he councillor of state, "don't leave the Chamber
without asking Rastignac what he promised to tell you about a suit you
are to render a decision on two days hence. It concerns my cousin here;
I'll go and see you to-morrow morning early about it."

The three friends followed the three deputies, at a distance, into the
lobby.

"Cousin, look at those two men," said Leon, pointing out to him a former
minister and the leader of the Left Centre. "Those are two men who
really have 'the ear of the Chamber,' and who are called in jest
ministers of the department of the Opposition. They have the ear of the
Chamber so completely that they are always pulling it."

"It is four o'clock," said Bixiou, "let us go back to the rue de
Berlin."

"Yes; you've now seen the heart of the government, cousin, and you
must next be shown the ascarides, the taenia, the intestinal worm,--the
republican, since I must needs name him," said Leon.

When the three friends were once more packed into their hackney-coach,
Gazonal looked at his cousin and Bixiou like a man who had a mind to
launch a flood of oratorical and Southern bile upon the elements.

"I distrusted with all my might this great hussy of a town," he rolled
out in Southern accents; "but since this morning I despise her! The poor
little province you think so petty is an honest girl; but Paris is a
prostitute, a greedy, lying comedian; and I am very thankful not to be
robbed of my skin in it."

"The day is not over yet," said Bixiou, sententiously, winking at Leon.

"And why do you complain in that stupid way," said Leon, "of a
prostitution to which you will owe the winning of your lawsuit? Do you
think you are more virtuous than we, less of a comedian, less greedy,
less liable to fall under some temptation, less conceited than those we
have been making dance for you like puppets?"

"Try me!"

"Poor lad!" said Leon, shrugging his shoulders, "haven't you already
promised Rastignac your electoral influence?"

"Yes, because he was the only one who ridiculed himself."

"Poor lad!" repeated Bixiou, "why slight me, who am always ridiculing
myself? You are like a pug-dog barking at a tiger. Ha! if you saw us
really ridiculing a man, you'd see that we can drive a sane man mad."

This conversation brought Gazonal back to his cousin's house, where the
sight of luxury silenced him, and put an end to the discussion. Too late
he perceived that Bixiou had been making him pose.

At half-pa