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"To-morrow, at the Prisons' Commission, Monsieur le Ministre," said Granet. And amid salutations on every side Vaudrey withdrew, smiling and good-humored as usual. In order to reach the box, Vaudrey had to cross the stage. The new scene was set.
Vaudrey had only one course open, to send in his resignation. He was beaten, thoroughly beaten. He returned to the Hôtel Beauvau and after preparing his letter he took it himself to the President at the Élysée. The President accepted it without betraying any feeling, as an employé at the registry office receives any deed of declaration.
Marianne stood stirring the sherbet with the point of a silver-plated spoon, examining this statesman, as seductive as a fashionable man, with that womanly curiosity that divines a silent declaration. A gold weigher does not balance more keenly in his scales an unfamiliar coin than a woman estimates and gauges the value of a stranger. Marianne readily understood that she had fascinated Vaudrey.
The Berlin papers did not take umbrage at it, although Monsieur Vaudrey had more than once declared his militant patriotism from the tribune. "In short," the daily report concluded, "there is a concert of praise, and public opinion is delighted to have finally secured a legitimate satisfaction through the choice of a homogeneous ministry, such as has long been desired."
Adrienne, blushing a little, looked at Vaudrey with her usual expression of tender devotion as profound as her soul. Sulpice made an effort to smile at Lissac's pleasantries. "No, take care, you know!" added Guy. "As Madame Vaudrey is so often alone, I shall allow myself to come here sometimes to keep her company, and I won't guarantee to you that I won't fall in love with her."
Whenever Vaudrey sought to catch her glance she looked away in a strange fashion and managed to avoid carrying on any formal conversation with Sulpice. On the contrary, she addressed Rosas affably, asking what he had done in London, what he had become and what he brought back new. "Nothing," José answered with a peculiar expression that displeased Vaudrey.
But, say, then, if you are not re-elected, you will rejoin her at Grenoble. Oh! your clients will return to you. You are highly esteemed as an advocate, but as a minister, I ought to say " "I shall be re-elected," said Vaudrey, in a decisive tone, so as to cut short Jéliotte's interminable phrases. He was exceedingly unnerved. This man's stupidity would exasperate him.
"It is still longer for me than for you, since you remain here, in our home." "Oh! our home! we have only one home: in Chaussée-d'Antin, or the house at Grenoble, you know." "Dear wife!" cried Vaudrey, as he embraced her tenderly, sincerely, perhaps. And he left.
He experienced a strange sensation, as of a theft, of some undue influence, of suffering an ejectment by a stranger from some personal property, and this Granet, the man sent there as he had been, by a vote, seemed to him to be a smart fellow, a filibuster and an intruder. "How one becomes accustomed to thinking one's self at home everywhere!" thought Vaudrey.
Vaudrey caused these urgent people, as well as some others, to be received by Warcolier, who asked nothing better than to make tools, to sow the seed of his clientage. Guy de Lissac and Ramel had simultaneously called Vaudrey's attention to the eagerness which Warcolier manifested in toying with popularity.
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