After one of these reconciliations he received the formal promise of a place in the Academy of Belles-lettres on the first vacancy.

"It would pay," he said, "the keep of a horse." His position, so far as it went, was a good one, and Clement Chardin des Lupeaulx flourished in it like a tree planted in good soil.

He could satisfy his vices, his caprices, his virtues and his defects.
The following were the toils of his life.

He was obliged to choose, among five or six daily invitations, the house where he could be sure of the best dinner.

Every morning he went to his minister's morning reception to amuse that official and his wife, and to pet their children.