arrived in succession, and walked about the garden until the gathering
seemed numerous enough to admit of opening the session.

At length, about mid-day, fifty men, all in their best clothes,--most
of them having come out of curiosity to see the handsome salons which
were much talked of throughout the arrondissement,--were seated on the
chairs Madame Marion had provided for them. The windows were left
open, and presently so deep a silence reigned that the rustle of
Madame Marion's gown was heard,--that good woman not being able to
resist the pleasure of descending to the garden and placing herself in
a corner whence she could listen to what went on in the salon. The
cook, the chamber-maid, and the man-servant stood in the dining-room
and shared the emotions of their masters.

"Messieurs," said Simon Giguet, "some among you desire to honor my
father by asking him to preside at this meeting; but Colonel Giguet
requests me to present his thanks, and express due gratitude for a
desire in which he sees a reward for his services to the country. We
are in his house; he thinks he ought, therefore, to decline those
functions, and he desires to propose in his stead an honorable
merchant on whom your suffrages have already bestowed the chief
magistracy of this town, Monsieur Phileas Beauvisage."

"Bravo! bravo!"

"We are, I think, all of one mind in adopting for this meeting
--essentially friendly, but entirely free, which will prejudice in no
way whatever the great preparatory and primary meeting in which you
will produce your candidates and weigh their merits--in adopting, as I
said, the parliamentary and constitutional--forms--of the--electoral