the miserable homestead of the des Lupeaulx was rated at only five
hundred. Where could he get money to build a mansion and surround it
with sufficient domain to throw dust in the eyes of a constituency?
Though he dined out every day, and was lodged for the last nine years
at the cost of the State, and driven about in the minister's equipage,
des Lupeaulx possessed absolutely nothing, at the time when our tale
opens, but thirty thousand francs of debt--undisputed property. A
marriage might float him and pump the waters of debt out of his bark;
but a good marriage depended on his advancement, and his advancement
required that he should be a deputy. Searching about him for the means
of breaking through this vicious circle, he could think of nothing
better than some immense service to render or some delicate intrigue
to carry through for persons in power. Alas! conspiracies were out of
date; the Bourbons were apparently on good terms with all parties;
and, unfortunately, for the last few years the government had been so
thoroughly held up to the light of day by the silly discussions of the
Left, whose aim seemed to be to make government of any kind impossible
in France, that no good strokes of business could be made. The last
were tried in Spain, and what an outcry that excited!

In addition to all this, des Lupeaulx complicated matters by believing
in the friendship of his minister, to whom he had the imprudence to
express the wish to sit on the ministerial benches. The minister
guessed at the real meaning of the desire, which simply was that des
Lupeaulx wanted to strengthen a precarious position, so that he might
throw off all dependence on his chief. The harrier turned against the
huntsman; the minister gave him cuts with the whip and caresses,
alternately, and set up rivals to him. But des Lupeaulx behaved like
an adroit courtier with all competitors; he laid traps into which they
fell, and then he did prompt justice upon them. The more he felt