education, and a weakness of character which can only be expressed by
the old word "weathercock." Be not uneasy: the weathercock had for its
axis the beautiful Madame Beauvisage, Severine Grevin, the most
remarkable woman in the arrondissement.

When Severine heard of what she called her husband's "freak" as to the
election, she said to him on the morning of the meeting at Madame
Marion's:--

"It was well enough to give yourself an air of independence; but you
mustn't go to that Giguet meeting unless Achille Pigoult accompanies
you; I've told him to come and take you."

Giving Achille Pigoult as mentor to Beauvisage meant sending a spy
from the Gondreville party to the Giguet assemblage. We may therefore
imagine the grimace which contracted the puritan visage of Simon, who
was forced to welcome graciously an _habitue_ of his aunt's salon and
an influential elector, in whom, nevertheless, he saw an enemy.

"Ah!" he thought to himself, "what a mistake I made in refusing him
that security when he asked for it! Old Gondreville had more sense
than I--Good-day to you, Achille," he said, assuming a jaunty manner;
"I suppose you mean to trip me up."

"Your meeting isn't a conspiracy against the independence of our
votes," replied the notary, smiling. "We are all playing above-board,
I take it."

"Above-board," echoed Beauvisage.