master, forced to flatter in order to advise, to advise while
flattering, and disguise the advice under the flattery. All
politicians who follow this trade have bilious faces; and their
constant habit of giving affirmative nods acquiescing in what is said
to them, or seeming to do so, gives a certain peculiar turn to their
heads. They agree indifferently with whatever is said before them.
Their talk is full of "buts," "notwithstandings," "for myself I
should," "were I in your place" (they often say "in your place"),
--phrases, however, which pave the way to opposition.

In person, Clement des Lupeaulx had the remains of a handsome man;
five feet six inches tall, tolerably stout, complexion flushed with
good living, powdered head, delicate spectacles, and a worn-out air;
the natural skin blond, as shown by the hand, puffy like that of an
old woman, rather too square, and with short nails--the hand of a
satrap. His foot was elegant. After five o'clock in the afternoon des
Lupeaulx was always to be seen in open-worked silk stockings, low
shoes, black trousers, cashmere waistcoat, cambric handkerchief
(without perfume), gold chain, blue coat of the shade called "king's
blue," with brass buttons and a string of orders. In the morning he
wore creaking boots and gray trousers, and the short close surtout
coat of the politician. His general appearance early in the day was
that of a sharp lawyer rather than that of a ministerial officer. Eyes
glazed by the constant use of spectacles made him plainer than he
really was, if by chance he took those appendages off. To real judges
of character, as well as to upright men who are at ease only with
honest natures, des Lupeaulx was intolerable. To them, his gracious
manners only draped his lies; his amiable protestations and hackneyed
courtesies, new to the foolish and ignorant, too plainly showed their
texture to an observing mind. Such minds considered him a rotten