licy of homogeneity. This
vocable comprehended his entire programme. The Vaudrey Cabinet lacked
homogeneity! The President of the Republic decidedly ought to form a
homogeneous cabinet.

"Granet is then homogeneous?" said Sulpice, with a forced laugh, as he
sat on the ministerial bench while Lucien Granet was speaking from the
tribune, his right hand thrust into his frock-coat.

The _bon mot_ uttered by the President of the Council, although spoken
loudly enough, did not enliven any one, neither his colleagues who felt
themselves threatened nor his usual _claqueurs_ who felt themselves
vanquished. Navarrot, the ministerial claqueur, was already applauding
Granet most enthusiastically. _Monsieur le Ministre_ felt himself about
to become an ex-minister. He vaguely felt as if he were in the vacuum of
an air-pump.

The order of the day of distrust, smoothed over by Granet with the
formulas of perfidious politeness--castor-oil in orange-juice, as
Sulpice himself called it, trying to pluck up courage and wit in the
face of misfortune,--that order of the day that the Vaudrey Cabinet
would not accept, was adopted by a considerable majority: one hundred
and twenty-two votes.

For Sulpice, it was a crushing defeat.

"One hundred and twenty-two deputies," he said, still speaking in a loud
voice in the corridors, "to whom I have refused the appointment of some
mayor or the removal of some rural guard!"

Warcolier, ever dignified, remarked in his usual style, that this manner
of defending himself probably lacked some of that nobility which becomes
a defeat bravely endured.

Vaudrey had only one course open, to send in his resignation. He was
beaten, thoroughly beaten. He returned to the Hotel Beauvau and after
preparing his letter he took it himself to the President at the Elysee.

The President accepted it without betraying any feeling, as an employe
at the registry office receives any deed of declaration. Two or three
commonplace expressions of regret, a diplomatic shake of the hand,
expressive of official sympathy, that was all. Vaudrey returned to the
ministry and ordered his servants to prepare everything for leaving the
ministerial mansion.

"When is that to be, Monsieur le Ministre?"

"To-morrow," answered Vaudrey, to whom the title seemed ironical and
grated on his nerves.

He caused himself to be announced to Adrienne.

Adrienne, weary looking, was seated before a small desk writing, and
beneath her fair hai