Antonin Goulard, Frederic Marest, Olivier Vinet, and Monsieur Martener, the authorities who, until then, had frequented this salon (the prevailing opinions of which did not seem to them contrary to the government created by the popular will in July, 1830), came as usual, possessed by curiosity to see what attitude the Beauvisage family would take under the circumstances.
The salon, restored to its usual condition, showed no signs of the meeting which appeared to have settled the destiny of Simon Giguet.By eight o'clock four card-tables, each with four players, were under way.The smaller salon and the dining-room were full of people.Never, except on grand occasions, such as balls and fete-days, had Madame Marion seen such an influx at the door of her salon, forming as it were the tail of a comet.
"It is the dawn of power," said Olivier Vinet to the mistress of the house, showing her this spectacle, so gratifying to the heart of a person who delighted in receiving company.
"No one knows what there is in Simon," replied the mother."We live in times when young men who persevere and are moral and upright can aspire to everything."This answer was made, not so much to Vinet as to Madame Beauvisage, who had entered the room with her daughter and was now beginning to offer her congratulations on the event.In order to escape indirect appeals and pointed interpretations of careless words, Madame Beauvisage took a vacant place at a whist-table and devoted her mind to the winning of one hundred fishes.One hundred fishes, or counters, made fifty sous! When a player had lost that sum it was talked of in Arcis for a couple of days.
Cecile went to talk with Mademoiselle Mollot, one of her good friends, appearing to be seized with redoubled affection for her.Mademoiselle Mollot was the beauty of Arcis, just as Cecile was the heiress.
Monsieur Mollot, clerk of the court, lived on the Grande-Place in a house constructed in the same manner as that of Beauvisage on the Place du Pont.Madame Mollot, forever seated at the window of her salon on the ground-floor, was attacked (as the result of that situation) by intense, acute, insatiable curiosity, now become a chronic and inveterate disease.The moment a peasant entered the square from the road to Brienne she saw him, and watched to see what business could have brought him to Arcis; she had no peace of mind until that peasant was explained.She spent her life in judging the events, men, things, and households of Arcis.
The ambition of the house of Mollot, father, mother, and daughter, was to marry Ernestine (an only daughter) to Antonin Goulard.Consequently the refusal of the Beauvisage parents to entertain the proposals of the sub-prefect had tightened the bonds of friendship between the two families.
"There's an impatient man!" said Ernestine to Cecile, indicating Simon Giguet."He wants to come and talk with us; but every one who comes in feels bound to congratulate him.I've heard him say fifty times already: 'It is, I think, less to me than to my father that this compliment of my fellow-citizens has been paid; but, in any case, pray believe that I shall be devoted not only to our general interests but to yours individually.' I can guess those words by the motion of his lips, and all the while he is looking at you with an air of martyrdom.""Ernestine," replied Cecile, "don't leave me the whole evening; Idon't want to listen to his proposals made under cover of 'alases!'
and mingled with sighs."
"Don't you want to be the wife of a Keeper of the Seals?""Ah! that's all nonsense," said Cecile, laughing.
"But I assure you," persisted Ernestine, "that just before you came in Monsieur Godivet, the registrar, was declaring with enthusiasm that Simon would be Keeper of the Seals in three years.""Do they count on the influence of the Comte de Gondreville?" asked the sub-prefect, coming up to the two girls and guessing that they were making fun of his friend Giguet.