the Secretary, "though a man of his nature
could hardly perform such a duty with gentleness. Bugeaud is not a
gentleman; he knows it, and don't try to seem one. He is only a soldier.
But there comes his very particular foe; General Lamoriciere. That
magnificent woman on his arm is his wife and the sister of the lady who
follows, with her husband, the ex-Minister, Adolphe Thiers."

"What a contrast!" cried Beauchamp. "The tall and elegant figure of
Lamoriciere, in his brilliant uniform of the Spahis, half oriental, half
French, with his lovely wife, and the low, swarthy little ex-Minister in
complete black, with his huge round spectacles on his nose nearly twice
the size of his eyes, and a wife on his arm nearly double his stature.
Why, Thiers reminds me of a Ghoul gallanting a Peri."

"And yet that same dark little ex-Minister has perhaps, in many respects
the most powerful mind--at all events, the most available mind--impelled
as it is by his restless ambition, in all France. Do you observe how
incessantly his keen black eye flashes around the house, beneath his
huge glasses?"

"He seems perfectly aware that every eye in the house is directed toward
his loge. But is it true that his brother-in-law owes his rapid rise to
his influence at Court?"

"By no means," replied Debray. "If there is a man in the French army who
has achieved his own fortunes, that man is Lamoriciere. He went to
Algeria a lieutenant, and bravely and gallantly has he attained his
present brilliant position. It was he who proposed the creation of a
corps of native Arab troops, like the Sepoys of British India; and he
was appointed colonel of the first regiment of Spahis. Our quondam
friend, Maximilian Morrel, has a command in this regiment, and is a
protege of his illustrious exemplar."

"The hostility between Lamoriciere and Bugeaud arises, I suppose, from
the latter's detestable disposition, his overbearing and dictatorial
temper. Lamoriciere is not a man, I take it, to be the slave of any
one."

"Rivalry in Africa is thought to have originated the feud," remarked
Debray, "and political differences in Paris to have inflamed it.
Bugeaud is a Legitimist, and Lamoriciere a Republican."

"Silence!" cried the musical connoisseurs in the orchestra. "The curtain
rises."

As the curtain rose a hush of expectation reigned over the audience. The
hum and bustle ceased, and silence most profound succeeded. The
appearance of the fair cantatrice was th