tor
Crepeau,--"I do not count myself as likely to be included in the next
ministry, no! I do not delude myself, but I shall be in the second--or
rather in the third--no, in the fourth--yes, in the fourth
ministry--Assuredly!"

An asthmatic cough, the cough of an old man, interrupted his remarks.

Guy heard Warcolier, as he held a small glass of kirsch in his hand, say
with a laugh:

"I have a way of holding my electors in leash. Not only when I visit
them do I address them as _my friend, my brave_, which flatters them,
but from time to time, I write them autograph letters. They look upon
that like ready money. Some of them, the good fellows, are flattered:
'He has written to me, he is not proud!' Others, the suspicious fellows,
are reassured: 'Now--I have his signature, I have him!' And there you
are!"

They laughed heartily.

"How they laugh _afterward_," thought Lissac, "at the electors whose
shoes they would blacken _beforehand_."

"The course that I have followed is very simple," said another. "I
desired to become sub-prefect so as to become a prefect and a prefect to
become a deputy, and a deputy so as to reach a receiver-generalship. The
salaries assured, why, there's the crowning of a career."

"Why, that fellow _plays the whole gamut_," again thought Guy, "but he
is frank!"

"I read very little," now replied Crepeau to Warcolier--"I do not much
care for pure literature--we politicians, we need substantial reading
that will teach us to think."

"I believe you!--" murmured this Parisian Guy, still smoking and
listening. "Go to school, my good man!"

The conversation thus intermingled and confused, horrified and irritated
this _blase_ by its gravity and selfishness. He summed up an entire
character in a single phrase and shook his head as he very shrewdly
remarked: "Suppose _Universal Suffrage_ were listening?"

Lissac did not take any part in these conversations. It was his delight
to observe. He drew amusement from all these wearisome commonplaces,
according to his custom as a curious spectator.

He was about, however, to rise and approach Vaudrey, who was
instinctively coming toward him, when the Prefect of Police, Monsieur
Jouvenet, without noticing it, placed himself between the minister and
his friend.

Jouvenet spoke in a low tone to Vaudrey, smiling at the same time very
peculiarly and passing his fingers through his whiskers. Whatever
discretion the prefect employed, Guy was near enough t