“I shall never succeed in that,” said Sulpice, smiling as usual.

“So much the worse!  What has been wanting in my case is not to have been able to secure the title of our antipathetic confrere.  The modest and refined people are dupes.  By virtue of swelling their necks, turkeys succeed in resembling peacocks.  Believe me, my dear friend, it is dangerous to have too refined a taste, even in office, even in the rank in which you are placed.  One hesitates to proclaim the excessively stupid things that stir the crowd, and the blockhead who is bold enough to declare his folly creates a hellish noise with his nonsense, while a man of refinement, who is not always a squeamish man, remains in his corner unseen.  Remember that more moths are caught at night with a greasy candle than with a diamond of the first water.”

“You speak in paradox—­” Sulpice began.

“And you think I am making paradoxes?  Not in the least, I will give you—­not at cost, for it has cost me dearly, but in block,—­my stock of experience.  Do with it what you please, and, above all, beware of alle donne!”

“Women?” asked the minister, with involuntary disquiet.

“Women, exactly.  Encircling every minister there is a squadron of seductive women, who though perhaps more fully clothed than the flying squadron of the Medicis, is certainly not less dangerous.  Women who complain that they are denied political rights, have in reality all, since they are able to rule administrations and knock ministers off, as the Du Barry did her oranges!  When I speak of women, you will observe well that I do not speak of your admirable wife,” said Ramel, with a respect that was most touching, coming from this honest veteran.

“While we are gossiping,” he resumed, “I am going to tell you frankly what strikes me most clearly in the present conjuncture.  You will gather from it what you choose.  In these days, my dear Vaudrey, what is most remarkable is the facility men have for destroying their credit and wearing themselves out.  Politics, especially, entails a formidable consumption.  It seems that the modern being is not cut out to wear long.  This, perhaps, is due to the fact that public business, whichever party wins, is always committed to men who are ill-prepared for their good fortune.  I do not say this of you, who, intellectually speaking, are an exception.  But men are no longer bathed in the Styx, or perhaps they show the heel too quickly.  For some years, moreover, the strange phenomenon has presented itself of the provincial towns being the prey of Parisian manufacturers, who reconstruct them and demolish their picturesque antiquity, in order to garnish their boulevards and fine mansions, while Paris, on the contrary, is directed and governed by provincials, who provincialize it just as the Parisian companies parisianize the provinces.  Our provincials, astonished to find themselves at the head of Parisian movement, lose their heads somewhat and rush with