s. From the lips of the prefect, Vaudrey
heard the same commonplace utterances: progress, the future, the fusion
of parties and interests, the greatness of the department, the cotton
trade and the tanneries, the glory of the minister who--of the minister
whom--of the glorious child of the country--of the eagle of Dauphiny.
_Vive Vaudrey! Vive Vaudrey!_ The general, at least, varied his effects.
He grumbled and wrung his hands, and on the day of the inauguration of
the statue of a certain Monsieur Valbonnans, a former deputy and
celebrated glove manufacturer,--also the glory of the country,--Vaudrey
heard the soldier murmur from morning till night, with a movement of his
jaw that made his imperial jerk: "_I love bronze! I love bronze!_" with
a persistency that stupefied the minister.

This was, perhaps, the only recollection of a cheerful nature that
Vaudrey retained of his trips in Isere. This eternal murmuring of the
general: _I love bronze! I love bronze!_ had awakened him, and he gayly
asked himself what devilish sort of appetite that soldier had who
continually repeated his phrase in a ravenous tone. Seated beside him on
the platform, while the glee-club sung an elegy in honor of the late
Monsieur Valbonnans, which was composed for the occasion by an amateur
of the town:

Monsieur Valbonnans' praise let's chant, yes, chant!
His gloves the best, as all must grant,
The best extant!

while the flourish of trumpets took up the refrain and the firemen
unveiled, amid loud acclamations, the statue of Monsieur Valbonnans,
which bore these words on the pedestal: _To the Inventor, the Patriot,
the Merchant_; while, too, the prefect still poured in Vaudrey's left
ear his inexhaustible observations: the glove trade, the glory of Isere;
the progress, the interest, the greatness of the department, the
minister who--the minister whom--(_Vive Vaudrey!_) Sulpice still heard,
even amid the acclamations, the mechanical rumbling of the general's
voice, repeating, reasserting, rehearsing: "_I love bronze! I love
bronze!_"

On the evening of the banquet, the minister at length obtained an
explanation of this extraordinary affection. The general rose, grasping
his glass as if he would shiver it, and while the _parfait_ overflowed
on to the plates, he cried in a hoarse voice, as if he were at the head
of his division:

"I love bronze--I love bronze--because it serves for the erection of
statues and the casting of