Before he had well finished, the Chamber resounded with applause. His triumph was becoming an apotheosis. The very walls shook.
When they were all leaving, Clorinde watched for Rougon to pass by. He and she had not exchanged a word for the last three years. When he made his appearance, looking younger and lighter, having in a single hour given the lie to all his previous political life, ready to satisfy, under the fiction of constitutionalism, his rageful craving for power, she yielded to an impulsive feeling and stepped towards him, with hand outstretched and moist caressing eyes. 'Ah!' said she, 'in spite of everything, you are a wonderfully able fellow!'
THE END
[NOTES]
[1] 16,000l.
[2] This is a reference to the Peace of Paris after the Crimean War.—Ed.
[3] Morny (Marsy), it will be remembered, was the illegitimate son of Queen Hortense, the Emperor Napoleon's mother.—Ed.
[4] Charles X., the exiled king, was then living there.—Ed.
[5] The idea of this clothier's advertisement—La Redingote grise—was derived from the circumstance that Napoleon I. wore a grey overcoat, like the one depicted, during his last campaigns.—Ed.