, that the family
might always be great and glorious!"

She straightened her small figure, she seemed to grow tall with the
one passion that had formed the joy and pride of her life. But as she
resumed her walk, she was startled by suddenly perceiving on the floor
the copy of the _Temps_, which the doctor had thrown there, after
cutting out the article, to add it to the Saccard papers, and the light
from the open window, falling full upon the sheet, enlightened her, no
doubt, for she suddenly stopped walking, and threw herself into a chair,
as if she at last knew what she had come to learn.

"Your father has been appointed editor of the _Epoque_," she said
abruptly.

"Yes," answered Clotilde tranquilly, "master told me so; it was in the
paper."

With an anxious and attentive expression, Felicite looked at her,
for this appointment of Saccard, this rallying to the republic, was
something of vast significance. After the fall of the empire he had
dared return to France, notwithstanding his condemnation as director of
the Banque Universelle, the colossal fall of which had preceded that
of the government. New influences, some incredible intrigue must have
placed him on his feet again, for not only had he received his pardon,
but he was once more in a position to undertake affairs of considerable
importance, launched into journalism, having his share again of all the
good things going. And the recollection came to her of the quarrels of
other days between him and his brother Eugene Rougon, whom he had so
often compromised, and whom, by an ironical turn of events, he was
perhaps going to protect, now that the former minister of the Empire
was only a simple deputy, resigned to the single role of standing by
his fallen master with the obstinacy with which his mother stood by
her family. She still obeyed docilely the orders of her eldest son, the
genius, fallen though he was; but Saccard, whatever he might do, had
also a part in her heart, from his indomitable determination to succeed,
and she was also proud of Maxime, Clotilde's brother, who had taken up
his quarters again, after the war, in his mansion in the Avenue of the
Bois de Boulogne, where he was consuming the fortune left him by his
wife, Louise de Mareuil, become prudent, with the wisdom of a man struck
in a vital part, and trying to cheat the paralysis which threatened him.

"Editor of the _Epoque_," she repeated; "it is really the position of
a minister which y