In Monsieur Felix Panneton’s little house there was a large room which
had formerly been used as a studio by the fashionable painter, and
which the new inmate had furnished with the magnificence of a great
collector of curios and the discretion of an accomplished lover of
women. Artistically and in methodical order Monsieur Panneton had
strewn the room with couches, sofas and divans of all shapes and kinds.
Looking from right to left as you went in, you would first of all
notice a little blue silk settee the arms of which, shaped like a
swan’s neck, reminded one of the time when Bonaparte in Paris, like
Tiberius of old in Rome, was bent on improving the manners and customs
of society. Then came another rather bigger couch upholstered in
Beauvais cloth with tapestry-covered ends; then a settee in three
divisions, covered in silk; then a little wooden settee _à la capucine_
with a covering of Turkish tapestry; then a large sofa of gilded wood
upholstered in crimson figured velvet with cushions of the same, which
had belonged to Mademoiselle Damours; then a broad, low, luxuriously
stuffed divan of flame-coloured silk; and finally a tottering mass
of soft cushions on a very low Oriental divan which, bathed in a dim
rose-coloured light, stood on the left near the Baudouin room.
As she entered the room, each charming visitor could thus take in
with a glance the varied seats and choose the one that best suited
her moral character and her present state of mind. Panneton, from the
first, observed his new friends, noticed their expressions, took some
trouble to discover their tastes, and was careful to ensure that they
should sit only where they wished to sit. The more chaste of his lady
friends went straight to the little blue settee, placing a gloved hand
on the swan’s neck. There was also a high straight-backed arm-chair of
gilded wood and Genoa velvet, the former throne of a Duchess of Modena
and Parma; that was for the haughty beauties. The Parisian ladies
seated themselves calmly on the Beauvais couch; the foreign princesses
generally preferred one of the two sofas. Thanks to the judicious
arrangement of these aids to conversation, Panneton knew at a glance
what he had to do. He was in a position to observe all the conventions,
careful not to attempt too sudden a transition in the necessary
succession of his attitudes, and was able to spare both his visitor
and himself those long and useless pauses between the preliminary
courtesies and the inspection of the Baudouins. His proceedings thereby
gained a certainty and a mastery which did him honour.
Madame de Gromance gave immediate proof of a tact for which Panneton
was grateful. Without so much as a glance at the throne of Parma and
Modena, and leaving on the right the Napoleonic swan’s neck, she
sat on the flowered Beauvais sofa like a Parisienne. Clotilde had
languished among the smaller landed gentry of the department and had
had attentions paid to her by some rather under-bred young men; but
the meaning of life was dawning upon her. She had racked her brains
over money matters and was beginning to understand what social duty
entailed. She did not dislike Panneton excessively. Partially bald,
with very black hair brushed smoothly over his temples, and large
prominent eyes, he looked like a lovesick apoplectic, and made her
feel rather inclined to laugh, satisfying that craving for the comic
element in love of which she had always been conscious. No doubt she
would have preferred a magnificent young man, but she was inclined to
facile gaiety and the sort of amusement which a man derives from jokes
of a rather highly salted nature and a certain kind of ugliness. After
a moment of very natural shyness she felt that it would not be so
terrible, nor even very tedious.
Everything went well. The transit from the Beauvais to the settee and
from the settee to the big sofa took place with all due decorum. They
judged it needless to linger on the Oriental cushions and went straight
into the Baudouin room.
When Clotilde thought of looking at it the room, like the erotic
painter’s pictures, was strewn with women’s garments and fine linen.
“Ah, there are the Baudouins, you have two of them.”
“Just so.”
He had the _Jardinier galant_ and the _Carquois épuisé_, two little
water-colours for which he had paid 60,000 francs apiece at the Godard
sale, and which cost him considerably more than that because of the
use to which he put them. Calm once more, and a little melancholy
even, he gazed with the eye of a connoisseur at the slender, graceful,
supple figure of the woman before him, and, finding her beautiful, was
conscious of a little feeling of pride, which grew as she gradually
reassumed her social characteristics together with her garments.
She demanded the list of candidates.
“Panneton, manufacturer; Dieudonné de Gromance, landed proprietor; Dr.
Fornerol; Mulot, explorer.”
“Mulot?”
“Young Mulot. He was running up bills in Paris, so his father sent him
round the world. Désiré Mulot, explorer. That sounds well, an explorer
candidate! The electors hope he will open up new fields for their
goods. Above all, they feel flattered.”
Madame de Gromance was becoming serious. She wanted to hear the address
to the senatorial electors. He outlined it and repeated some parts
which he knew by heart.
“First, we promise general pacification. Brécé and the pure
Nationalists have not sufficiently insisted on pacification. Then we
absolutely demolish the nameless party.”
She asked what the nameless party was.
“For us it’s the party of our adversaries; for our adversaries it
is ourselves. There can be no mistake about that. We demolish the
traitors, the creatures who have sold themselves. We fight against the
power of gold—that is useful for the poor ruined aristocracy. Enemies
of all reaction, we repudiate political adventure. France is resolved
on peace, but the day when she draws the sword from the scabbard,
etc. The country that regards with pride and affection her admirable
national Army— I shall have to alter that sentence a little.”
“Why?”
“Because it is in both the other addresses, word for word; the
Nationalists have it and so have the enemies of the Army.”
“And you promise me that Dieudonné will get in.”
“Dieudonné or Goby.”
“What! Dieudonné or Goby? If you were not any surer than that you ought
to have told me. Dieudonné or Goby! To hear you one would think it was
all one which got in.”
“It isn’t all one, but in either case Brécé goes under.”
“Brécé is one of our friends, you know.”
“And one of mine! In either case, as I said before, Brécé and his list
will go under, and having contributed to his downfall the prefect and
the Government will be under obligations to Monsieur de Gromance. After
the elections, no matter how they result, you will come and see my
Baudouins again and I will make of your husband—whatever you will.”
“An ambassador.”
* * * * *
At the scrutiny of the 28th of January, the list of Nationalist
candidates, Comte de Brécé, Colonel Despautères, Lerond, ex-magistrate,
Lafolie, butcher, obtained an average of about a hundred votes. The
Progressive Republicans, Felix Panneton, manufacturer, Dieudonné
de Gromance, landed proprietor, Mulot, explorer, and Dr. Fornerol,
obtained an average of a hundred and thirty votes. Laprat-Teulet,
implicated in the Panama affair, only succeeded in obtaining a hundred
and twenty votes. The other three retiring Senators obtained an average
of two hundred votes.
At the second scrutiny Laprat-Teulet’s votes fell to sixty.
At the third scrutiny Goby, Mannequin and Ledru, the three retiring
Radical Senators, and Felix Panneton, Republican Progressive, were
elected.