henceforth Ceres took
a gloomy joy in watching his wife. She came in every evening to dine or
dress with an air of agreeable fatigue and the serenity that comes from
enjoyment.

Thinking that she knew nothing, he sent her anonymous communications.
She read them at the table before him and remained still listless and
smiling.

He then persuaded himself that she gave no heed to these vague reports,
and that in order to disturb her it would be necessary to enable her to
verify her lover's infidelity and treason for herself. There were at the
Ministry a number of trustworthy agents charged with secret inquiries
regarding the national defence. They were then employed in watching the
spies of a neighbouring and hostile Power who had succeeded in entering
the Postal and Telegraphic service. M. Ceres ordered them to suspend
their work for the present and to inquire where, when, and how, the
Minister of the Interior saw Mademoiselle Lysiane. The agents performed
their missions faithfully and told the minister that they had several
times seen the Prime Minister with a woman, but that she was not
Mademoiselle Lysiane. Hippolyte Ceres asked them nothing further. He was
right; the loves of Paul Visire and Lysiane were but an alibi invented
by Paul Visire himself, with Eveline's approval, for his fame was rather
inconvenient to her, and she sighed for secrecy and mystery.

They were not shadowed by the agents of the Ministry of Commerce alone.
They were also followed by those of the Prefect of Police, and even by
those of the Minister of the Interior, who disputed with each other
the honour of protecting their chief. Then there were the emissaries
of several royalist, imperialist, and clerical organisations, those of
eight or ten blackmailers, several amateur detectives, a multitude of
reporters, and a crowd of photographers, who all made their appearance
wherever these two took refuge in their perambulating love affairs,
at big hotels, small hotels, town houses, country houses, private
apartments, villas, museums, palaces, hovels. They kept watch in the
streets, from neighbouring houses, trees, walls, stair-cases, landings,
roofs, adjoining rooms, and even chimneys. The Minister and his friend
saw with alarm all round their bed room, gimlets boring through doors
and shutters, and drills making holes in the walls. A photograph of
Madame Ceres in night attire buttoning her boots was the utmost that had
been obtained.

Paul Visire