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It seemed natural to Maitre Giguet, who had the merit of divining our wishes in the choice of a chairman, to guide us still further in electing inspectors; but, if I am not mistaken, you think with me that once is enough and you are right.
Your promise is conditional; whereas my dismissal would be certain." "But I have no competitors." "You think so," said Antonin, "but some one is sure to turn up; you may rely on that." "Why doesn't my aunt come, when she knows I am on a gridiron!" exclaimed Giguet, suddenly. "These three hours are like three years!"
Bonapartist, and afterwards a liberal for, by the strangest of metamorphoses, the soldiers of Napoleon became almost to a man enamoured of the constitutional system Colonel Giguet was, during the Restoration, the natural president of the governing committee of Arcis, which consisted of the notary Grevin, his son-in-law Beauvisage, and Varlet junior, the chief physician of Arcis, brother-in-law of Grevin, and a few other liberals.
A word about the candidate is therefore necessary. Colonel Giguet had had, between 1806 and 1813, by his wife who died in 1814, three children, the eldest of whom, Simon, alone survived. Until he became an only child, Simon was brought up as a youth to whom the exercise of a profession would be necessary.
"Of what are they accused?" asked Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, haughtily. "Don't you mean to arrest Mademoiselle?" said Giguet. "I shall leave her at liberty under bail, until I can carefully examine the charges against her," replied the director. The mayor offered bail, asking the countess to merely give her word of honor that she would not escape.
"Unanimous, to-day," remarked Monsieur Martener. "Oh!" exclaimed Pigoult, "the general sentiment of the electors is for one of their own townsmen. Whom can you oppose to Simon Giguet, a man who has just spent two hours in explaining the word progress." "Take old Grevin!" cried the sub-prefect. "He has no such ambition," replied Pigoult. "But we must first of all consult the Comte de Gondreville.
This speech created a laugh; and the laughing group excited the jealousy of a group of dowagers and the attention of a troop of men in black who surrounded Simon Giguet. As for the latter, he was chafing in despair at not being able to lay his fortune and his future at the feet of the rich Cecile.
"Collinet, the grocer! that makes the sixty-sixth elector who has entered the Giguet house," said Monsieur Martener, who was practising his trade as examining-judge by counting the electors. "If Charles Keller is the ministerial candidate," resumed the sub-prefect, "I ought to have been told of it; the government makes a mistake in giving time for Simon Giguet to get hold of the electors."
Oftener the stranger is a real stranger, whose life remains mysterious long enough for the town to busy itself curiously about his words and deeds. Now the probable accession to power of Simon Giguet was not the only serious event that was happening in Arcis.
"That is best," said the huge Monsieur Mollot, clerk of the court; "otherwise what is here taking place would be a mere farce; we should not be free in our action, in which case we might as well continue to do the will of Monsieur Simon Giguet." Simon said a few words to Beauvisage, who rose and delivered himself of a "Messieurs!" in palpitating tones.
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