He began to laugh somewhat sadly, and then turned the conversation into another channel.

Felicite could never induce him to consider the chances of the various parties, nor to enlist in that one of them which seemed likely to carry the day.

However, he still occasionally came to spend an evening in the yellow drawing-room.
Granoux interested him like an antediluvian animal.
In the meantime, events were moving.

The year 1851 was a year of anxiety and apprehension for the politicians of Plassans, and the cause which the Rougons served derived advantage from this circumstance.

The most contradictory news arrived from Paris; sometimes the Republicans were in the ascendant, sometimes the Conservative party was crushing the Republic.