stle, holding his bread in one hand, and with the other mechanically
dipping a slice of radish into the gray salt spilt on a corner of the
table. Suddenly, Rodin's hand remained motionless. As he progressed
in his reading, he appeared more and more interested, surprised, and
struck. Rising abruptly, he ran to the window, as if to assure himself,
by a second examination of the cipher, that he was not deceived. The
news announced to him in the letter seemed to be unexpected. No doubt,
Rodin found that he had deciphered correctly, for, letting fall his
arms, not in dejection, but with the stupor of a satisfaction as
unforeseen as extraordinary, he remained for some time with his head
down, and his eyes fixed--the only mark of joy that he gave being
manifested by a loud, frequent, and prolonged respiration. Men who are
as audacious in their ambition, as they are patient and obstinate in
their mining and countermining, are surprised at their own success, when
this latter precedes and surpasses their wise and prudent expectations.
Rodin was now in this case. Thanks to prodigies of craft, address, and
dissimulation, thanks to mighty promises of corruption, thanks to the
singular mixture of admiration, fear, and confidence, with which his
genius inspired many influential persons, Rodin now learned from members
of the pontifical government, that, in case of a possible and probable
occurrence, he might, within a given time, aspire, with a good chance of
success, to a position which has too often excited the fear, the hate,
or the envy of many sovereigns, and which has in turn, been occupied by
great, good men, by abominable scoundrels, and by persons risen from
the lowest grades of society. But for Rodin to attain this end with
certainty, it was absolutely necessary for him to succeed in that
project, which he had undertaken to accomplish without violence, and
only by the play and the rebound of passions skillfully managed. The
project was: To secure for the Society of Jesus the fortune of the
Rennepont family.

This possession would thus have a double and immense result; for Rodin,
acting in accordance with his personal views, intended to make of his
Order (whose chief was at his discretion) a stepping-stone and a means
of intimidation. When his first impression of surprise had passed
away--an impression that was only a sort of modesty of ambition and
self diffidence, not uncommon with men of really superior powers--Rodin
looked