millions of francs, the elder Cointet became
a deputy, and is at this day a peer of France. It is said that he will
be Minister of Commerce in the next Government; for in 1842 he married
Mlle. Popinot, daughter of M. Anselme Popinot, one of the most
influential statesmen of the dynasty, deputy and mayor of an
arrondissement in Paris.

David Sechard's discovery has been assimilated by the French
manufacturing world, as food is assimilated by a living body. Thanks
to the introduction of materials other than rags, France can produce
paper more cheaply than any other European country. Dutch paper, as
David foresaw, no longer exists. Sooner or later it will be necessary,
no doubt, to establish a Royal Paper Manufactory; like the Gobelins,
the Sevres porcelain works, the Savonnerie, and the Imprimerie royale,
which so far have escaped the destruction threatened by _bourgeois_
vandalism.

David Sechard, beloved by his wife, father of two boys and a girl, has
the good taste to make no allusion to his past efforts. Eve had the
sense to dissuade him from following his terrible vocation; for the
inventor like Moses on Mount Horeb, is consumed by the burning bush.
He cultivates literature by way of recreation, and leads a comfortable
life of leisure, befitting the landowner who lives on his own estate.
He has bidden farewell for ever to glory, and bravely taken his place
in the class of dreamers and collectors; for he dabbles in entomology,
and is at present investigating the transformations of insects which
science only knows in the final stage.

Everybody has heard of Petit-Claud's success as attorney-general; he
is the rival of the great Vinet of Provins, and it is his ambition to
be President of the Court-Royal of Poitiers.

Cerizet has been in trouble so frequently for political offences that
he has been a good deal talked about; and as one of the boldest
_enfants perdus_ of the Liberal party he was nicknamed the "Brave
Cerizet." When Petit-Claud's successor compelled him to sell his
business in Angouleme, he found a fresh career on the provincial
stage, where his talents as an actor were like to be turned to
brilliant account. The chief stage heroine, however, obliged him to go
to Paris to find a cure for love among the resources of science, and
there he tried to curry favor with the Liberal party.

As for Lucien, the story of his return to Paris belongs to the _Scenes
of Parisian_ life.