asters, broughams
coming up at walking pace, and flustered couples getting into them.

"M. Jansoulet's carriage!"

Everybody turned round, but, as one knows, that did not embarrass him.
And while the good Nabob, waiting for his suite, stood posing a little
amid these fashionable and famous people, this mixed _tout Paris_ which
was there, with its every face bearing a well-known name, a nervous and
well-gloved hand was stretched out to him, and the Duc de Mora, on his
way to his brougham, threw to him, as he passed, these words, with that
effusion which happiness gives to the most reserved of men:

"My congratulations, my dear deputy."

It was said in a loud voice, and every one could hear it: "My dear
deputy."

There is in the life of all men one golden hour, one luminous peak,
whereon all that they can hope of prosperity, joy, triumph, waits for
them and is given into their hands. The summit is more or less lofty,
more or less rugged and difficult to climb, but it exists equally for
all, for powerful and humble alike. Only, like that longest day of the
year on which the sun has shone with its utmost brilliance, and of which
the morrow seems a first step towards winter, this _summum_ of human
existences is but a moment given to be enjoyed, after which one can but
redescend. This late afternoon of the first of May, streaked with rain
and sunshine, thou must forget it not, poor man--must fix forever its
changing brilliance in thy memory. It was the hour of thy full summer,
with its flowers in bloom, its fruits bending their golden boughs, its
ripe harvests of which so recklessly thou wast plucking the corn. The
star will now pale, gradually growing more remote and falling, incapable
ere long of piercing the mournful night wherein thy destiny shall be
accomplished.

MEMOIRS OF AN OFFICE PORTER IN THE ANTCHAMBER

Great festivities last Saturday in the Place Vendome. In honour of
his election, M. Bernard Jansoulet, the new deputy for Corsica, gave
a magnificent evening party, with municipal guards at the door,
illumination of the entire mansion, and two thousand invitations sent
out to fashionable Paris.

I owed to the distinction of my manners, to the sonority of my vocal
organ, which the chairman of the board had had occasion to notice at the
meetings at the Territorial Bank, the opportunity of taking part in
this sumptuous entertainment, at which, for three hours, standing in the
vestibule, amid the flow