h his hat on, escorted by bending
men, whose lips expressed flattery, Sulpice recognized Lucien Granet,
who in the dazzling triumph of his new kingdom, crossed and recrossed
the stage, distributing here and there patronizing bows.

The coarse Molina accompanied the new minister, laughing in a loud tone
like the sound of a well-filled cash-box suddenly shaken.

Vaudrey felt just as if he had received a blow full in the chest.

He recalled his own meeting as a successful man with Pichereau the
beaten one, on these very boards and almost in the same place, and in
order to avoid having to endure the friendly ironical hand-shake that
Pichereau was approaching him to give--the hand-shake formerly given to
Pichereau--he quickly hid himself behind a wing, receiving as he did so,
a blow, accompanied with a: _Pardon, monsieur_, from a workman who was
pushing along a piece of scenery, and a: _What a clumsy fellow!_ from a
little danseuse, the tip of whose pink slipper he had unwittingly grazed
with his heel.

He turned to the danseuse to apologize, when he perceived a young girl,
all in pink, whose blue eyes looked frightened and her cheeks reddened
when she recognized Vaudrey. It was Marie Launay, whom he had seen in
the greenroom the previous year, who had not yet scored a _success_,
while he was _retired_.

"Oh! I did not recognize you," she said. "I beg your pardon, Monsieur le
Ministre!"

He wished to make some reply; but this title used by the young girl,
ignorant of the political change, grated on his heart like the
scratching of a nail and he saw on the other side of the stage, reaching
the house by the communicating door, Lucien Granet, surrounded by his
staff, and followed by the eternal cortege of powerful ones, among whom
Warcolier was talking loudly, and Molina the Tumbler was recognizable by
his enormous paunch and loud laugh.

"Perhaps Madame Marsy has asked that this Granet be presented to her,"
thought Vaudrey as he mockingly recalled how Guy de Lissac ran after him
there in order to conduct him to the fashionable woman's box.

How long it was since then!

Sabine Marsy was dethroned. And he!--

He felt a friendly tap on the shoulder as he was moving away, and
turning around he saw Warcolier who, having seen him in the distance,
doubtless came to him to enjoy the simple pleasure of treating him
patronizingly, he who had so long called him _Monsieur le Ministre_.

"Well, my dear Vaudrey, what is the new