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She appeared very composed, somewhat reserved, and haughty. He was very humble, very careful, and submissive. Mmes. Laroche-Mathieu and Rissolin were accompanied by their husbands. Mme. de Marelle looked bewitching in an odd combination of yellow and black. At Du Roy's right sat Mme. Walter, and he spoke to her only of serious matters with exaggerated respect.
The streets were almost deserted that night. At first the two men did not speak. Then Duroy, in order to make some remark, said: "That M. Laroche-Mathieu looks very intelligent." The old poet murmured: "Do you think so?" The younger man hesitated in surprise: "Why, yes! Is he not considered one of the most capable men in the Chamber?" "That may be. In a kingdom of blind men the blind are kings.
She greeted Duroy with a charming smile, and he shook hands with two men who arrived after him, M. Firmin and M. Laroche-Mathieu; the latter had especial authority at the office on account of his influence in the chamber of deputies. Then the Forestiers arrived, Madeleine looking charming in pink. Charles had become very much emaciated and coughed incessantly.
It was rumored that two ministers, Laroche-Mathieu being one of them, had made twenty millions. As for Walter, in a few days he had become one of the masters of the world a financier more omnipotent than a king. He was no longer the Jew, Walter, the director of a bank, the proprietor of a yellow newspaper; he was M. Walter the wealthy Israelite, and he wished to prove it.
The officer turned to him: "Now, sir, will you tell me who you are?" He made no reply. "I see I shall have to arrest you." Then the man cried: "Do not touch me. I am inviolable." Du Roy rushed toward him exclaiming: "I can have you arrested if I want to!" Then he added: "This man's name is Laroche-Mathieu, minister of foreign affairs."
It was quoted, feared, and began to be respected: it was no longer the organ of a group of political intriguers, but the avowed mouthpiece of the cabinet. Laroche-Mathieu was the soul of the journal and Du Roy his speaking-trumpet. M. Walter retired discreetly into the background. Madeleine's salon became an influential center in which several members of the cabinet met every week.
She answered philosophically: "He who lives will see." The morning of the reopening of the Chamber, Du Roy lunched with Laroche-Mathieu in order to receive instructions from him, before the session, for a political article the following day in "La Vie Francaise," which was to be a sort of official declaration of the plans of the cabinet.
Mme. de Marelle said: "There are two girls who will have twenty or thirty millions each, and Suzanne is pretty in the bargain." He made no reply; his own thought coming from the lips of another irritated him. He took Clotilde to see the painting. As they crossed the conservatory he saw his wife seated near Laroche-Mathieu, both of them almost hidden behind a group of plants.
She is sixty years old, has false curls and teeth, wit of the time of the Restoration, and toilettes of the same period." When the guests returned to the drawing-room, Duroy asked Mme. de Marelle: "May I escort you home?" "No." "Why not?" "Because M. Laroche-Mathieu, who is my neighbor, leaves me at my door every time that I dine here." "When shall I see you again?" "Lunch with me to-morrow."
Madeleine turned her back upon him scornfully; after a moment of silence, she continued: "We shall have some company Tuesday. Mme. Laroche-Mathieu is coming here to dine with Viscountess de Percemur. Will you invite Rival and Norbert de Varenne? I shall go to Mmes. Walter and de Marelle to-morrow. Perhaps, too, we may have Mme. Rissolin."
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