explained rain; he explained the revolution of July; he explained
things impenetrable; he explained Louis-Philippe, Odilon Barrot,
Monsieur Thiers, the Eastern Question; he explained Champagne; he
explained 1788; he explained the tariff of custom houses and
humanitarians, magnetism and the economy of the civil list.

This lean young man, with a bilious skin, tall enough to justify his
sonorous nullity (for it is rare that a tall man does not have eminent
faculties of some kind) outdid the puritanism of the votaries of the
extreme Left, all of them so sensitive, after the manner of prudes who
have their intrigues to hide. Dressed invariably in black, he wore a
white cravat which came down low on his chest, so that his face seemed
to issue from a horn of white paper, for the collar of his shirt was
high and stiff after a fashion now, fortunately, exploded. His
trousers and his coats were always too large for him. He had what is
called in the provinces dignity; that is to say, he was stiffly erect
and pompously dull in manner. His friend, Antonin Goulard, accused him
of imitating Monsieur Dupin. And in truth, the young barrister was apt
to wear shoes and stout socks of black filoselle.

Protected by the respect that every one bore to his father, and by the
influence exercised by his aunt over a little town whose principal
inhabitants had frequented her salon for many years, Simon Giguet,
possessing already ten thousand francs a year, not counting the fees
of his profession and the fortune his aunt would not fail to leave
him, felt no doubt of his election. Nevertheless, the first sound of
the bell announcing the arrival of the most influential electors
echoed in the heart of the ambitious aspirant and filled it with vague
fears. Simon did not conceal from himself the cleverness and the
immense resources of old Grevin, nor the prestige attending the means