"Monseigneur," said Hulot, taking the Minister's hand and pressing it,
"such men as you know that thanks in words mean nothing; gratitude must
be proven."

"Prove yours--" said the old man.

"In what way?"

"By accepting what I have to offer you," said the Minister. "We propose
to appoint you to be attorney to the War Office, which just now is
involved in litigations in consequence of the plan for fortifying Paris;
consulting clerk also to the Prefecture of Police; and a member of
the Board of the Civil List. These three appointments will secure you
salaries amounting to eighteen thousand francs, and will leave you
politically free. You can vote in the Chamber in obedience to your
opinions and your conscience. Act in perfect freedom on that score. It
would be a bad thing for us if there were no national opposition!

"Also, a few lines from your uncle, written a day or two before he
breathed his last, suggested what I could do for your mother, whom
he loved very truly.--Mesdames Popinot, de Rastignac, de Navarreins,
d'Espard, de Grandlieu, de Carigliano, de Lenoncourt, and de la Batie
have made a place for your mother as a Lady Superintendent of their
charities. These ladies, presidents of various branches of benevolent
work, cannot do everything themselves; they need a lady of character
who can act for them by going to see the objects of their beneficence,
ascertaining that charity is not imposed upon, and whether the help
given really reaches those who applied for it, finding out that the poor
who are ashamed to beg, and so forth. Your mother will fulfil an
angelic function; she will be thrown in with none but priests and these
charitable ladies; she will be paid six thousand francs and the cost of
her hackney coaches.

"You see, young man, that a pure and nobly virtuous man can still assist
his family, even from the grave. Such a name as your uncle's is, and
ought to be, a buckler against misfortune in a well-organized scheme of
society. Follow in his path; you have started in it, I know; continue in
it."

"Such delicate kindness cannot surprise me in my mother's friend," said
Victorin. "I will try to come up to all your hopes."

"Go at once, and take comfort to your family.--By the way," added the
Prince, as he shook hands with Victorin, "your father has disappeared?"

"Alas! yes."

"So much the better. That unhappy man has shown his wit, in which,
indeed, he is not lacking."

"There are bills of his