Monferrand's victory had compelled him to leave the African Railways
scandal on one side, he had fallen back on scandals in private life,
stripping whole families bare and pelting them with mud.

All at once Duthil and Massot were approached by Chaigneux, who, with his
shabby frock coat badly buttoned, wore both a melancholy and busy air.
"Well, Monsieur Massot," said he, "what about your article on Silviane?
Is it settled? Will it go in?"

As Chaigneux was always for sale, always ready to serve as a valet, it
had occurred to Duvillard to make use of him to ensure Silviane's success
at the Comedie. He had handed this sorry deputy over to the young woman,
who entrusted him with all manner of dirty work, and sent him scouring
Paris in search of applauders and advertisements. His eldest daughter was
not yet married, and never had his four women folk weighed more heavily
on his hands. His life had become a perfect hell; they had ended by
beating him, if he did not bring a thousand-franc note home on the first
day of every month.

"My article!" Massot replied; "no, it surely won't go in, my dear deputy.
Fonsegue says that it's written in too laudatory a style for the 'Globe.'
He asked me if I were having a joke with the paper."

Chaigneux became livid. The article in question was one written in
advance, from the society point of view, on the success which Silviane
would achieve in "Polyeucte," that evening, at the Comedie. The
journalist, in the hope of pleasing her, had even shown her his "copy";
and she, quite delighted, now relied upon finding the article in print in
the most sober and solemn organ of the Parisian press.