r, who thereupon went off into an harangue to
the clerks, which he wound up by inviting them to the ball.

The vision of a ball inspired the three clerks, Raguet, and Virginie the
cook with an ardor that gave them the strength of acrobats. They came
and went up and down the stairs, carrying everything and breaking
nothing. By two o'clock in the morning the removal was effected. Cesar
and his wife slept on the second floor. Popinot's bedroom became that
of Celestin and the second clerk. On the third floor the furniture was
stored provisionally.

In the grasp of that magnetic ardor, produced by an influx of the
nervous fluid, which lights a brazier in the midriff of ambitious men
and lovers intent on high emprise, Popinot, so gentle and tranquil
usually, pawed the earth like a thoroughbred before the race, when he
came down into the shop after dinner.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Celestin.

"Oh, what a day! my dear fellow, what a day! I am set up in business,
and Monsieur Cesar is decorated."

"You are very lucky if the master helps you," said Celestin.

Popinot did not answer; he disappeared, driven by a furious wind,--the
wind of success.

"Lucky!" said one of the clerks, who was sorting gloves by the dozen, to
another who was comparing prices on the tickets. "Lucky! the master has
found out that Popinot is making eyes at Mademoiselle Cesarine, and,
as the old fellow is pretty clever, he gets rid of Anselme; it would
be difficult to refuse him point-blank, on account of his relations.
Celestin thinks the trick is luck or generosity!"

VI

Anselme Popinot went down the Rue Saint-Honore and rushed along the
Rue des Deux-Ecus to seize upon a young man whom his commercial
_second-sight_ pointed out to him as the principal instrument of his
future fortune. Popinot the judge had once done a great service to
the cleverest of all commercial travellers, to him whose triumphant
loquacity and activity were to win him, in coming years, the title
of The Illustrious. Devoted especially to the hat-trade and the
_article-Paris_, this prince of travellers was called, at the time of
which we write, purely and simply, Gaudissart. At the age of twenty-two
he was already famous by the power of his commercial magnetism. In those
days he was slim, with a joyous eye, expressive face, unwearied memory,
and a glance that guessed the wants of every one; and he deserved to
be, what in fact he became, the king of commercial