himself in danger the more anxious he became for an irremovable
position; yet he was compelled to play low; one moment's indiscretion,
and he might lose everything. A pen-stroke might demolish his civilian
epaulets, his place at court, his sinecure, his two offices and their
advantages; in all, six salaries retained under fire of the law
against pluralists. Sometimes he threatened his minister as a mistress
threatens her lover; telling him he was about to marry a rich widow.
At such times the minister petted and cajoled des Lupeaulx. After one
of these reconciliations he received the formal promise of a place in
the Academy of Belles-lettres on the first vacancy. "It would pay," he
said, "the keep of a horse." His position, so far as it went, was a
good one, and Clement Chardin des Lupeaulx flourished in it like a
tree planted in good soil. He could satisfy his vices, his caprices,
his virtues and his defects.

The following were the toils of his life. He was obliged to choose,
among five or six daily invitations, the house where he could be sure
of the best dinner. Every morning he went to his minister's morning
reception to amuse that official and his wife, and to pet their
children. Then he worked an hour or two; that is to say, he lay back
in a comfortable chair and read the newspapers, dictated the meaning
of a letter, received visitors when the minister was not present,
explained the work in a general way, caught or shed a few drops of the
holy-water of the court, looked over the petitions with an eyeglass,
or wrote his name on the margin,--a signature which meant "I think it
absurd; do what you like about it." Every body knew that when des
Lupeaulx was interested in any person or in any thing he attended to
the matter personally. He allowed the head-clerks to converse
privately about affairs of delicacy, but he listened to their gossip.
From time to time he went to the Tuileries to get his cue. And he