ith the eager desire to make him an habitué of her salon, the new salon that had just been launched. Madame Marsy was bitten by that tarantula whose bite makes modern society mo

ic. But the exact shade of her hair, the color of her eyes, the cut of her gowns, the address of her tradesmen, the menu of her dinners, the programme of her concerts, the names of her guest

dmired at the Luxembourg, where it hangs between a Nymph by Henner and a Portrait of a Lady by Carolus Duran. She was pretty, free, and sufficiently rich since the sale of the contents of Phil

growing up; he, however, was rarely to be met with in his mother's little h?tel in the Boulevard Malesherbes. This pale, slender youth in his student's uniform would sometimes steal furtively up the staircase to pay his mother a vis

himself, was nothing of a genius, but who, however, designed models and advantageously sold them to the manufacturers of lamps in

semi-flattering rumors were connected with Sabine's name, together with some mysterious reminiscences. Moreover, she had the special attraction of a hostess who imparts

e could be found as in the corridor of a theatre on the night of a first appearance, or on the sidewalk of a boulevard; a salon well-filled, that could rank with th

itical backing whatever. Her connection with society was entirely through the world of artists. Many of these, however, had brought to her salon some of the Athenians of the political world, connoisseurs, good conversationalists

Bristol board engraved by Stern and posted to good addresses, will attract with an almost disconcer

a town

in the orator of to-day the Minister of State of to-morrow. She was always well informed beforehand which artist or sculptor would be likely to win the medal of honor at the Salon, and was the first to invite such a one and to let him know that it

d to give a soirée exotique. It happened just then that a friend of Guy de Lissac, Monsieur José de Rosas, a great lounger, had returned from a journey around the world. What a piece of good f

fire with the idea; "Madame Evan has poems and tragedies read at her re

ecided, egged on a little by Guy de Lissac, to come and relate to Madame Marsy's fri

ereau to be present-from Pichereau, that starched Puritan, and all the newspapers had announced his intention. When suddenly-stupidly-a cabinet crisis had arisen at the most unexpected moment, a useless crisis. Granet had interpellated Pichereau with a view to succeed him, and Pichereau fell witho

exclaimed in a rage. "A Cab

teboard, certainly

wn Pichereau a day after her soirée as a few days before. Was Granet then, in a great hurry to be made minister? Oh! her opinion of him had always been a correct one! An ambitious schemer. He had

tion at the élysée. Collard had even, in passing by her, torn off a morsel of the lace of her flounce. How charmingly, too, he had excused himself! But this a

promised to do so. He was a sincere man, and his word could be relied on. He would, moreover, bring his former colleagues from the Departments of Public Instruction, and Post and Telegraph. He had promised. Oh! yes, Pichereau! Pichereau, however, mattered very little to Sabine n

ience had upse

fair beauty, had listened with a bored and sulky manner to the first act of L'Africaine, while Monsieur Ge

nly caught sight of Vaudrey's smiling countenance b

aimed, "there

te necktie, his silky moustaches turned jauntily upwards against his fleshy cheeks. Sabine, continuing to look at the newcomer through her glass, saw as he moved within the shadow of the box, this man of forty, with a very

uddenly, "I thought t

ry, he was a fair, handsome youth when we

uickly round on her chair to look at Guy, displaying to him as she did

w the minister

intima

me the greatest favor. No, I do no

n features of Madame Gers

ssed it," s

sent the new Minister of the Interior to you? You

tinued in dulcet tones, and clasping her little gloved hands entreatingly, like a child begging for a toy, "pers

s thumb snapping out his crush hat, he opened th

ask nothing in ret

rsy began

screet, but I am willing to

he disappeared through the open doorway, "I

s only a man can be who is dragged against his will night after night to some place of amusement, was dozing in the rear of the box. At a word from his wife he got up and hastened to open the door. It proved to be an artist, an old friend of Philippe Marsy, who came to invite Sabine to his studio to "admire" h

t, disappearing immediately to allow a man to pass who entered, smiling pleasantly, and at whom

nt to you His Excellency th

audrey amongst the group of men in dress-clothes who gave w

and Madame Gerson standing at one side and Sabine on the other and bowing to him,

the agreeable, and to visit, at the solicitation of a friend, a fair woman whom all the world delighted to ho

lighted him. He wished to be obliging to every one. It seemed to him but natural that a woman of fashion like Sabine should wish to meet him and offer him her congratulations, a

n who smiled upon him with a gratitude so impressive, pleased him. Sabine appeared espe

sieur de Lissac for inducing you to liste

with an eagerness which seemed alrea

r presence a reunion of friends at my house-a reunion

eplied Vaudrey

has not told you the

me the pleasure of hearing from your own lips, madame, in wh

ll-turned phrase uttered

An intimate enemy or an intimate friend. But he was not at

come to my house next Saturday and give a chatty account of his travel

estly turned aside the comp

hor's most intimate friends. Vaudrey had first met Monsieur de Rosas at a meeting of a scientific society. Rosas was an eminent man as well as a poet, and one whom he would be greatly

pses through the box curtains from between these two charming profiles-one a brunette, the other a blonde-of the vast auditorium all crimson and gold, blazing with lights and crowded with faces. From this well-dressed crowd, from these boxes where one caught sight of white

ent before near by, and the gleaming, silver helmets, the tinfoil and the spangles shone in the dance. A fairy light enveloped all these stage splendors; and this luxuriou

Gerson, as if he were communing with himself to the mocking accompaniment of this Hindoo music, he revealed his joys, his prosp

" she said, "you are really

eatre, smiling as if he beheld

onest. I should like to discover some unappreciated genius and raise him from the obscurity in which an unjust fate has shroude

and nodded approval of Vaudrey's words, "you and your

ughingly replied Sulpice. "I believe in the case of power, as in marriage, th

rned involuntarily toward Adrienne, his own pretty wife, who was waiting for him in the great lonely a

thing, even to his visit behind the scenes-but he remained where he was, not knowing how to take leave of Mada

," said Madame Marsy to Guy, "

ng Sabine's departure, so as

gers saluted him. It seemed to Vaudrey that he moved among those who were in sympathy with him. L

on his arm, waiting for the appearance of that lady's carriage, which was emerging from the luminous dept

flooded him with its bright rays; it seemed to him as if all this brilliancy blazed for him, like the flattering apotheosis which h

ey as he escorted

company your Excellency to my house? I will take the

owed a graciou

gloved hand raised the window of the coupé, and the carr

said Lissa

r you a seat i

not two steps away fr

Madame Gerson; she an

you down at you

very kind, but we ha

to Lissac, "come and bre

plea

udrey to the coachman as h

enetrating perfume of the greenroom, he saw again the blue eyes of the little danseuse. The admiring looks, the respectful salutes, the smiles of the women, the soft, caressing tones of Sabi

ve succ

ing this to him in joyous tones.

was who had the power to make the whole machine of government move-he, the lawyer from Grenoble-who ten

lighted boulevards buying the newspapers at the kiosks,

r. Monsieur Vaudrey, with the assistance of Monsieur Henri Jacquier of Oise, undersecretary of State, is actively engaged in examining the reports of prefects and under-prefects. Monsieur will doubtles

, it was his

expected to catch sight of such bright rays as those which now shone down upon him from that

igue, in the tribune, or as a commissioner or sub-commissioner, he had given proofs of his qualifications as a statesman, but the touchstone of man is power. Emerging from his semi-obscurity into the sunshine of success

up in her furs, her fine skin caressed by the blue-fox border of her pelisse, said to herself, quite in

ey-but a very charming s

cy's carriage to enter. The gravel creaked under the wheels, as the c

mit him. Two white-cravatted servants occupie

ng by a table reading La Revue by the light of a shaded lamp. At the sight of her pretty, fresh young face extended to greet him, with her blue eyes and smiling air, at the sound of her clear, sweet, but rat

ich the new cabinet has been welcomed by the people, even the grimaces of Pichereau whom I met,-if you only knew where-all gave

ng wife, who, with her hands folded, gazed trus

ough to be a minister. One must be a great minis

ife glanced up admiringly at this young man burning with hop

ers of her fiancé trembling in her hand, the day that Sulpice had whispered the words in her e