f English and American fashions, low heels had been
introduced generally without producing the results attributed to them
by the learned Professor; moreover, it was said that the difference he
pretended to establish between the morals of the metropolis and those
of the provinces is perhaps illusory, and that if it exists, it is
apparently due to the fact that great cities offer more advantages and
facilities for love than small towns provide. However that may be, the
provinces began to murmur against the Prime Minister, and to raise a
scandal. This was not yet a danger, but there was a possibility that it
might become one.

For the moment the peril was nowhere and yet everywhere. The majority
remained solid; but the leaders became stiff and exacting. Perhaps
Hippolyte Ceres would never have intentionally sacrificed his interests
to his vengeance. But thinking that he could henceforth, without
compromising his own fortune, secretly damage that of Paul Visire, he
devoted himself to the skilful and careful preparation of difficulties
and perils for the Head of the Government. Though far from equalling his
rival in talent, knowledge, and authority, he greatly surpassed him in
his skill as a lobbyist. The most acute parliamentarians attributed
the recent misfortunes of the majority to his refusal to vote. At
committees, by a calculated imprudence, he favoured motions which
he knew the Prime Minister could not accept. One day his intentional
awkwardness provoked a sudden and violent conflict between the Minister
of the Interior, and his departmental Treasurer. Then Ceres became
frightened and went no further. It would have been dangerous for him to
overthrow the ministry too soon. His ingenious hatred found an issue by
circuitous paths. Paul Visire had a poor cousin of easy morals who bore
his name. Ceres, remembering this lady, Celine Visire, brought her
into prominence, arranged that she should become intimate with several
foreigners, and procured her engagements in the music-halls. One summer
night, on a stage in the Champs Elysees before a tumultuous crowd, she
performed risky dances to the sounds of wild music which was audible
in the gardens where the President of the Republic was entertaining
Royalty. The name of Visire, associated with these scandals, covered the
walls of the town, filled the newspapers, was repeated in the cafes and
at balls, and blazed forth in letters of fire upon the boulevards.

Nobody regarded