re we to get
hold of those gentlemen of the press?"

"Ah! I'll take care of that," said Barbet. "I am on the best of terms
with the managing editors; they say the devil is in me, and that I
remind them of Ladvocat in his best days."

"But then, my dear fellow, you ought to have seen to this earlier."

"Ah! excuse me, papa Thuillier; there's only one way of seeing to the
journalists; but as you grumbled about the fifteen hundred francs for
the advertisements, I did not venture to propose to you another extra
expense."

"What expense?" asked Thuillier, anxiously.

"When you were nominated to the municipal council, where was the plan
mooted?" asked the publisher.

"Parbleu! in my own house," replied Thuillier.

"Yes, of course, in your own house, but at a dinner, followed by a ball,
and the ball itself crowned by a supper. Well, my dear master, there are
no two ways to do this business; Boileau says:--

"'All is done through the palate, and not through the mind;
And it is by our dinners we govern mankind.'"

"Then you think I ought to give a dinner to those journalists?"

"Yes; but not at your own house; for these journalists, you see, if
women are present, get stupid; they have to behave themselves. And,
besides, it isn't dinner they want, but a breakfast--that suits
them best. In the evening these gentlemen have to go to first
representations, and make up their papers, not to speak of their own
little private doings; whereas in the mornings they have nothing to
think about. As for me, it is always breakfasts that I give."

"But that costs money, breakfasts like that," said Thuillier;
"journalists are gourmands."

"Bah! twenty francs a head, without wine. Say you have ten of them;
three hundred francs will see you handsomely through the whole thing.
In fact, as a matter of economy, breakfasts are preferable; for a dinner
you wouldn't get off under five hundred francs."

"How you talk, young man!" said Thuillier.

"Oh, hang it! everybody knows it costs dear to get elected to the
Chamber; and all this favors your nomination."

"But how can I invite those gentlemen? Must I go and see them myself?"

"Certainly not; send them your pamphlet and appoint them to meet you at
Philippe's or Vefour's--they'll understand perfectly."

"Ten guests," said Thuillier, beginning to enter into the idea. "I did
not know there were so many leading journals."

"There are not," said the publisher; "but we must have the