s face, generally so difficult to
read, lighted up as if by magic. Before the officer had time to announce
the visitor, the prince stepped forward, held out his hand, and with the
other clasped the new-comer to his breast. The officer knew the visitor.
It was the Comte Auguste de Morny. As a matter of course he retired, and
saw and heard no more. I had the above account from his own lips, and he
felt certain that this was the first time the brothers had ever met.

The Comte de Morny was close upon forty then, and for at least half of
that time had been emancipated from all restraint; he was a well-known
figure in the society of Louis-Philippe's reign; he had been a deputy
for one of the constituencies in Auvergne; at the period of his first
meeting with Louis-Napoleon he was at the head of an important
industrial establishment down that way, and one fain asks one's self why
he had waited until then to shake his brother's hand. The answer is not
difficult. There is an oft-repeated story about De Morny having been at
the Opera-Comique during the evening of the 1st of December, 1851.
Rumours of the Coup d'Etat were rife, and a lady said, "Il parait qu'on
va donner un fameux coup de balai. De quel cote serez vous, M. de
Morny?" "Soyez sure, madame, que je serai du cote du manche." Morny
always averred that he had said nothing of the kind. "They invented it
afterwards, perhaps because they credited me with the instinctive
faculty of being on the winning side, the side of the handle, in any and
every emergency."

I think one may safely accept that version, and that is why he refrained
from claiming his brother's friendship and acquaintance until he felt
almost certain that the latter was fingering the handle of the broom
that was to make a clean sweep of the Second Republic. It is difficult
to determine how much or how little he contributed to the success of
that sweep, but I have an idea that it was very little. One thing is
very certain, for I have it on very good--I may say, the
best--authority. He did not contribute any money to the undertaking; he
endeavoured to raise funds from others, but he himself did not loosen
his purse-strings; when, curiously enough, he was the only one among the
immediate entourage of Louis-Napoleon whose purse-strings were worth
loosening.

Allowing for the difference of sex, better breeding and better
education, De Morny often reminded one of Rachel. They possessed the
same powers of fascin