was decided on this
memorable evening that the yellow drawing-room party should accept the
Coup d'Etat and openly declare that it was in favour of accomplished
facts. Vuillet was commissioned to write an article to that effect, and
publish it on the morrow in the "Gazette." Neither he nor the marquis
raised any objection. They had, no doubt, received instructions from the
mysterious individuals to whom they sometimes made pious allusions. The
clergy and the nobility were already resigned to the course of lending
a strong hand to the victors, in order to crush their common enemy, the
Republic.

While the yellow drawing-room was deliberating on the evening in
question, Aristide was perspiring with anxiety. Never had gambler,
staking his last louis on a card, felt such anguish. During the day the
resignation of his chief, the sub-prefect, had given him much matter for
reflection. He had heard him repeat several times that the Coup d'Etat
must prove a failure. This functionary, endowed with a limited amount of
honesty, believed in the final triumph of the democracy, though he
had not the courage to work for that triumph by offering resistance.
Aristide was in the habit of listening at the doors of the
Sub-Prefecture, in order to get precise information, for he felt that he
was groping in the dark, and clung to the intelligence which he gleaned
from the officials. The sub-prefect's opinion struck him forcibly; but
he remained perplexed. He thought to himself: "Why does the fellow go
away if he is so certain that the prince-president will meet with a
check?" However, as he was compelled to espouse one side or the other,
he resolved to continue his opposition. He wrote a very hostile article
on the Coup d'Etat, and took it to the "Independant" the same evening
for the following morning's issue. He had corrected the proofs of this
article, and was returning home somewhat calmed, when, as he passed
along the Rue de la Banne, he instinctively raised his head and glanced
at the Rougons' windows. Their windows were brightly lighted up.

"What can they be plotting up there?" the journalist asked himself, with
anxious curiosity.

A fierce desire to know the opinion of the yellow drawing-room with
regard to recent events then assailed him. He credited this group of
reactionaries with little intelligence; but his doubts recurred, he was
in that frame of mind when one might seek advice from a child. He
could not think of entering his