iii.
224.) Lomenie-Brienne, who had all his life 'felt a kind of predestination for the highest offices,' has now therefore obtained them.

He presides over the Finances; he shall have the title of Prime Minister itself, and the effort of his long life be realised.

Unhappy only that it took such talent and industry to gain the place; that to qualify for it hardly any talent or industry was left disposable! Looking now into his inner man, what qualification he may have, Lomenie beholds, not without astonishment, next to nothing but vacuity and possibility.

Principles or methods, acquirement outward or inward (for his very body is wasted, by hard tear and wear) he finds none; not so much as a plan, even an unwise one.

Lucky, in these circumstances, that Calonne has had a plan! Calonne's plan was gathered from Turgot's and Necker's by compilation; shall become Lomenie's by adoption.