believe it? there's Keller in the Chamber: now Francois Keller is an
orator, he attacks the government about the budget, about canals. Well,
when he gets home to the bank, and we go to him with proposals, canals,
and so forth, the sly dog is all the other way: everything is right;
we must arrange it with the government which he has just been been
impudently attacking. The interests of the orator and the interests of
the banker clash; we are between two fires! Now, you understand how it
is that business is risky; we have got to please everybody,--clerks,
chambers, antechambers, ministers--"

"Ministers?" said Pillerault, determined to get to the bottom of this
co-associate.

"Yes, monsieur, ministers."

"Well, then the newspapers are right?" said Pillerault.

"There's my uncle talking politics," said Birotteau. "Monsieur Claparon
has won his heart."

"Devilish rogues, the newspapers," said Claparon. "Monsieur, the
newspapers do all the mischief. They are useful sometimes, but they
keep me awake many a night. I wish they didn't. I have put my eyes out
reading and ciphering."

"To go back to the ministers," said Pillerault, hoping for revelations.

"Ministers are a mere necessity of government. Ah! what am I eating?
ambrosia?" said Claparon, breaking off. "This is a sauce you'll never
find except at a tradesman's table, for the pot-houses--"

Here the flowers in Madame Ragon's cap skipped like young rams. Claparon
perceived the word was low, and tried to catch himself up.

"In bank circles," he said, "we call the best cafes.--Very, and the
Freres Provencaux,--pot-houses in jest. Well, neither those infamous
pot-houses nor our most scientific cooks can make us a sauce like this;
mellifluous! Some give you clear water soured with lemon, and the rest
drugs, chemicals."

Pillerault tried throughout the dinner to fathom this extraordinary
being; finding only a void, he began to think him dangerous.

"All's well," whispered Roguin to Claparon.

"I shall get out of these clothes to-night, at any rate," answered
Claparon, who was choking.

"Monsieur," said Cesar, addressing him, "we are compelled to dine in
this little room because we are preparing, eighteen days hence, to
assemble our friends, as much to celebrate the emancipation of our
territory--"

"Right, monsieur; I myself am for the government. I belong, in opinion,
to the _statu quo_ of the great man who guides the destinies of the
house of Austria, joll