My honor is involved in the matter of which I desire to speak." "Poor man!" said des Lupeaulx, in a tone of compassion which confirmed the minister in his error.

"We are alone; I advise you to see him now.
You have a meeting of the Council when the Chamber rises; moreover, your Excellency has to reply to-day to the opposition; this is really the only hour when you can receive him." Des Lupeaulx rose, called the servant, said a few words, and returned to his seat.

"I have told them to bring him in at dessert," he said.
Like all other ministers under the Restoration, this particular minister was a man without youth.

The charter granted by Louis XVIII.

had the defect of tying the hands of the kings by compelling them to deliver the destinies of the nation into the control of the middle-aged men of the Chamber and the septuagenarians of the peerage; it robbed them of the right to lay hands on a man of statesmanlike talent wherever they could find him, no matter how young he was or how poverty-stricken his condition might be.