Part 45 (1/2)
”I do not know. I know nothing myself. Perhaps it is wrong of me not to keep myself informed of pa.s.sing events, but all that wearies me. I detest politics and journals--I am told quite enough about them.
Politics! that which takes my husband from me! My uncle, Doctor Reboux, often said to me: 'Never marry a doctor; he is only half a husband.'
Vaudrey is like a doctor. Always absent, with his everlasting night-sessions.”
”Night-sessions?” asked Lissac.
”Yes, at the Chamber--continually--”
Guy determined to betray nothing of his astonishment; but he knew now as surely as if he had learned everything, why Sulpice neglected Adrienne.
The fool! some girl from the Opera! some office-seeker who was skilfully entangling His Excellency! That appertained to his functions then? He was exasperated at Vaudrey and alternately looked at him and at Adrienne. So perfect a woman! Ravis.h.i.+ng. What an exquisite profile, so delicate and with such a straight nose and a delightful mouth! Was Vaudrey mad then?
The guests rose from the table, and, as usual, the men went into the smoking-room, leaving the salon half-empty. Madame Gerson profited thereby to continue distilling her little slanders about Sabine, which she did while laughing heartily. In the smoking-room the men chatted away beneath the cloud that rose from their _londres_. The clarion tones of Warcolier rung out above all the other voices.
Guy, seated in a corner on a divan, was still thinking of Adrienne, of those _night-sessions_, of those expositions, of those agricultural compet.i.tions invented by Sulpice, and caught but s.n.a.t.c.hes of the conversation, jests, and nonsensical stories which were made at the cost of the colleagues of the Chamber and political friends:
”You know how Badiche learned at the last election that he was not elected?”
”No, how?”
”He returned to his house, anxious as to the result of the ballot. And he heard, what do you think? His children, a little boy and a little girl, who on receipt of the telegram that papa was waiting for and that mamma in her feverish expectation had opened, had already composed a song to the air of _The Young Man Poisoned_:
Resultat tres negatif, Ballottage positif!
Badiche est ballo-- Bate, Est ballotte!
Oui, Badiche est ballotte; C'est papa qu'est ballotte!
Happy precocity! genuine frightful gamins!”
”_Du Gavarni_!”
”Apropos, on what majority do you count, Monsieur le President?”
”One hundred and thirty-nine.”
”That is a large one.”
”I! my dear fellow,”--it was old Prangins speaking to Senator Crepeau,--”I do not count myself as likely to be included in the next ministry, no! I do not delude myself, but I shall be in the second--or rather in the third--no, in the fourth--yes, in the fourth ministry--a.s.suredly!”
An asthmatic cough, the cough of an old man, interrupted his remarks.
Guy heard Warcolier, as he held a small gla.s.s of kirsch in his hand, say with a laugh:
”I have a way of holding my electors in leash. Not only when I visit them do I address them as _my friend, my brave_, which flatters them, but from time to time, I write them autograph letters. They look upon that like ready money. Some of them, the good fellows, are flattered: 'He has written to me, he is not proud!' Others, the suspicious fellows, are rea.s.sured: 'Now--I have his signature, I have him!' And there you are!”
They laughed heartily.
”How they laugh _afterward_,” thought Lissac, ”at the electors whose shoes they would blacken _beforehand_.”
”The course that I have followed is very simple,” said another. ”I desired to become sub-prefect so as to become a prefect and a prefect to become a deputy, and a deputy so as to reach a receiver-generals.h.i.+p. The salaries a.s.sured, why, there's the crowning of a career.”