This rapid by-play was not observed by the other people.

Vuillet alone remarked in a sharp tone: "I would rather see your Bonaparte at London than at Paris.

Our affairs would get along better then." At this the old oil-dealer turned slightly pale, fearing that he had gone too far.

"I'm not anxious to retain 'my' Bonaparte," he said, with some firmness; "you know where I would send him to if I were the master.
I simply assert that the expedition to Rome was a good stroke." Felicite had followed this scene with inquisitive astonishment.

However, she did not speak of it to her husband, which proved that she adopted it as the basis of secret study.