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Page 27
"What is it?" asked Leon de Lora.
"My dear friend, to prove the sincerity of the constitutional
government we are forced to tell the most frightful lies with
incredible self-possession. But as for me, I'm freakish; some days I
can lie like a prospectus; other days I can't be serious. This is one
of my hilarious days. Now, at this moment, the prime minister, being
summoned by the Opposition to make known a certain diplomatic secret,
is going through his paces in the tribune. Being an honest man who
never lies on his own account, he whispered to me as he mounted the
breach: 'Heaven knows what I shall say to them.' A mad desire to laugh
overcame me, and as one mustn't laugh on the ministerial bench I
rushed out, for my youth does come back to me most unseasonably at
times."
"At last," cried Gazonal, "I've found an honest man in Paris! You must
be a very superior man," he added, looking at the stranger.
"Ah ca! who is this gentleman?" said the ci-devant young man,
examining Gazonal.
"My cousin," said Leon, hastily. "I'll answer for his silence and his
honor as for my own. It is on his account we have come here now; he
has a case before the administration which depends on your ministry.
His prefect evidently wants to ruin him, and we have come to see you
in order to prevent the Council of State from ratifying a great
injustice."
"Who brings up the case?"
"Massol."
"Good."
"And our friends Giraud and Claude Vignon are on the committee," said
Bixiou.
"Say just a word to them," urged Leon; "tell them to come to-night to
Carabine's, where du Tillet gives a fete apropos of railways,--they
are plundering more than ever on the roads."
"Ah ca! but isn't your cousin from the Pyrenees?" asked the young man,
now become serious.
"Yes," replied Gazonal.
"And you did not vote for us in the last elections?" said the
statesman, looking hard at Gazonal.
"No; but what you have just said in my hearing has bribed me; on the
word of a commandant of the National Guard I'll have your candidate
elected--"
"Very good; will you guarantee your cousin?" asked the young man,
turning to Leon.
"We are forming him," said Bixiou, in a tone irresistibly comic.
"Well, I'll see about it," said the young man, leaving his friends and
rushing precipitately back to the Chamber.
"Who is that?" asked Gazonal.
"The Comte de Rastignac; the minister of the department in which your
affair is brought up."
"A minister! Isn't a minister anything more than that?"
"He is an old friend of ours. He now has three hundred thousand francs
a year; he's a peer of France; the king has made him a count; he
married Nucingen's daughter; and he is one of the two or three
statesmen produced by the revolution of July. But his fame and his
power bore him sometimes, and he comes down to laugh with us."
"Ah ca! cousin; why didn't you tell us you belonged to the
Opposition?" asked Leon, seizing Gazonal by the arm. "How stupid of
you! One deputy more or less to Right or Left and your bed is made."
"We are all for the Others down my way."
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