ng young fellow, in no way distinguished from
the rest. He was a not unworthy ornament of "La Chaumiere," and did
probably as much or as little poring over books as his companions.
Still, there could be no doubt as to his natural intelligence, but the
dunces in my immediate circle were very few. He was not very well off;
but, as I have said elsewhere, the Croesuses were also rare. At any
rate, Eugene Rouher had entirely passed out of my recollection, and
when, eleven or twelve years later, I saw his name in the list of Odilon
Barrot's administration as Minister of Justice, I had not the remotest
idea that it was the Eugene Rouher of my Quartier-Latin days. I am
certain that a great many of our former acquaintances were equally
ignorant, because, though I met several of them from time to time on the
"fashionable side" of the Seine, I do not remember a single one having
drawn my attention to him. It was only at one of the presidential
receptions at the Elysee, in 1850, that I became aware of the fact. He
came up to me and held out his hand. "Il me semble, monsieur, que nous
nous sommes deja rencontres au Quartier-Latin," he said. Even then I was
in the dark with regard to the position he was fast assuming; but the
Prince-President himself enlightened me to a great extent in the course
of the evening. "It appears that you and Rouher are old acquaintances,"
he said in English; and on my nodding in the affirmative, he added, "If
you were a Frenchman, and inclined to go in for politics, or even an
Englishman in need of patronage or influence, I would advise you to
stick to him, for he is a very remarkable man, and I fancy we shall hear
a good deal of him within the next few years." I may, therefore, say
without exaggeration that I was one of the first who had a trustworthy
tip with regard to a comparatively "dark political horse," and from a
tipster in whom by that time I was inclined to believe.

[Footnote 54: It is equally curious to note, perhaps, that M.
Grevy, who occupied the presidential chair of the Third
Republic for a longer period than his two predecessors, was in
many respects like Louis-Philippe, notably in his love of
money.--EDITOR.]

Though I was neither "a Frenchman inclined to go in for politics," nor
"even an Englishman in need of patronage or influence," my curiosity had
been aroused; for, I repeat, at the time of our first acquaintance I had
considered Eugene