Part 25 (1/2)

”Of your advice?”

”Well! it is not necessary for me to give you my address, since you find yourself here now, or to tell you that you can depend on me, seeing you know me.”

Vaudrey felt that it was useless to pursue the matter further. He was not talking with a misanthrope or a scorner, but with a learned man. He would find at hand whenever he needed it, the old, ever faithful devotedness of this white-haired man, who, with skull-cap on his head, was smoking his pipe near the window when the minister entered.

”Then, you are happy, Ramel?” said Sulpice, a little astonished, perhaps.

”Perfectly so.”

”You have no ambition for anything whatever?”

”Nothing, I await philosophically the hour for the monument.”

He smiled when he saw that his own familiar remark was puzzling Vaudrey.

”The monument, there, on one side: Villa Montmartre!--Oh! I am not anxious to have done with life. It is amusing enough at times. But, after all, it is necessary to admit that the comedy ends when it is finished. One fine day, I shall be found sleeping somewhere, here in my armchair, or in my bed, suddenly, or perhaps after a long illness--this would weary me, as a lingering illness is repugnant to me--and you will read in one or two journals a short paragraph announcing that the obsequies of Monsieur Denis Ramel, one-time editor of a host of democratic newspapers, a celebrated man in his day, but little known recently, will take place on such a day at such an hour. Few will attend, but I ask you to be present--that is, if there is no important sitting at the Chamber.”

Old Ramel twirled his moustache with his long, lean fingers as he spoke these last words into which he infused a dash of irony. He nullified it, however, as he extended his frankly opened hand and said to Sulpice Vaudrey:

”What I have said to you is very cheerful! A thousand pardons. The more so that I do not think of doubting you for a single moment--You have always been credulous. That is your defect, and it is a capital one. In the world of business men and politicians, who are for the most part egotists, of mediocrities, or to speak plainly--I know no more picturesque term--of _dodgers_,--you move about with all the illusions and tastes of an artist. You are like the brave fellows of our army, poets of war, as it were, who hurled themselves to their destruction against regiments of engineers. Certainly, my dear minister, I shall always be delighted to give you my counsel, you whom I used to call my dear child, and if the observations of a living waif can serve you in anything, count on me. Dispose of me, and if by chance I can be useful to you, I shall feel myself amply repaid.”

”Ah!” cried Sulpice, ”if you only knew how much good it does me to hear the sincere thoughts of a man one can rely on! How different is their ring from that of others!”

He then allowed himself to pa.s.s by an easy transition to the confessions of his first deceptions or annoyances.

The selection that very morning, of Warcolier as Under Secretary of State in a Republican administration, a man who had played charades at Compiegne, had thrown him into a state of angry excitement.

Ramel, however, burst into laughter.

”Ah, nonsense! You will see many other such! Why, governments always do favors to their enemies when their opponents pretend to lower their colors! What good is it to serve friends? They love you.”

”This does not vex you, then, old Republican?”

”I, an old soldier grown white in harness,” said Ramel, whose moustache still played under his smile, ”that doesn't disturb my peace in the least. I comfort myself with the thought that my dream, my _ideal_, to use a trite expression, is not touched by such absurdities, and I am persuaded that progress does not lag and that the cause of liberty gains ground, in spite of so much injustice and folly. I confess, however, that I sometimes feel the strange emotion that a man might experience on seeing, after the lapse of years, the lovely woman whom he loved to distraction at twenty, in the arms of a person whom he did not particularly respect.”

Ramel had lighted his pipe, and half-hidden by the bluish wreaths of smoke, chatted away, quite happy on his side to give himself up to the revelation of the secret of his heart without the least bitterness, and like an elder brother, advised this man, who was still young and whom he had compared formerly to one of those too fine pieces of porcelain that the least shock would crack.

”Ah!” he said abruptly, ”above all, my dear Vaudrey, do not fear to appear in the tribune more uncouth and a.s.sertive than you really are. In times when the word _sympathetic_ becomes an insult, it is wiser to have the manners of a boor. Tact is a good thing.”

”I shall never succeed in that,” said Sulpice, smiling as usual.

”So much the worse! What has been wanting in my case is not to have been able to secure the t.i.tle of _our antipathetic confrere_. The modest and refined people are dupes. By virtue of swelling their necks, turkeys succeed in resembling peac.o.c.ks. Believe me, my dear friend, it is dangerous to have too refined a taste, even in office, even in the rank in which you are placed. One hesitates to proclaim the excessively stupid things that stir the crowd, and the blockhead who is bold enough to declare his folly creates a h.e.l.lish noise with his nonsense, while a man of refinement, who is not always a squeamish man, remains in his corner unseen. Remember that more moths are caught at night with a greasy candle than with a diamond of the first water.”

”You speak in paradox--” Sulpice began.

”And you think I am making paradoxes? Not in the least, I will give you--not at cost, for it has cost me dearly, but in block,--my stock of experience. Do with it what you please, and, above all, beware of _alle donne!_”

”Women?” asked the minister, with involuntary disquiet.

”Women, exactly. Encircling every minister there is a squadron of seductive women, who though perhaps more fully clothed than the flying squadron of the Medicis, is certainly not less dangerous. Women who complain that they are denied political rights, have in reality all, since they are able to rule administrations and knock ministers off, as the Du Barry did her oranges! When I speak of women, you will observe well that I do not speak of your admirable wife,” said Ramel, with a respect that was most touching, coming from this honest veteran.