In the two bureaus were two clerks so devoted to each other that their
friendship became the butt of all the rest. He of the bureau Baudoyer,
named Colleville, was chief-clerk, and would have been head of the
bureau long before if the Restoration had never happened. His wife was
as clever in her way as Madame Rabourdin in hers. Colleville, who was
son of a first violin at the opera, fell in love with the daughter of
a celebrated danseuse. Flavie Minoret, one of those capable and
charming Parisian women who know how to make their husbands happy and
yet preserve their own liberty, made the Colleville home a rendezvous
for all our best artists and orators. Colleville's humble position
under government was forgotten there. Flavie's conduct gave such food
for gossip, however, that Madame Rabourdin had declined all her
invitations. The friend in Rabourdin's bureau to whom Colleville was
so attached was named Thuillier. All who knew one knew the other.
Thuillier, called "the handsome Thuillier," an ex-Lothario, led as
idle a life as Colleville led a busy one. Colleville, government
official in the mornings and first clarionet at the Opera-Comique at
night, worked hard to maintain his family, though he was not without
influential friends. He was looked upon as a very shrewd man,--all the
more, perhaps, because he hid his ambitions under a show of
indifference. Apparently content with his lot and liking work, he
found every one, even the chiefs, ready to protect his brave career.
During the last few weeks Madame Colleville had made an evident change
in the household, and seemed to be taking to piety. This gave rise to
a vague report in the bureaus that she thought of securing some more
powerful influence than that of Francois Keller, the famous orator,
who had been one of her chief adorers, but who, so far, had failed to
obtain a better place for her husband. Flavie had, about this time
--and it was one of her mistakes--turned for help to des Lupeaulx.