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I was going to send the letter by a commissionnaire; but if you don't mind taking it to the Rue de Morny, I'd rather trust it to you. I don't want Clary to come here and find empty rooms." He took a sealed letter from the mantelpiece and handed it to George Fairfax, who received it with somewhat of a dreamy air, as of a man who does not quite understand the mission that is intrusted to him.
His early volumes of verse, "Les Amoureuses" of 1858 and "La Double Conversion" of 1861, attracted some favourable notice. In this latter year his difficulties ceased, for he had the good fortune to become one of the secretaries of the Duc de Morny, a post which he held for four years, until the popularity of his writings rendered him independent.
I went up to it, I recognized the type of the National Printing Office, and I read, "Interior M. de Morny. "War The General of Division St. Arnaud. "Foreign Affairs M. de Turgot. "Justice M. Rouher. "Finance M. Fould. "Marine M. Ducos. "Public Works M. Magne. "Public Instruction M.H. Fortuol. "Commerce M. Lefebre-Duruflé." I tore down the bill, and threw it into the gutter!
My mother sent me with Madame Guerard. M. Auber received us very affably, as the Duc de Morny had spoken to him of me. I was very much impressed by him, with his refined face and white hair, his ivory complexion and magnificent black eyes, his fragile and distinguished look, his melodious voice and the celebrity of his name. I scarcely dared answer his questions.
Moreover, the choice of this building was an attention on the part of M. Louis Bonaparte, who having in 1848 taken the place of General Cavaignac in power; wished that in 1851 General Cavaignac should take his place in prison. "Turn and turn about!" Morny had said, smiling. The prisoners were guarded by the 48th of the Line, who formed the garrison at Ham. The old Bastilles are quite impartial.
Those were the days when the Due de Morny, half if not full brother of the Emperor, ruled as king of the Bourse, and Cora Pearl, a clever and not at all good-looking Irish girl gone wrong, reigned as Queen of the Demimonde. All this went by the board years ago. Everywhere, more or less, electricity has obliterated distinctions of rank and wealth. It has circumvented lovers and annihilated romance.
"We could fight," said Morny coolly, "and sink their canoes with the big guns." "What, when they are fast lashed to one side, and your deck all of a slope? No, we are not going, so don't bother about it any more. Who knows but what there may be towns of savages right up inland, or up some other river farther along the coast? I dare say it's a beautiful country and there, I won't hear another word.
The Ministers are all sleeping at the Ministry of the Interior, close by Morny. Morny watches, Magnan commands. To-morrow will be a terrible day." This page written, I went to bed, and fell asleep. During this night of the 3d and 4th of December, while we who were overcome with fatigue and betrothed to calamity slept an honest slumber, not an eye was closed at the Elysée.
He was reputed the Emperor's natural half-brother. The breakdown of the Mexican adventure, which was mostly his, contributed not a little to the final Napoleonic fall. He died of dissipation and disappointment, and under the pseudonym of the Duke de Morra, Daudet celebrated him in "The Nabob." De Morny did not live to see the tumble of the house of cards he had built.
We are not going away to leave you in the lurch. Uncle said as much. He likes the Count too well." Morny laughed merrily. "Why," he said, "he's always quarrelling with my father and hurting his feelings by the way in which he speaks about our great Emperor." "Stuff!" cried Rodd indignantly. "That's only Uncle Paul's way. He always talks like that when he gets on to politics.
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