ielding than she had hoped.

"Your husband is an intelligent man, a man of order and reason; he will
come over to us. You will sanctify him. It is not in vain that God has
granted him the blessing of a Christian wife. The Church needs no pomp
and ceremonial display for her benedictions. Now that she is persecuted,
the shadow of the crypts and the recesses of the catacombs are in better
accord with her festivals. Mademoiselle, when you have performed the
civil formalities come here to my private chapel in costume with M.
Ceres. I will marry you, a observe the most absolute discretion. I will
obtain the necessary dispensations from the Archbishop as well as all
facilities regarding the banns, confession-tickets, etc."

Hippolyte, although he thought the combination a little dangerous,
agreed to it, a good deal flattered, at bottom.

"I will go in a short coat," he said.

He went in a frock coat with white gloves and varnished shoes, and he
genuflected.

"Politeness demands. . . ."

V. THE VISIRE CABINET

The Ceres household was established with modest decency in a pretty flat
situated in a new building. Ceres loved his wife in a calm and tranquil
fashion. He was often kept late from home by the Commission on the
Budget and he worked more than three nights a week at a report on the
postal finances of which he hoped to make a masterpiece. Eveline thought
she could twist him round her finger, and this did not displease him.
The bad side of their situation was that they had not much money; in
truth they had very little. The servants of the Republic do not grow
rich in her service as easily as people think. Since the sovereign is no
longer there to distribute favours, each of them takes what he can, and
his depredations, limited by the depredations of all the others, are
reduced to modest proportions. Hence that austerity of morals that is
noticed in democratic leaders. They can only grow rich during periods
of great business activity and then they find themselves exposed to the
envy of their less favoured colleagues. Hippolyte Ceres had for a
long time foreseen such a period. He was one of those who had made
preparations for its arrival. Whilst waiting for it he endured his
poverty with dignity, and Eveline shared that poverty without suffering
as much as one might have thought. She was in close intimacy with the
Reverend Father Douillard and frequented the chapel of St. Orberosia,
where she met with serious soc