"How many?"
"About thirty persons."
"Go tell them, then, that M. Joseph is not receiving to-night. He is entertaining a circle of friends. Bring me all written petitions. I shall be visible in my dressing room to those who have a personal introduction at eleven o'clock to-morrow. You may go!"
Silently as he had entered, the young man bowed and withdrew.
M. Joseph wheeled round in his chair and turned to his friends with a look of becoming triumph.
"Thirty persons!" he remarked simply.
"All after this appointment?" queried Achille.
"Their representatives, you see," explained M. Joseph airily. "Oh! my ante-chamber is always full—You understand? I shave my Duke every morning; and every one, it seems to me, is wanting to control the finances of France."
"Might one inquire who is your special protégé?" asked the other.
"Time will show," came with cryptic vagueness from the lips of M. Joseph.