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Updated: June 22, 2025
At the ministry to which Rabourdin belonged there flourished, as general-secretary, a certain Monsieur Clement Chardin des Lupeaulx, one of those men whom the tide of political events sends to the surface for a few years, then engulfs on a stormy night, but whom we find again on a distant shore, tossed up like the carcass of a wrecked ship which still seems to have life in her.
Uncle Antoine and Laurent had donned their full uniform, when, at a quarter to eight, des Lupeaulx's servant came in with a letter, which he begged Antoine to give secretly to Dutocq, saying that the general-secretary had ordered him to deliver it without fail at Monsieur Dutocq's house by seven o'clock. "I'm sure I don't know how it happened," he said, "but I overslept myself.
Rabourdin caught sight of him and thought, "What has happened to him? can he be disgraced in any way?" The general-secretary was, however, only thinking how the pretty Madame Colleville, whose intentions were exactly those of Madame Rabourdin, had summarily abandoned him when it suited her to do so.
After binding his wife, daughter, and son-in-law to the deepest secrecy, for, however petty the gossip, their places, as he thought, depended on their discretion, he related the incomprehensible enigma of the resignation of a deputy, the very legitimate desire of the general-secretary to get elected to the place, and the secret opposition of the minister to this wish of a man who was one of his firmest supporters and most zealous workers.
"I shall go the general-secretary and lay a complaint in form; we must all resign in a body if such a man as that is put over us." Dutocq. "Gentlemen, listen to me; let us be prudent. If you rise at once in a body, we may all be accused of rancor and revenge. No, let the thing work, let the rumor spread quietly.
"You master me," said the general-secretary, bowing with an air of profound respect, bordering however, on sarcasm. "True," said Gobseck. "Can you mean to strangle me?" "Possibly." "Well, then, begin your work, executioners," said the secretary, smiling.
But Gaubertin in marrying him to his daughter thought much more of the uncle, the general-secretary, than of the nephew; and in return, the uncle, for the sake of his nephew, gave all his influence to Gaubertin. Thus the Church, the magistracy both removable and irremovable, the municipality, and the prefecture, the four feet of power, walked as the mayor pleased.
Without laying down his razor, the general-secretary cast upon his subordinate the glance of a general issuing an order. "Are we alone?" he asked. "Yes, monsieur." "Very good. March on Rabourdin; forward! steady! Of course you kept a copy of that paper?" "Yes." "You understand me? Inde iroe! There must be a general hue and cry raised against him. Find some way to start a clamor "
"He means a quarrel," thought the minister; "and all because his mistress coquetted with me last night. I did not think you so juvenile, my dear friend," he said aloud. "Friend?" said the general-secretary, "that is what I want to find out." The minister looked haughtily at des Lupeaulx. "We are alone," continued the secretary, "and we can come to an understanding.
Just then the minister's valet approached des Lupeaulx in a mysterious manner, and told him that his own servant wished him to deliver to him at once a letter of the utmost importance. The general-secretary went up to a lamp and read a note thus worded: Contrary to my custom, I am waiting in your ante-chamber to see you; you have not a moment to lose if you wish to come to terms with
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