Then he worked an hour or two; that is to say, he lay back in a comfortable chair and read the newspapers, dictated the meaning of a letter, received visitors when the minister was not present, explained the work in a general way, caught or shed a few drops of the holy-water of the court, looked over the petitions with an eyeglass, or wrote his name on the margin,--a signature which meant "I think it absurd; do what you like about it." Every body knew that when des Lupeaulx was interested in any person or in any thing he attended to the matter personally.

He allowed the head-clerks to converse privately about affairs of delicacy, but he listened to their gossip.

From time to time he went to the Tuileries to get his cue.

And he always waited for the minister's return from the Chamber, if in session, to hear from him what intrigue or manoeuvre he was to set about.

This official sybarite dressed, dined, and visited a dozen or fifteen salons between eight at night and three in the morning.