yrade may win it."

"My son is not here, madame," said Phellion, "and I regret it, for
perhaps your generous devotion and urgent words would succeed in shaking
off his torpor; but, at any rate, I will lay before him the gravity of
the situation, and, beyond all doubt, he will accompany us to-night to
the Thuilliers'."

"It is needless to say," added the countess, rising, "that we must
carefully avoid the very slightest appearance of collusion; we must not
converse together; in fact, unless it can be done in some casual way, it
would be better not to speak."

"I beg you to rely, madame, upon my prudence," replied Phellion, "and
kindly accept the assurance--"

"Of your most distinguished sentiments," interrupted the countess,
laughing.

"No, madame," replied Phellion, gravely, "I reserve that formula for
the conclusion of my letters; I beg you to accept the assurance of my
warmest and most unalterable gratitude."

"We will talk of that when we are out of danger," said Madame de
Godollo, moving towards the door; "and if Madame Phellion, the tenderest
and most virtuous of mothers, will grant me a little place in her
esteem, I shall count myself more than repaid for my trouble."

Madame Phellion plunged headlong into a responsive compliment; and the
countess, in her carriage, was at some distance from the house before
Phellion had ceased to offer her his most respectful salutations.

As the Latin-quarter element in Brigitte's salon became more rare and
less assiduous, a livelier Paris began to infiltrate it. Among his
colleagues in the municipal council and among the upper employees of
the prefecture of the Seine, the new councillor had made several
very important recruits. The mayor, and the deputy mayors of the
arrondissement, on whom, after his removal to the Madeleine quarter,
Thuillier had called, hastened to return the civility; and the same
thing happened with the superior officers of the first legion. The
house itself had produced a contingent; and several of the new tenants
contributed, by their presence, to change the aspect of the
dominical meetings. Among the number we must mention Rabourdin [see
"Bureaucracy"], the former head of Thuillier's office at the ministry of
finance. Having had the misfortune to lose his wife, whose salon, at an
earlier period, checkmated that of Madame Colleville, Rabourdin occupied
as a bachelor the third floor, above the apartment let to Cardot, the
notary. As the result of