"For a man who declares he does not hate us," said Rastignac, "you treat us rather roughly. According to you we are almost faithless to the const.i.tutional compact, and our policy, to your thinking ambiguous and tortuous, gives us a certain distant likeness to Monsieur Doublemain in the 'Mariage de Figaro.'"

"I do not say that the evil is as deep as that," replied Sallenauve; "perhaps, after all, _we_ are simply a _faiseur_,--using the word, be it understood, in the sense of a meddler, one who wants to have his finger in everything."

"Ah! monsieur, but suppose we are the ablest politician in the country."

"If we are, it does not follow that our kingdom ought not to have the chance of becoming as able as ourselves."

"_Parbleu_!" cried Rastignac, in the tone of a man who comes to the climax of a conversation, "I wish I had power to realize a wish--"

"And that is?"

"To see you grappling with that ability which you call meddlesome."

"Well, you know, Monsieur le ministre, that we all spend three fourths of life in wishing for the impossible."

"Why impossible? Would you be the first man of the Opposition to be seen at the Tuileries? An invitation to dinner given publicly, openly, which would, by bringing you into contact with one whom you misjudge at a distance--"

"I should have the honor to refuse."

And he emphasized the words _have the honor_ in a way to show the meaning he attached to them.

"You are all alike, you men of the Opposition!" cried the minister; "you won't let yourselves be enlightened when the opportunity presents itself; or, to put it better, you--"

"Do you call the rays of those gigantic red bottles in a chemist's shop _light_, when they flash into your eyes as you pa.s.s them after dark?

Don't they, on the contrary, seem to blind you?"

"It is not our rays that frighten you," said Rastignac; "it is the dark lantern of your party watchmen on their rounds."

"There may be some truth in what you say; a party and the man who undertakes to represent it are in some degree a married couple, who in order to live peaceably together must be mutually courteous, frank, and faithful in heart as well as in principle."

"Well, try to be moderate. Your dream is far more impossible to realize than mine; the day will come when you will have more to say about the courtesy of your chaste better half."

"If there is an evil for which I ought to be prepared, it is that."

"Do you think so? With the lofty and generous sentiments so apparent in your nature, shall you remain impa.s.sive under political attack,--under calumny, for instance?"

"You yourself, Monsieur le ministre, have not escaped its venom; but it did not, I think, deter you from your course."

"But," said Rastignac, lowering his voice, "suppose I were to tell you that I have already sternly refused to listen to a proposal to search into your private life on a certain side which, being more in the shade than the rest, seems to offer your enemies a chance to entrap you."

"I do not thank you for the honor you have done yourself in rejecting with contempt the proposals of men who can be neither of my party nor of yours; they belong to the party of base appet.i.tes and selfish pa.s.sions.

But, supposing the impossible, had they found some acceptance from you, pray believe that my course, which follows the dictates of my conscience, could not be affected thereby."

"But your party,--consider for a moment its elements: a jumble of foiled ambitions, brutal greed, plagiarists of '93, despots disguising themselves as lovers of liberty."

"My party has nothing, and seeks to gain something. Yours calls itself conservative, and it is right; its chief concern is how to preserve its power, offices, and wealth,--in short, all it now monopolizes."

"But, monsieur, we are not a closed way; we open our way, on the contrary, to all ambitions. But the higher you are in character and intellect, the less we can allow you to pa.s.s, dragging after you your train of democrats; for the day when that crew gains the upper hand it will not be a change of policy, but a revolution."

"But what makes you think I want an opening of any kind?"

"What! follow a course without an aim?--a course that leads nowhere? A certain development of a man's faculties not only gives him the right but makes it his duty to seek to govern."

"To watch the governing power is a useful career, and, I may add, a very busy one."

"You can fancy, monsieur," said Rastignac, good-humoredly, "that if Beauvisage were in your place I should not have taken the trouble to argue with him; I may say, however, that he would have made my effort less difficult."

"This meeting, which _chance_ has brought about between us," said Sallenauve, "will have one beneficial result; we understand each other henceforth, and our future meetings will always therefore be courteous--which will not lessen the strength of our convictions."

"Then I must say to the king--for I had his royal commands to--"

Rastignac did not end the sentence in which he was, so to speak, firing his last gun, for the orchestra began to play a quadrille, and Nais, running up, made him a coquettish courtesy, saying,--

"Monsieur le ministre, I am very sorry, but you have taken my partner, and you must give him up. He is down for my eleventh quadrille, and if I miss it my list gets into terrible confusion."

"You permit me, monsieur?" said Sallenauve, laughing. "As you see, I am not a very savage republican." So saying, he followed Nais, who led him along by the hand.

Madame de l'Estorade, comprehending that this fancy of Nais was rather compromising to the dignity of the new deputy, had arranged that several papas and mammas should figure in the same quadrille; and she herself with the Scottish lad danced _vis-a-vis_ to her daughter, who beamed with pride and joy. In the evolutions of the last figure, where Nais had to take her mother's hand, she said, pressing it pa.s.sionately,--

"Poor mamma! if it hadn't been for _him_, you wouldn't have me now."

This sudden reminder so agitated Madame de l'Estorade, coming as it did unexpectedly, that she was seized with a return of the nervous trembling her daughter's danger had originally caused, and was forced to sit down.

Seeing her change color, Sallenauve, Nais, and Madame Octave de Camps ran to her to know if she were ill.

"It is nothing," she answered, addressing Sallenauve; "only that my little girl reminded me suddenly of the utmost obligation we are under to you, monsieur. 'Without _him_,' she said, 'you would not have me.'

Ah! monsieur, without your generous courage where would my child be now?"

"Come, come, don't excite yourself," interposed Madame Octave de Camps, observing the convulsive and almost gasping tone of her friend's voice.

"It is not reasonable to put yourself in such a state for a child's speech."

"She is better than the rest of us," replied Madame de l'Estorade, taking Nais in her arms.

"Come, mamma, be reasonable," said that young lady.

"She puts nothing in the world," continued Madame de l'Estorade, "before her grat.i.tude to her preserver, whereas her father and I have scarcely shown him any."

"But, madame," said Sallenauve, "you have courteously--"

"Courteously!" interrupted Nais, shaking her pretty head with an air of disapproval; "if any one had saved my daughter, I should be different to him from that."

"Nais," said Madame de Camps, sternly, "children should be silent when their opinion is not asked."

"What is the matter," said Monsieur de l'Estorade, joining the group.

"Nothing," said Madame de Camps; "only a giddiness Renee had in dancing."

"Is it over?"

"Yes, I am quite well again," said Madame de l'Estorade.