midable such Lilliputians are, and who are the
makers of public opinion in remote little towns. Let no one mistake me,
however; there are many localities which, like Soulanges, are neither
hamlets, villages, nor little towns, which have, nevertheless, the
characteristics of all. The inhabitants are very different from those
of the large and busy and vicious provincial cities. Country life
influences the manners and morals of the smaller places, and this
mixture of tints will be found to produce some truly original
characters.

The most important personage after Madame Soudry was Lupin, the notary.
Though forty-five springs had bloomed for Lupin, he was still fresh
and rosy, thanks to the plumpness which fills out the skin of sedentary
persons; and he still sang ballads. Also, he retained the elegant
evening dress of society warblers. He looked almost Parisian in
his carefully-varnished boots, his sulphur-yellow waistcoats, his
tight-fitting coats, his handsome silk cravats, his fashionable
trousers. His hair was curled by the barber of Soulanges (the gossip of
the town), and he maintained the attitude of a man "a bonne fortunes" by
his liaison with Madame Sarcus, wife of Sarcus the rich, who was to his
life, without too close a comparison, what the campaigns of Italy were
to Napoleon. He alone of the leading society of Soulanges went to Paris,
where he was received by the Soulanges family. It was enough to hear him
talk to imagine the supremacy he wielded in his capacity as dandy and
judge of elegance. He passed judgment on all things by the use of three
terms: "out of date," "antiquated," "superannuated."[*] A man, a woman,
or a piece of furniture might be "out of date"; next, by a greater
degree of imperfection, "antiquated"; but as to the last term, it was
the superlative of contempt. The first might be remedied, the second was
hopeless, but the third,--oh, better far never to have left the void of
nothingness! As to praise, a single word sufficed him, doubly and trebly
uttered: "Charming!" was the positive of his admiration. "Charming,
charming!" made you feel you were safe; but after "Charming, charming,
charming!" the ladder might be discarded, for the heaven of perfection
was attained.

[*] "Croute," "crouton," and "croute-au-pot,"
untranslatable, and without equivalent in English. A
"croute" is the slang term for a man behind the age.--Tr.

The tabellion,--he called himself "tabellion," pet