an odious slight to his just claims, Rabourdin
had voluntarily resigned his public functions. At this time, when he
again met Thuillier, he was director of one of those numerous projected
railways, the construction of which is always delayed by either
parliamentary rivalry or parliamentary indecision. Let us say, in
passing, that the meeting with this able administrator, now become
an important personage in the financial world, was an occasion to the
worthy and honest Phellion to display once more his noble character. At
the time of the resignation to which Rabourdin had felt himself driven,
Phellion alone, of all the clerks in the office, had stood by him in his
misfortunes. Being now in a position to bestow a great number of places,
Rabourdin, on meeting once more his faithful subordinate, hastened to
offer him a position both easy and lucrative.

"Mossieu," said Phellion, "your benevolence touches me and honors me,
but my frankness owes you an avowal, which I beg you not to take in ill
part: I do not believe in 'railways,' as the English call them."

"That's an opinion to which you have every right," said Rabourdin,
smiling; "but, meanwhile, until the contrary is proved, we pay the
employees in our office well, and I should be glad to have you with me
in that capacity. I know by experience that you are a man on whom I can
count."

"Mossieu," returned the great citizen, "I did my duty at that time, and
nothing more. As for the offer you have been so good as to make to me, I
cannot accept it; satisfied with my humble fortunes, I feel neither the
need nor the desire to re-enter an administrative career; and, in common
with the Latin poet, I may say, 'Claudite jam rivos, pueri, sat prata
biberunt.'"

Thus elevated in the character of its habitues, the salon Thuillier
still needed a new element of life. Thanks to the help of Madame de
Godollo, a born organizer, who successfully put to profit the former
connection of Colleville with the musical world, a few artists came to
make diversion from bouillotte and boston. Old-fashioned and venerable,
those two games were forced to beat a retreat before whist, the only
manner, said the Hungarian countess, in which respectable people can
kill time.

Like Louis XVI., who began by putting his own hand to reforms which
subsequently engulfed his throne, Brigitte had encouraged, at first,
this domestic revolution; the need of sustaining her position suitably
in the new quarter to