brilliant talk."

"Ah! _ces beaux jours! ce bon Louis Philippe, ce cher petit Joinville_,"
sighed the Vicomte.

"But at that day you compared _le bon_ Louis Philippe to Robert Macaire.
You described all his sons, including, no doubt, _ce cher petit
Joinville_, in terms of resentful contempt, as so many plausible _gamins_
whom Robert Macaire was training to cheat the public in the interest of
the family firm. I remember my father saying to you in answer, 'No royal
house in Europe has more sought to develop the literature of an epoch and
to signalize its representatives by social respect and official honours
than that of the Orleans dynasty. You, Monsieur de Breze, do but imitate
your elders in seeking to destroy the dynasty under which you flourish;
should you succeed, you _hommes de plume_ will be the first sufferers and
the loudest complainers.'"

"Cher Monsieur Vane," said the Vicomte, smiling complacently, "your
father did me great honour in classing me with Victor Hugo, Alexandre
Dumas, Emile de Girardin, and the other stars of the Orleanist galaxy,
including our friend here, M. Savarin. A very superior man was your
father."

"And," said Savarin, who, being an Orleanist, had listened to Graham's
speech with an approving smile,--"and if I remember right, my dear De
Breze, no one was more brilliantly severe than yourself on poor De
Lamartine and the Republic that succeeded Louis Philippe; no one more
emphatically expressed the yearning desire for another Napoleon to
restore order at home and renown abroad. Now you have got another
Napoleon."