in the middle of the garden, round which grew an amphitheatre
of the finest flowers. He, an accomplished statesman, seemed to have
succeeded in making a passion of the mechanical amusement of crumbling
bread to fishes.

"This is how the drama was disclosed of this second inner life, so
deeply ravaged and storm-tossed, where, in a circle overlooked by Dante
in his _Inferno_, horrible joys had their birth."

The Consul-General paused.

"On a certain Monday," he resumed, "as chance would have it, M. le
President de Grandville and M. de Serizy (at that time Vice-President
of the Council of State) had come to hold a meeting at Comte Octave's
house. They formed a committee of three, of which I was the secretary.
The Count had already got me the appointment of Auditor to the Council
of State. All the documents requisite for their inquiry into the
political matter privately submitted to these three gentlemen were laid
out on one of the long tables in the library. MM. de Grandville and de
Serizy had trusted to the Count to make the preliminary examination of
the papers relating to the matter. To avoid the necessity for carrying
all the papers to M. de Serizy, as president of the commission, it was
decided that they should meet first in the Rue Payenne. The Cabinet at
the Tuileries attached great importance to this piece of work, of which
the chief burden fell on me--and to which I owed my appointment, in the
course of that year, to be Master of Appeals.

"Though the Comtes de Grandville and de Serizy, whose habits were much
the same as my patron's, never dined away from home, we were still
discussing the matter at a late hour, when we were startled by the
man-servant calling me aside to say, 'MM. the Cures of Saint-Paul and of
the White Friars have been waiting in the drawing-room for two hours.'

"It was nine o'clock.

"'Well, gentlemen, you find yourselves compelled to dine with priests,'
said Comte Octave to his colleagues. 'I do not know whether Grandville
can overcome his horror of a priest's gown----'

"'It depends on the priest.'

"'One of them is my uncle, and the other is the Abbe Gaudron,' said
I. 'Do not be alarmed; the Abbe Fontanon is no longer second priest at
Saint-Paul----'

"'Well, let us dine,' replied the President de Grandville. 'A bigot
frightens me, but there is no one so cheerful as a truly pious man.'

"We went into the drawing-room. The dinner was delightful. Men of
real information, pol