"Really, madame," said Simon Giguet, "there must be a strong desire to find fault and to quarrel with me simply because I happened to say that a gentleman whom all Arcis is talking about and who stops at the Mulet--"

"Do you think he has come here to put himself in compet.i.tion with you?"

said Madame Beauvisage jestingly.

"I should be very indignant with him certainly if he were to cause the slightest misunderstanding between Mademoiselle Cecile and myself," said the candidate, with a supplicating look at the young girl.

"You gave your opinion, monsieur, in a decisive manner which proves that you are very despotic," she replied; "but you are right; if you wish to be minister you ought to be decisive."

Here Madame Marion took Madame Beauvisage by the arm and led her to a sofa. Cecile, finding herself alone, returned to her former seat to avoid hearing Simon's answer to her speech, and the candidate was left standing rather foolishly before the table, where he mechanically played with the counters.

"My dear friend," said Madame Marion in a low voice to Madame Beauvisage, "you see that nothing can now hinder my nephew's election."

"I am delighted both for your sake and for the Chamber of Deputies,"

said Severine.

"My nephew is certain to go far, my dear; and I'll tell you why: his own fortune, that which his father will leave him and mine, will amount altogether to some thirty thousand francs a year. When a man is a deputy and has a fortune like that, he can aspire to anything."

"Madame, he has our utmost admiration and our most earnest wishes for the success of his political career; but--"

"I am not asking for an answer," said Madame Marion, hastily interrupting her friend. "I only beg you to reflect on the following suggestions: Do our children suit each other? Can we marry them? We should then live in Paris during the sessions; and who knows if the deputy of Arcis may not be settled there permanently in some fine place in the magistracy? Look at Monsieur Vinet of Provins, how he has made his way. People blamed Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf for marrying him; yet she will soon be wife of the Keeper of the Seals; Monsieur Vinet can be peer of France whenever he pleases."

"Madame, I have not the power to marry my daughter according to my own tastes. In the first place, her father and I leave her absolutely free to choose for herself. If she wanted to marry the 'great Unknown' and we found that the match was suitable, we should give our consent. Besides this, Cecile is wholly dependent on her grandfather, who intends to give her on her marriage the Hotel de Beauseant in Paris, which he purchased for us six years ago; the value of which is now rated at eight hundred thousand francs. It is one of the finest houses in the faubourg Saint-Germain. Moreover, he intends to add two hundred thousand francs for the cost of fitting it up. A grandfather who behaves in this way, and who can influence my mother-in-law to make a few sacrifices for her granddaughter in expectation of a suitable marriage, has a right to advise--"

"Certainly," said Madame Marion, stupefied by this confidence, which made the marriage of her nephew and Cecile extremely difficult.

"Even if Cecile had nothing to expect from her grandfather Grevin,"

continued Madame Beauvisage, "she would not marry without first consulting him. If you have any proposals to make, go and see my father."

"Very good; I will go," said Madame Marion.

Madame Beauvisage made a sign to Cecile, and together they left the salon.

The next day Antonin and Frederic Marest found themselves, according to their usual custom, with Monsieur Martener and Olivier, beneath the lindens of the Avenue of Sighs, smoking their cigars and walking up and down. This daily promenade is one of the petty pleasures of government officials in the provinces when they happen to be on good terms with one another.

After they had made a few turns, Simon Giguet came up and joined them saying to the sub-prefect with a mysterious air:--

"You ought to be faithful to an old comrade who wishes to get you the rosette of an officer and a prefecture."

"You are beginning your political career betimes," said Antonin, laughing. "You are trying to corrupt me, rapid puritan!"

"Will you support me?"

"My dear fellow, you know very well that Bar-sur-Aube votes here. Who can guarantee a majority under such circ.u.mstances? My colleague of Bar-sur-Aube would complain of me if I did not unite my efforts with his in support of the government. Your promise is conditional; whereas my dismissal would be certain."

"But I have no compet.i.tors."

"You think so," said Antonin, "but some one is sure to turn up; you may rely on that."

"Why doesn't my aunt come, when she knows I am on a gridiron!" exclaimed Giguet, suddenly. "These three hours are like three years!"

His secret had escaped him and he now admitted to his friend that Madame Marion had gone on his behalf to old Grevin with a formal proposal for Cecile's hand.

The pair had now reached the Brienne road opposite to the Mulet hostelry. While the lawyer looked down the street towards the bridge his aunt would have to cross, the sub-prefect examined the gullies made by the rain in the open square. Arcis is not paved. The plains of Champagne furnish no material fit for building, nor even pebbles large enough for cobble-stone pavements. One or two streets and a few detached places are imperfectly macadamized and that is saying enough to describe their condition after a rain. The sub-prefect gave himself an appearance of occupation by apparently exercising his thoughts on this important object; but he lost not a single expression of suffering on the anxious face of his companion.

At this moment, the stranger was returning from the Chateau de Cinq-Cygne, where he had apparently pa.s.sed the night. Goulard resolved to clear up, himself, the mystery wrapped about the Unknown, who was physically enveloped in an overcoat of thick cloth called a _paletot_, then the fashion. A mantle, thrown across his knees for a covering, hid the lower half of his body, while an enormous m.u.f.fler of red cashmere covered his neck and head to the eyes. His hat, jauntily tipped to one side, was, nevertheless, not ridiculous. Never was a mystery more mysteriously bundled up and swathed.

"Look out!" cried the tiger, who preceded the tilbury on horseback.

"Open, papa Poupart, open!" he screamed in his shrill little voice.

The three servants of the inn ran out, and the tilbury drove in without any one being able to see a single feature of the stranger's face. The sub-prefect followed the tilbury into the courtyard, and went to the door of the inn.

"Madame Poupart," said Antonin, "will you ask Monsieur--Monsieur--"

"I don't know his name," said Gothard's sister.

"You do wrong! The rules of the police are strict, and Monsieur Groslier doesn't trifle, like some commissaries of police."

"Innkeepers are never to blame about election-time," remarked the little tiger, getting off his horse.

"I'll repeat that to Vinet," thought the sub-prefect. "Go and ask your master if he can receive the sub-prefect of Arcis."

Presently Paradise returned.

"Monsieur begs Monsieur the sub-prefect to come up; he will be delighted to see him."

"My lad," said Olivier Vinet, who with the two other functionaries had joined the sub-prefect before the inn, "how much does your master give a year for a boy of your cut and wits?"

"Give, monsieur! What do you take me for? Monsieur le comte lets himself be milked, and I'm content."

"That boy was raised in a good school!" said Frederic Marest.

"The highest school, monsieur," said the urchin, amazing the four friends with his perfect self-possession.

"What a Figaro!" cried Vinet.

"Mustn't lower one's price," said the infant. "My master calls me a little Robert-Macaire, and since we have learned how to invest our money we are Figaro, plus a savings bank."

"How much do you earn?"

"Oh! some races I make two or three thousand francs--and without selling my master, monsieur."

"Sublime infant!" said Vinet; "he knows the turf."

"Yes, and all gentlemen riders," said the child, sticking out his tongue at Vinet.

Antonin Goulard, ushered by the landlord into a room which had been turned into a salon, felt himself instantly under the focus of an eyegla.s.s held in the most impertinent manner by the stranger.

"Monsieur," said the sub-prefect with a certain official hauteur, "I have just learned from the wife of the innkeeper that you refuse to conform to the ordinances of the police, and as I do not doubt that you are a person of distinction, I have come myself--"