tudy, while his familiarity with the political history of
France and of the times generally all over Christendom seems boundless.
In debate, you observe he is never at a loss for fact or argument, let
the discussion take what direction it may."

"And he has celebrity also as a writer, has he not?" asked Ledru Rollin.

"The author of 'The Laborer of Lyons' must be a man of distinguished
literary genius," was the reply.

"Better than all," said Flocon, "he is devoted heart and soul to the
good cause."

"Such devotedness to a cause I never witnessed," said Marrast. "He puts
us all to the blush. With him it appears a matter of direct individual
interest. He is perfectly untiring. He is like one impelled by his fate.
Love or vengeance could not force onward a man to the attainment of an
object more irresistibly than he seems forced, and that, too, without
the slightest apparent stain of personal interest or ambition. That man
appears to me a miracle--a pure philanthropist. He strives, struggles,
suffers, sacrifices, and all with the sole object of ameliorating the
condition of his race."

"It is, indeed, wonderful," said Rollin, thoughtfully. "Do you know,
Marrast, anything of his past history?"

"Little, if anything. Of himself he never speaks, and I can gather
nothing from others. Even his constituents had known nothing of him but
a few months before he became their representative in the Chamber. His
popularity with them he owes to his efforts to ameliorate their
condition. At his own expense he established among them a Phalanstrie,
which is now in most successful operation."

"He is rich, then?" asked Flocon.

"Seemingly not, to judge from his habits of life," replied Marrast. "Not
a man in the Chamber is more Republican in garb, manner, equipage or
residence than he, and yet he may be rich."

"Is he married?" asked Rollin.

"He has been, I am told," said Marrast. "But we interrupt you, Louis.
You were alluding to the unusual influences now at work for our cause."

"I was about speaking of the newspaper press," said Louis Blanc. "Never
has there been known such a revolution in favor of Reform and Communist
journals, and to none is this better known than to some of ourselves.
There's Flocon's new journal, 'La Reforme,' that has leaped at once into
a circulation never before achieved but by long years of toil and
enterprise. The old 'National,' we need but to look around us to be
sure, was never more prosperous