In Paris each ministry is a little town by itself, are banished; but there is just as much and as though the population were there. At the end of three years, Monsieur Marneffe's position was perfectly clear and open to the day, and in every room one and another asked, "Is Marneffe to be, or not to be, Coquet's successor?" Exactly as the question might have been put to the Chamber, "Will the pass or not pass?" The smallest on the part of the of Management was on; in Baron Hulot's was noted. The State Councillor had on his the of Marneffe's promotion, a hard-working clerk, telling him that if he Marneffe's place, he would succeed to it; he had told him that the man was dying. So this was for Marneffe's advancement.
When Hulot through his anteroom, full of visitors, he saw Marneffe's in a corner, and sent for him any one else.
"What do you want of me, my dear fellow?" said the Baron, his anxiety.
"Monsieur le Directeur, I am the laughing-stock of the office, for it has that the of the has left this for a holiday, on the ground of his health. He is to be away a month. Now, we all know what waiting for a month means. You deliver me over to the of my enemies, and it is to be upon one side; on at once, monsieur, is to the drum."
"My dear Marneffe, it takes long patience to an end. You cannot be head-clerk in less than two months, if ever. Just when I must, as as possible, secure my own position, is not the time to be for your promotion, which would a scandal."
"If you are broke, I shall it," said Marneffe coolly. "And if you me the place, it will make no in the end."
"Then I am to myself for you?" said the Baron.
"If you do not, I shall be much in you."
"You are too Marneffe, Monsieur Marneffe," said Hulot, and the the door.
"I have the to wish you good-morning, Monsieur le Baron," said Marneffe humbly.
"What an rascal!" the Baron. "This is like a to pay twenty-four hours on pain of distraint."
Two hours later, just when the Baron had been Claude Vignon, he was sending to the Ministry of Justice to obtain as to the under Johann Fischer might fall, Reine opened the door of his private room and gave him a note, saying she would wait for the answer.
"Valerie is mad!" said the Baron to himself. "To send Reine! It is to us all, and it that Marneffe's of promotion!"
But he the minister's private secretary, and read as follows:—
"Oh, my dear friend, what a I have had to endure! Though you
have me happy for three years, I have paid for it! He
came in from the office in a that me quake. I he
was ugly; I have him a monster! His four teeth
chattered, and he me with his presence without
if I should continue to you. My poor, dear old
boy, our door is closed against you henceforth. You see my tears;
they are on the paper and it; can you read what I
write, dear Hector? Oh, to think of you, of giving
you up when I in me some of your life, as I myself I
have your heart—it is to kill me. Think of our little
Hector!
"Do not me, but do not for Marneffe's
sake; do not to his threats.
"I love you as I have loved! I all the sacrifices
you have for your Valerie; she is not, and will be,
ungrateful; you are, and will be, my only husband. Think no
more of the twelve hundred a year I asked you to settle on
the dear little Hector who is to come some months hence; I will
not cost you anything more. And besides, my money will always be
yours.
"Oh, if you only loved me as I love you, my Hector, you would
retire on your pension; we should take of our family,
our worries, our surroundings, so full of hatred, and we should go
to live with Lisbeth in some country place—in Brittany, or
you like. There we should see nobody, and we should be
happy away from the world. Your pension and the little property I
can call my own would be for us. You say you are jealous;
well, you would then have your Valerie to her
Hector, and you would have to talk in a loud voice, as you
did the other day. I shall have but one child—ours—you may be
sure, my loved old veteran.
"You cannot of my fury, for you cannot know how he
me, and the he on your Valerie. Such
would my paper; a woman such as I am—Montcornet's
daughter—ought to have one of them in her life. I
only wish you had been there, that I might have him with
the of the I for you. My father would have
killed the wretch; I can only do as do—love you devotedly!
Indeed, my love, in the of in which I am, I
cannot possibly give up you. I must positively see you, in
secret, every day! That is what we are, we women. Your resentment
is mine. If you love me, I you, do not let him be
promoted; him to die a second-class clerk.
"At this moment I have my head; I still to him
me. Betty, who had meant to me, has on me, and
will for a days.
"My dear love, I do not know yet what is to be done. I see
nothing for it but flight. I always in the country
—Brittany, Languedoc, what you will, so long as I am free to love
you. Poor dear, how I you! Forced now to go to your old
Adeline, to that urn—for, as he no told you, the
means to watch me night and day; he spoke of a detective!
Do not come here, he is of anything I know, since he could
make use of me for the purposes of speculation. I only wish
I return you all the I have from your
generosity.
"Ah! my Hector, I may have flirted, and have to you to
be fickle, but you did not know your Valerie; she liked to tease
you, but she loves you than any one in the world.
"He cannot prevent your to see your cousin; I will arrange
with her that we have speech with each other. My dear old boy,
me just a line, pray, to me in the of your
dear self. (Oh, I would give one of my hands to have you by me on
our sofa!) A will work like a charm; me something
full of your soul; I will return your note to you, for I
must be cautious; I should not know where to it, he his
nose in everywhere. In short, your Valerie, your little
wife, the mother of your child. To think of my having to to
you, when I used to see you every day. As I say to Lisbeth, ‘I did
not know how happy I was.' A thousand kisses, dear boy. Be true to
your
"VALERIE."
"And tears!" said Hulot to himself as he this letter, "tears which have out her name. How is she?" said he to Reine.
"Madame is in bed; she has spasms," Reine. "She had a fit of that her like a a faggot. It came on after writing. It comes of so much. She monsieur's voice on the stairs."
The Baron in his the note on office paper with a printed heading:—
"Be easy, my angel, he will die a second-class clerk! Your
idea is admirable; we will go and live from Paris, where we
shall be happy with our little Hector; I will retire on my
pension, and I shall be sure to some good on a
railway.
"Ah, my sweet friend, I so much the for your letter!
I shall life again and make a fortune, you will see, for our
dear little one. As I read your letter, a thousand times more
than those of the Nouvelle Heloise, it a miracle!
I had not it possible that I love you more. This
evening, at Lisbeth's you will see
"YOUR HECTOR, FOR LIFE."
Reine off this reply, the the Baron had to his "sweet friend." Such to some the in the distance; but the Baron, at this moment he the at his uncle, Johann Fischer, only of the deficit.
One of the of the Bonapartist is a in the power of the sword, and in the of the over civilians. Hulot laughed to the Public Prosecutor in Algiers, where the War Office is supreme. Man is always what he has once been. How can the officers of the Imperial Guard that time was when the of the largest in the Empire and the Emperor's prefects, Emperors themselves on a minute scale, would come out to meet the Imperial Guard, to pay their respects on the borders of the Departments through which it passed, and to do it, in short, the to sovereigns?
At half-past four the to Madame Marneffe's; his as high as a man's as he upstairs, for he was himself this question, "Shall I see her? or shall I not?"
How was he now to the of the when his children had at his feet? Valerie's note, for in a thin pocket-book over his heart, proved to him that she loved him more than the most of men.
Having rung, the visitor the and of the master. Marneffe opened the door, but only to put himself into an and point to the stairs, as Hulot had him the door of his private room.
"You are too Hulot, Monsieur Hulot!" said he.
The Baron to pass him, Marneffe took a pistol out of his pocket and it.
"Monsieur le Baron," said he, "when a man is as as I am—for you think me very vile, don't you? he would be the galley-slave if he did not the full of his honor. You are for war; it will be work and no quarter. Come here no more, and do not attempt to past me. I have the police notice of my position with to you."
And taking of Hulot's amazement, he pushed him out and the door.
"What a low scoundrel!" said Hulot to himself, as he to Lisbeth. "I her now. Valerie and I will go away from Paris. Valerie is mine for the of my days; she will close my eyes."
Lisbeth was out. Madame Olivier told the Baron that she had gone to his wife's house, that she would him there.
"Poor thing! I should have her to be so as she was this morning," Hulot, Lisbeth's as he his way from the Rue Vanneau to the Rue Plumet.
As he the of the Rue Vanneau and the Rue de Babylone, he looked at the Eden Hymen had him with the of the law. Valerie, at her window, was his departure; as he up, she her handkerchief, but the Marneffe his wife's cap and her away from the window. A tear rose to the great official's eye.
"Oh! to be so well loved! To see a woman so used, and to be so nearly seventy years old!" he.
Lisbeth had come to give the family the good news. Adeline and Hortense had already that the Baron, not to himself in the of the whole office by Marneffe to the class, would be from the door by the Hulot-hating husband. Adeline, very happy, had ordered a dinner that her Hector was to like than any of Valerie's; and Lisbeth, in her devotion, was helping Mariette to this difficult result. Cousin Betty was the of the hour. Mother and her hands, and had told her with that the Marshal to have her as his housekeeper.
"And from that, my dear, there is but one step to his wife!" said Adeline.
"In fact, he did not say no when Victorin mentioned it," added the Countess.
The Baron was home with such proofs of affection, so overflowing with love, that he was to his troubles.
Marshal Hulot came to dinner. After dinner, Hector did not go out. Victorin and his wife joined them, and they up a rubber.
"It is a long time, Hector," said the Marshal gravely, "since you gave us the of such an evening."
This speech from the old soldier, who his though he thus him, a impression. It how wide and were the in a where all the he had had an echo. At eight o'clock the Baron on Lisbeth home, promising to return.
"Do you know, Lisbeth, he ill-treats her!" said he in the street. "Oh, I loved her so well!"
"I that Valerie loved you so well," Lisbeth. "She is and a coquette, she loves to have paid her, and to have the of love-making performed for her, as she says; but you are her only attachment."
"What message did she send me?"
"Why, this," said Lisbeth. "She has, as you know, been on terms with Crevel. You must her no grudge, for that, in fact, is what has her above for the of her life; but she him, and are nearly at an end. Well, she has the key of some rooms "
"Rue du Dauphin!" the thrice-blest Baron. "If it were for that alone, I would Crevel. I have been there; I know."
"Here, then, is the key," said Lisbeth. "Have another from it in the of tomorrow—two if you can."
"And then," said Hulot eagerly.
"Well, I will at your house again tomorrow; you must give me Valerie's key, for old Crevel might ask her to return it to him, and you can meet her there the day after; then you can decide what your are to be. You will be safe, as there are two out. If by Crevel, who is Regence in his habits, as he is of saying, should come in by the street, you go out through the shop, or versa.
"You all this to me, you old villain; now what will you do for me?"
"Whatever you want."
"Then you will not oppose my marrying your brother?"
"You! the Marechale Hulot, the Comtesse de Frozheim?" Hector, startled.
"Well, Adeline is a Baroness!" Betty in a and tone. "Listen to me, you old libertine. You know how stand; your family may itself in the "
"That is what I dread," said Hulot in dismay.
"And if your were to die, who would maintain your wife and daughter? The of a Marshal at least six thousand pension, doesn't she? Well, then, I wish to to secure for your wife and daughter—old dotard!"
"I had not it in that light!" said the Baron. "I will talk to my brother—for we are sure of you. Tell my that my life is hers."
And the Baron, having Lisbeth go into the house in the Rue Vanneau, to his and at home. The Baroness was at the of happiness; her husband to be returning to habits; for about a he to his office at nine every morning, he came in to dinner at six, and the with his family. He twice took Adeline and Hortense to the play. The mother and paid for three thanksgiving masses, and prayed to God to them to keep the husband and father He had to them.
