Robert, as ill luck would have it, had forestalled his Minister in his intimacy with a lady whom the latter loved to the verge of absurdity: Madame de Neuilles, a woman of easy virtue.

And it seemed to him that the hairy little man suspected it, and regarded him with an unfriendly eye.

And, lastly, the idea had grown upon him at the Quai d'Orsay that Ministers are neither able nor willing to do very much.

But he did not exaggerate matters, and thought it quite possible that he might obtain a minor secretaryship.

Such had been his wish hitherto.