fore the
fireplace of a provincial drawing-room, after an excellent meal at the
Prefect's, and to say in nasal voice, "The administration, gentlemen,"
or "The Government of the Emperor," but incapable of anything further.

Ordinarily the good Nabob had been dazzled by these poses, that buzzing
as of an empty spinning-wheel which is made by would-be important
people; but to-day he found his own place, and fell in with the general
note. Seated at the centre of the green table, his portfolio open before
him, his elbows planted well forward upon it, he read the report
drawn up by de Gery, and the members of the committee looked at him in
amazement.

It was a concise, clear, and rapid summary of their fortnight's
proceedings, in which they found their ideas so well expressed that they
had great difficulty in recognising them. Then, as two or three among
them considered the report too favourable, that it passed too lightly
over certain protests that had reached the committee, the examiner
addressed the meeting with an astonishing assurance, with the prolixity,
the verbosity of his own people, demonstrated that a deputy ought not
to be held responsible beyond a certain point for the imprudence of
his election agents, that no election, otherwise, would bear a minute
examination, and since in reality it was his own cause that he
was pleading, he brought to the task a conviction, an irresistible
enthusiasm, taking care to let out now and then one of those long, dull
substantives with a thousand feet, such as the committee loved.

The others listened to him thoughtfully, communicating their sentiments
to each other by nods of the head, making flourishes, in order the
better to concentrate their attention, and drawing heads on their
blotting-pads--a proceeding which harmonized well with the schoolboyish
noises in the corridors, a murmur of lessons in course of repetition,
and those droves of sparrows which you could hear chirping under the
casements in a flagged court-yard, just like the court-yard of a school.
The report having been adopted, M. Sarigue was summoned in order that
he might offer some supplementary explanations. He arrived, pale,
emaciated, stuttering like a criminal before conviction, and you
would have laughed to see with what an air of authority and protection
Jansoulet encouraged and reassured him. "Calm yourself, my dear
colleague." But the members of Committee No. 8 did not laugh. They were
all, or nearly al