eep his eyes
on the idiot tells me that Dr. Seignebos does not trouble himself about
the man any more."

M. Daubigeon smiled sarcastically, and said, much more for the purpose
of teasing his visitor than because he believed it himself,--

"Take care! do not trust appearances. You have to do with very clever
people. I always told you Cocoleu is probably the mainspring of the
whole case. The very fact that M. Gransiere will speak ought to make you
tremble. If he should not succeed, he would, of course, blame you, and
never forgive you in all his life. Now, you know he may fail. 'There is
many a slip between the cup and the lip.'

"And I am disposed to think with Villon,--

'Nothing is so certain as uncertain things.'"

M. Galpin could tell very well that he should gain nothing by prolonging
the discussion, and so he said,--

"Happen what may, I shall always know that my conscience supports me."

Then he made great haste to take leave, lest an answer should come from
M. Daubigeon. He went out; and as he descended the stairs, he said to
himself,--

"It is losing time to reason with that old fogy who sees in the events
of the day only so many opportunities for quotations."

But he struggled in vain against his own feelings; he had lost his
self-confidence. M. Daubigeon had revealed to him a new danger which he
had not foreseen. And what a danger!--the resentment of one of the most
eminent men of the French bar, one of those bitter, bilious men who
never forgive. M. Galpin had, no doubt, thought of the possibility of
failure, that is to say, of an acquittal; but he had never considered
the consequences of such a check.

Who would have to pay for it? The prosecuting attorney first and
foremost, because, in France, the prosecuting attorney makes the
accusation a personal matter, and considers himself insulted and
humiliated, if he misses his man.

Now, what would happen in such a case?

M. Gransiere, no doubt, would hold him responsible. He would say,--

"I had to draw my arguments from your part of the work. I did not obtain
a condemnation, because your work was imperfect. A man like myself ought
not to be exposed to such an humiliation, and, least of all, in a case
which is sure to create an immense sensation. You do not understand your
business."

Such words were a public disgrace. Instead of the hoped-for promotion,
they would bring him an order to go into exile, to Corsica, or to
Algiers.

M. Galpin shu