on the day and at the hour named in M. Gandrin's salon. On this occasion
Madame Gandrin did not appear. Her husband was accustomed to give
_diners d'hommes_. The great man had not yet arrived. "I think,
Marquis," said M. Gandrin, "that you will not regret having followed my
advice: my representations have disposed Louvier to regard you with much
favour, and he is certainly flattered by being permitted to make your
personal acquaintance."

The _avoue_ had scarcely finished this little speech, when M. Louvier was
announced. He entered with a beaming smile, which did not detract from
his imposing presence. His flatterers had told him that he had a look of
Louis Philippe; therefore he had sought to imitate the dress and the
bonhomie of that monarch of the middle class. He wore a wig, elaborately
piled up, and shaped his whiskers in royal harmony with the royal wig.
Above all, he studied that social frankness of manner with which the
able sovereign dispelled awe of his presence or dread of his astuteness.
Decidedly he was a man very pleasant to converse and to deal with--so
long as there seemed to him something to gain and nothing to lose by
being pleasant. He returned Alain's bow by a cordial offer of both
expansive hands, into the grasp of which the hands of the aristocrat
utterly disappeared. "Charmed to make your acquaintance, Marquis; still
more charmed if you will let me be useful during your _sejour_ at Paris.
_Ma foi_, excuse my bluntness, but you are a _fort beau garcon_.
Monsieur your father was a handsome man, but you beat him hollow.
Gandrin, my friend, would not you and I give half our fortunes for one
year of this fine fellow's youth spent at Paris? _Peste_! what love-
letters we should have, with no need to buy them by _billets de banque_!"
Thus he ran on, much to Alain's confusion, till dinner was announced.
Then there was something grandiose in the frank _bourgeois_ style
wherewith he expanded his napkin and twisted one end into his waistcoat;