perating.
'Teyssedre,' said he to him, one morning, 'this was the reception-room
of the great Villemain. Pray treat it accordingly;' but he instantly
offered satisfaction to the Arvernian's pride by saying weakly to
Corentine, 'Give the good man a glass of wine.' The astonished Corentine
brought it, and the polisher, leaning on his stick, emptied it at a
draught, his pupils dilating with pleasure. Then he wiped his mouth with
his sleeve and, setting down the glass with the mark of his greedy lips
upon it, said, 'Look you, _Meuchieu Astier_, a glass of good wine is the
only real good in life.' There was such a ring of truth in his voice,
such a sparkle of contentment in his eyes, that the Permanent Secretary,
going back into his library, shut the door a little sharply.

[Illustration: Good wine is the only real good in life. 236]

It was scarcely worth while to have scrambled from his low beginning
to his present glory as head of literature, historian of the 'House of
Orleans,' and keystone of the Academie Francaise, if a glass of good
wine could give to a boor a happiness worth it all. But the next minute,
hearing the polisher say with a sneer to Corentine that 'mooch 'e cared
for the 'ception-room of the great Villemain,' Leonard Astier shrugged
his shoulders, and at the thought of such ignorance his half-felt envy
gave way to a deep and benign compassion.

Meanwhile Madame Astier, who had been brought up in the building, and
recognised with remembrances of her childhood every stone in the court
and every step in the dusty and venerable Staircase B, felt as if she
had at last got back to her home. She had, moreover, a sense far keener
than her husband's of the material advantages of the place. Nothing to
pay for rent, for lighting, for fires, a great saving upon the parties
of the winter season, to say nothing of the increase of income and the
influential connection, so particularly valuable in procuring orders
for her beloved Paul. Madame Loisillon in her time, when sounding the
praises of her apartments at the Institute, never failed to add with
emphasis, 'I have entertained there even Sovereigns.' 'Yes, in the
_little_ room,' good Adelaide would answer tartly, drawing up her long
neck. It was the fact that not unfrequently, after the prolonged fatigue
of a Special Session, some great lady, a Royal Highness on her travels,
or a leader influential in politics, would go upstairs to pay a little
particular visit to th