then she has encouraged
my ambition. I shall be a Deputy; and I shall make no blunders, for
I shall consult my Egeria. Every great politician, from Numa to our
present Prime Minister, has had his Sibyl of the fountain. A score of
deputies visit Valerie; she is acquiring considerable influence; and
now that she is about to be established in a charming house, with a
carriage, she will be one of the occult rulers of Paris.

"A fine locomotive! That is what such a woman is. Oh, I have blessed you
many a time for your stern virtue."

"It is enough to make one doubt the goodness of God!" cried Adeline,
whose indignation had dried her tears. "But, no! Divine justice must be
hanging over her head."

"You know nothing of the world, my beauty," said the great politician,
deeply offended. "The world, my Adeline, loves success! Say, now, has
it come to seek out your sublime virtue, priced at two hundred thousand
francs?"

The words made Madame Hulot shudder; the nervous trembling attacked her
once more. She saw that the ex-perfumer was taking a mean revenge on her
as he had on Hulot; she felt sick with disgust, and a spasm rose to her
throat, hindering speech.

"Money!" she said at last. "Always money!"

"You touched me deeply," said Crevel, reminded by these words of the
woman's humiliation, "when I beheld you there, weeping at my feet!--You
perhaps will not believe me, but if I had my pocket-book about me, it
would have been yours.--Come, do you really want such a sum?"

As she heard this question, big with two hundred thousand francs,
Adeline forgot the odious insults heaped on her by this cheap-jack
fine gentleman, before the tempting picture of success described by
Machiavelli-Crevel, who only wanted to find out her secrets and laugh
over them with Valerie.

"Oh! I will do anything, everything," cried the unhappy woman.
"Monsieur, I will sell myself--I will be a Valerie, if I must."

"You will find that difficult," replied Crevel. "Valerie is a
masterpiece in her way. My good mother, twenty-five years of virtue
are always repellent, like a badly treated disease. And your virtue has
grown very mouldy, my dear child. But you shall see how much I love you.
I will manage to get you your two hundred thousand francs."

Adeline, incapable of uttering a word, seized his hand and laid it on
her heart; a tear of joy trembled in her eyes.

"Oh! don't be in a hurry; there will be some hard pulling. I am a jolly
good fellow,