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The Deputy of Arcis by Honoré de Balzac
page 43 of 499 (08%)
square, to whom she was apparently relating something. A solicitor,
named Sinot, who numbered all the royalists of Arcis among his
clients, and who had not gone to the Giguet meeting, now detached
himself from the group, and running to the door of the Marion house
rang the bell violently.

"What can be the matter?" said Frederic Marest, dropping his eyeglass,
and calling the attention of his colleagues to this circumstance.

"The matter is, messieurs," said the sub-prefect, thinking it useless
to keep a secret which was evidently known to the other party, "that
Charles Keller has been killed in Africa, and that this event doubles
the chances of Simon Giguet. You know Arcis; there can be no other
ministerial candidate than Charles Keller. Any other man would find
the whole local patriotism of the place arrayed against him.

"Will they really elect such an idiot as Simon Giguet?" said Olivier
Vinet, laughing.

This young substitute, then only twenty-three years of age, was the
son of one of our most famous attorney-generals, who had come into
power with the Revolution of July; he therefore owed his early
entrance into public life to the influence of his father. The latter,
always elected deputy by the town of Provins, is one of the buttresses
of the Centre in the Chamber. Therefore the son, whose mother was a
Demoiselle de Chargeboeuf [see "Pierrette"], had a certain air of
assurance, both in his functions and in his personal behavior, that
plainly showed the backing of his father. He expressed his opinion on
men and things without reserve; for he confidently expected not to
stay very long at Arcis, but to receive his appointment as
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