hand, who had lived among these people, spoke their language and knew their wants, was able to catechise them in a friendly way.  He thus became an indispensable man.  In less than a fortnight the Rougons were more determined royalists than the king himself.  The marquis, perceiving Pierre’s zeal, shrewdly sheltered himself behind him.  What was the use of making himself conspicuous, when a man with such broad shoulders was willing to bear on them the burden of all the follies of a party?  He allowed Pierre to reign, puff himself out with importance and speak with authority, content to restrain or urge him on, according to the necessities of the cause.  Thus, the old oil-dealer soon became a personage of mark.  In the evening, when they were alone, Felicite used to say to him:  “Go on, don’t be frightened.  We’re on the right track.  If this continues we shall be rich; we shall have a drawing-room like the tax-receiver’s, and be able to entertain people.”

A little party of Conservatives had already been formed at the Rougons’ house, and meetings were held every evening in the yellow drawing-room to declaim against the Republic.

Among those who came were three or four retired merchants who trembled for their money, and clamoured with all their might for a wise and strong government.  An old almond-dealer, a member of the Municipal Council, Monsieur Isidore Granoux, was the head of this group.  His hare-lipped mouth was cloven a little way from the nose; his round eyes, his air of mingled satisfaction and astonishment, made him resemble a fat goose whose digestion is attended by wholesome terror of the cook.  He spoke little, having no command of words; and he only pricked up his ears when anyone accused the Republicans of wishing to pillage the houses of the rich; whereupon he would colour up to such a degree as to make one fear an approaching apoplectic fit, and mutter low imprecations, in which the words “idlers,” “scoundrels,” “thieves,” and “assassins” frequently recurred.

All those who frequented the yellow drawing-room were not, however, as heavy as this fat goose.  A rich landowner, Monsieur Roudier, with a plump, insinuating face, used to discourse there for hours altogether, with all the passion of an Orleanist whose calculations had been upset by the fall of Louis Philippe.  He had formerly been a hosier at Paris, and a purveyor to the Court, but had now retired to Plassans.  He had made his son a magistrate, relying on the Orleanist party to promote him to the highest dignities.  The revolution having ruined all his hopes, he had rushed wildly into the reaction.  His fortune, his former commercial relations with the Tuileries, which he transformed into friendly intercourse, that prestige which is enjoyed by every man in the provinces who has made his money in Paris and deigns to come and spend it in a far away department, gave him great influence in the district; some persons listened to him as though he were an oracle.