Premier!"

"And the guests?" asked the journalist.

"Of guests there were but few; and the spacious salons of the Hotel des
Affaires Etrangeres looked dismal and deserted."

"The lovely Countess Leven--"

"Even she was absent."

"And the Countess of Dino?"

"Absent, too."

"The soiree must have been, indeed, dull without those 'charming queens
of intrigue,' as Louis Blanc courteously calls them. But tell me, Count,
is the Minister really the husband of the beautiful Leven, or is she
only his par amours?"

"No one knows. It is certain, however, that the great man devotes to the
enchantress every moment he can steal from the State, though to look at
him one would hardly suppose him a lover, in any meaning of the term.
But who knows? To read his writings can one imagine a purer man? But,
then, the affairs of Gisquet, Cubieres, Teste, and, last and worst,
Petit, whose case was before the Chamber, do they not betray deplorable
lack of firmness or morality? But no more of this. Who is that dark,
splendid woman to whom young Joliette seems so devoted? I have seen
them together before!"

"Why, you surely have not forgotten Louise d'Armilly, the charming
cantatrice! She has recently left the boards, to the irreparable loss of
the opera, having come into possession of an immense inheritance--some
millions, it is said, left by her father, who was once a banker of
Paris. She is asserted to be very accomplished and very ambitious, and,
as the young African paladin is thoroughly bewitched by her, and she by
him, they will, doubtless, be matched as well as paired."

"Has Lucien been here?" asked the Deputy, after a pause, during which
the young men surveyed the brilliant throngs that passed before them and
returned the salutations of their acquaintances.

"I think not. We have not met, at least," replied the journalist.

"He can hardly be spared to-night, I fancy. The Ministry have had a
stormy day, and are, doubtless, preparing for one still more stormy
to-morrow."

"There was a perfect tempest in the Chamber this evening, I understand."

"Call it rather a hurricane, a tornado!"

"Ah! give me the particulars; here, come with me into this corner.
Unfortunately, I was not present. I was busy on the General Committee
for the Banquet of the Twelfth Arrondissement, to-morrow, at Chaillot.
To avoid all possibility of collision with the police, we resolved, you
know, not to have the banquet within the walls of Paris, and