do. _Yes!_ It was his delight to give himself wholly to Marianne
and to tell her again and again that nothing in the whole world could
take the place of this mistress who made him forget everything:
politics, the home, the ambition that had been his life, and his
affection for Adrienne that had been his joy.

Thanks to the Dujarrier, Marianne had paid the rent of the house, the
servants and the pressing debts. Claire Dujarrier advanced the hundred
thousand francs demanded by Mademoiselle Kayser, and which she had
apparently--in reality she took them from her own funds--borrowed from
Adolphe Gochard, her lover, who had not a sou, and in whose favor
Vaudrey signed in regular legal form, a bill of exchange at three
months' date _value received in cash_. The Dujarrier merely retained
twenty thousand francs as her commission and handed only eighty thousand
to Marianne.

"But Vaudrey's acceptance to Gochard is for one hundred thousand!"

"You are silly, my girl! What if I lose the balance? If your minister
should not pay?"

"What do you mean?"

"Stranger things have happened, my little one."

Vaudrey having paid, given his name, signed this bill of exchange, felt
the extreme joy arising from the base self-love of the man who pays a
lovely creature and who, nevertheless, believes himself loved.

In the early days, Sulpice went to Rue Prony only during the day or at
night after dinner, or on leaving a reception or the theatre. Marianne
awaited him. He came stealthily, distracted with joy. There, in the
closed chamber he remained with Marianne, who was full of pride at the
complete subjugation of the will of this man in her embrace. She amused
herself occasionally by calling him _Your Excellency_, in reading to him
from some book which spun out the ceremonial necessary in applying for
an interview with a minister:

"If ever I ask you for an audience, do you know how I must address
myself to the secretary? Listen to this book, it is funny: 'Ordinary
toilet. The etiquette for the toilet is not very strict, but it is,
however, in good taste to appear dressed as for a ceremonious call. For
women, the toilet should be simple and the gloves new.'"

She laughed as she rested almost naked in Sulpice's arms, and repeated,
looking into his eyes:

"A simple toilet!"

"And again, listen!" she said, as she resumed the book. "'In speaking to
a minister as in writing to him, one should address him as _Monseigneur_
or _Your Excell