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The two Ministers looked vainly in the theatre and in the corridors for the General. On the advice of the ushers, they went behind the scenes. Two ballet-dancers were standing sadly, with a foot on the bar placed against the wall. Here and there men in evening dress and women in gauze formed groups almost silent. Loyer and Martin-Belleme, when they entered, took off their hats.
"And you wish me, dear, to save my kindness and my wickedness for a serious investment?" Therese made her drink some Tokay. Preceded by the sound of his powerful breathing, General Lariviere approached with heavy state and sat between the two women, looking stubborn and self-satisfied, laughing in every wrinkle of his face. "How is Monsieur Martin-Belleme? Always busy?"
Therese did not hear. Her soul had followed Dechartre through the door of her box. In the anteroom was a noise of overthrown chairs. It was Schmoll coming back. He had learned that M. Martin-Belleme had recently been appointed Minister. At once he claimed the cross of Commander of the Legion of Honor and a larger apartment at the Institute.
Paris is cold and bleak. This weather tires and saddens me. I am going to Florence, for six weeks, to visit Miss Bell." M. Martin-Belleme then lifted his eyes to heaven. Vence asked whether she had been in Italy often. "Three times; but I saw nothing. This time I wish to see, to throw myself into things. From Florence I shall take walks into Tuscany, into Umbria.
For thirteen centuries she retained this funereal majesty, until one day a child passed a candle through the opening of the grave and burned the body." Madame Martin-Belleme asked what that dead woman, so obstinate in her conceit, had done during her life. "Twice a slave," said Dechartre, "she became twice an empress." "She must have been beautiful," said Madame Martin.
For thirteen centuries she retained this funereal majesty, until one day a child passed a candle through the opening of the grave and burned the body." Madame Martin-Belleme asked what that dead woman, so obstinate in her conceit, had done during her life. "Twice a slave," said Dechartre, "she became twice an empress." "She must have been beautiful," said Madame Martin.
Look at her: her forehead clouded, her glance vague, her mouth dolorous. Behold a victim!" She arose, kissed Therese tumultuously, and fled, leaving the General astonished. Madame Martin-Belleme prayed him not to listen to what the Princess had said. He collected himself and asked: "And how are your poets, Madame?"
He was in one of his moments of melancholy, when nothingness appeared to him to be the end of life. He had flattered Garain, and Garain, thinking him too clever, had preferred for Minister of War a shortsighted and national artillery general. At least, the General relished the pleasure of seeing Garain abandoned, betrayed by his friends Berthier-d'Eyzelles and Martin-Belleme.
Visitors crowded the foyers. Financiers, artists, deputies met in the anteroom adjoining the box. They surrounded M. Martin-Belleme, murmured polite congratulations, made graceful gestures to him, and crowded one another in order to shake his hand. Joseph Schmoll, coughing, complaining, blind and deaf, made his way through the throng and reached Madame Martin.
However, in the hall, in the corridors, the names of the new Ministers went from mouth to mouth in the midst of profound indifference: President of the Council and Minister of the Interior, Berthier-d'Eyzelles; justice and Religions, Loyer; Treasury, Martin-Belleme. All the ministers were known except those of Commerce, War, and the Navy, who were not yet designated.
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