without too roughly jarring the existing state of things or incurring
a Saint-Bartholomew of clerks, Rabourdin considered that an evolution
of twenty years would be required.

Such were the thoughts maturing in Rabourdin's mind ever since his
promised place had been given to Monsieur de la Billardiere, a man of
sheer incapacity. This plan, so vast apparently yet so simple in point
of fact, which did away with so many large staffs and so many little
offices all equally useless, required for its presentation to the
public mind close calculations, precise statistics, and self-evident
proof. Rabourdin had long studied the budget under its double-aspect
of ways and means and of expenditure. Many a night he had lain awake
unknown to his wife. But so far he had only dared to conceive the plan
and fit it prospectively to the administrative skeleton; all of which
counted for nothing,--he must gain the ear of a minister capable of
appreciating his ideas. Rabourdin's success depended on the tranquil
condition of political affairs, which up to this time were still
unsettled. He had not considered the government as permanently secure
until three hundred deputies at least had the courage to form a
compact majority systematically ministerial. An administration founded
on that basis had come into power since Rabourdin had finished his
elaborate plan. At this time the luxury of peace under the Bourbons
had eclipsed the warlike luxury of the days when France shone like a
vast encampment, prodigal and magnificent because it was victorious.
After the Spanish campaign, the administration seemed to enter upon an
era of tranquillity in which some good might be accomplished; and
three months before the opening of our story a new reign had begun
without any apparent opposition; for the liberalism of the Left had
welcomed Charles X. with as much enthusiasm as the Right. Even
clear-sighted and suspicious persons were misled. The moment seemed