morning
reception to amuse that official and his wife, and to pet their
children. Then he worked an hour or two; that is to say, he lay back in
a comfortable chair and read the newspapers, dictated the meaning of a
letter, received visitors when the minister was not present, explained
the work in a general way, caught or shed a few drops of the holy-water
of the court, looked over the petitions with an eyeglass, or wrote his
name on the margin,--a signature which meant "I think it absurd; do
what you like about it." Every body knew that when des Lupeaulx was
interested in any person or in any thing he attended to the matter
personally. He allowed the head-clerks to converse privately about
affairs of delicacy, but he listened to their gossip. From time to time
he