This portrait of Rosas was a clever one indeed, and Sabine nodded acquiescence again and again as each point was hit off by Vaudrey.  He, in his turn, basked comfortably in the light of her smiles, and listened with pleasure to the sound of his own voice.  He could catch glimpses through the box curtains from between these two charming profiles—­one a brunette, the other a blonde—­of the vast auditorium all crimson and gold, blazing with lights and crowded with faces.  From this well-dressed crowd, from these boxes where one caught sight of white gleaming shoulders, half-gloved arms, flower-decked heads, sparkling necklaces, flashing glances, it seemed to Vaudrey as if a strange, subtle perfume arose—­the perfume of women, an intoxicating odor, in the midst of this radiancy that rivaled the brilliant sun at its rising.

Upon the stage, amid the dazzling splendor of the ballet, in the milky ray of the electric light, the swelling skirts whirled, the pink slippers that he had seen but a moment before near by, and the gleaming, silver helmets, the tinfoil and the spangles shone in the dance.  A fairy light enveloped all these stage splendors; and this luxurious ensemble, as seen from the depths of the box, seemed to him to be the glory of an unending apotheosis, a sort of fete given to celebrate his entrance on his public career.

Then, in the unconcealed effusion of his delight, without any effort at effect, speaking frankly to this woman, to Guy, and to Gerson, as if he were communing with himself to the mocking accompaniment of this Hindoo music, he revealed his joys, his prospects, and his dreams.  He replied to Sabine’s congratulations by avowing his intention to devote himself entirely to his country.

“In short, your Excellency,” she said, “you are really going to do great things?”

He gazed dreamily around the theatre, smiling as if he beheld some lucky vision, and answered: 

“Really, madame, I accepted office only because I felt it was my duty and as a means of doing good.  I intend to be just—­to be honest.  I should like to discover some unappreciated genius and raise him from the obscurity in which an unjust fate has shrouded him, to the height where he belongs.  If we are to do no better than those we have succeeded, it was useless to turn them out!”

“Ah! pardieu,” said Lissac, while Madame Marsy smiled and nodded approval of Vaudrey’s words, “you and your colleagues are just now in the honeymoon of your power.”

“We will endeavor to make this honeymoon of as long duration as possible,” laughingly replied Sulpice.  “I believe in the case of power, as in marriage, that the coming of the April moon is the fault of the parties connected with it.”

“It takes a shrewd person indeed to know why April moons rise at all!” said Guy.  Vaudrey’s thoughts turned involuntarily toward Adrienne, his own pretty wife, who was waiting for him in the great lonely apartments at the Ministry which they had just taken possession of as they might occupy rooms at a hotel.