The salon, restored to its usual condition, showed no signs of the
meeting which appeared to have settled the destiny of Simon Giguet. By
eight o'clock four card-tables, each with four players, were under
way. The smaller salon and the dining-room were full of people. Never,
except on grand occasions, such as balls and fete-days, had Madame
Marion seen such an influx at the door of her salon, forming as it
were the tail of a comet.

"It is the dawn of power," said Olivier Vinet to the mistress of the
house, showing her this spectacle, so gratifying to the heart of a
person who delighted in receiving company.

"No one knows what there is in Simon," replied the mother. "We live in
times when young men who persevere and are moral and upright can
aspire to everything."

This answer was made, not so much to Vinet as to Madame Beauvisage,
who had entered the room with her daughter and was now beginning to
offer her congratulations on the event. In order to escape indirect
appeals and pointed interpretations of careless words, Madame
Beauvisage took a vacant place at a whist-table and devoted her mind
to the winning of one hundred fishes. One hundred fishes, or counters,
made fifty sous! When a player had lost that sum it was talked of in
Arcis for a couple of days.

Cecile went to talk with Mademoiselle Mollot, one of her good friends,
appearing to be seized with redoubled affection for her. Mademoiselle
Mollot was the beauty of Arcis, just as Cecile was the heiress.
Monsieur Mollot, clerk of the court, lived on the Grande-Place in a