His course was taken; he was resolved to get Rabourdin appointed.
"I will prove to you, my dear fellow, that I deserve a good place in your galley," thought he as he seated himself in his study and began to unfold a newspaper.
He knew so well what the ministerial organ would contain that he rarely took the trouble to read it, but on this occasion he did open it to look at the article on La Billardiere, recollecting with amusement the dilemma in which du Bruel had put him by bringing him the night before Bixiou's amendments to the obituary.

He was laughing to himself as he reread the biography of the late Comte da Fontaine, dead a few months earlier, which he had hastily substituted for that of La Billardiere, when his eyes were dazzled by the name of Baudoyer.

He read with fury the article which pledged the minister, and then he rang violently for Dutocq, to send him at once to the editor.

But what was his astonishment on reading the reply of the opposition paper! The situation was evidently serious.

He knew the game, and he saw that the man who was shuffling his cards for him was a Greek of the first order.