se which now shone down upon him from that star, which with the
superstition of an ambitious man, he had singled out. Success! Success!

And now all the world should see what he would do. Already in his own
little town, in his speeches, during the war, at the elections of 1871,
and especially at Versailles, during the years of struggle and political
intrigue, in the tribune, or as a commissioner or sub-commissioner, he
had given proofs of his qualifications as a statesman, but the
touchstone of man is power. Emerging from his semi-obscurity into the
sunshine of success, he would at last show the world what he was and
what he could do. Power! To command! To create! To impress his ideas
upon a whole nation! To have succeeded! succeeded! succeeded! Sulpice's
dreams were realized at last.

And whilst the ministerial carriage was driving at a gallop towards the
Place Beauvau, Sabine, muffled up in her furs, her fine skin caressed by
the blue-fox border of her pelisse, said to herself, quite indifferent
to the man himself, but delighted to have a minister's name to enroll
upon her list of guests:

"He is a simpleton--Vaudrey--but a very charming simpleton,
nevertheless."

The iron gates of the Place Beauvau were thrown back for his
Excellency's carriage to enter. The gravel creaked under the wheels, as
the coupe turning off to the left, stopped under the awning over the
door.

Sulpice alighted. The great door opened to admit him. Two
white-cravatted servants occupied a bench while awaiting the minister's
return.

Sulpice ran lightly up the great marble staircase leading to his private
apartments. Handing his hat and coat to a servant in the antechamber, he
gayly entered the little salon, where he found his wife sitting by a
table reading _La Revue_ by the light of a shaded lamp. At the sight of
her pretty, fresh young face extended to greet him, with her blue eyes
and smiling air, at the sound of her clear, sweet, but rather timid
voice asking a little anxiously: "Well?" Sulpice took the fair face in
both his hands and his burning lips imprinted a long kiss on the white
forehead, over which a few curls of golden hair strayed.

"Well, my dear Adrienne, I have been greatly interested. All the
kindness with which I was received, the evident delight with which the
new cabinet has been welcomed by the people, even the grimaces of
Pichereau whom I met,--if you only knew where--all gave me pleasure,
delighted me, and yet ma