Part 20 (1/2)
”Why, this. He was as polite and courteous as ever, and the same cold, imperturbable smile was on his thin lip; but he looked careworn, and upon his countenance was an expression of solicitude, when it was closely watched, which I never saw there before. Ah, Beauchamp, I envy not the Premier!”
”And the guests?” asked the journalist.
”Of guests there were but few; and the s.p.a.cious 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, Pet.i.t, 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 a.s.serted 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 pa.s.sed 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 Arrondiss.e.m.e.nt, 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 so there is to be a procession to the Barriere de l'Etoile. I have been there since morning, and reached the city only in time to come here. So, you see, I am edifyingly ignorant of the latest news.”
”Then I have to inform you that there is to be no banquet after all.”
”No banquet! Why, I thought it was compromised between Guizot and Barrot that the banquet should be allowed to proceed under protest, in order that the question might be brought before the Supreme Court.”
”Such was the purpose, but a manifesto of the Banquet Committee, drawn up by Marrast, it is said, and, at all events, issued in 'Le National'
this morning, declaring the design not only of a banquet, but of a procession, changed everything. The address sets forth that all invited to the banquet would a.s.semble at the Place de la Madeleine to-morrow at about noon, and thence, escorted by the National Guard, and accompanied by the students of the universities, should proceed by the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, at the extremity of the Avenue des Champs Elysees, and thence to the immense pavilion on the grounds of General s.h.i.+an. Only one toast, 'Reform, and the right to a.s.semble,' was announced to be drunk, and then a commissary of police could enter a formal protest against the whole proceeding on the spot, on which to base a legal prosecution, and the mult.i.tude would disperse.”
”A very sensible mode of procedure,” quietly remarked the journalist, ”and one eminently calculated to relieve your friend Guizot and my friend Barrot from the awkward dilemma of a direct issue.”
”But so thought not my friend Guizot. Like his oracle, the sage Montesquieu, he thought, 'Who a.s.sembles the people causes them to revolt.' He took fright at the manifesto, as he was pleased to dignify the simple programme in this morning's 'National,' and so, early in the sitting, it was announced that the reform banquet was utterly prohibited by M. Delessert, Prefect of Police, on the express injunction and responsibility of M. Duchatel, Minister of the Interior, by and with the advice of M. Hebert, Minister of Justice.”
”Ha! and what said Odillon Barrot?” cried the journalist.
”He--why he said nothing at all, but immediately retired at the head of the opposition from the Chamber.”
”To consult?”