“What other time?” asked one of the postponed; “this is the third time in three days that I have come here uselessly.”
The usher made a gesture which meant, “It is not my affair; I follow my orders.” But hearing certain murmurs as to the privilege granted to honorable members, he said, with a certain solemnity,—
“The honorable gentlemen came to discuss affairs of public interest with his Excellency.”
The office-seekers, being compelled to accept this fib, departed. After which the bell rang again. The usher then assumed his most gracious expression of face. By natural affinity, the lucky ones had gathered in a group at one end of the room. Though they had never seen one another before, most of them being the offspring of the late national lying-in, they seemed to recognize a certain representative air which is very difficult to define, though it can never be mistaken. The usher, not venturing to choose among so many eminent personages, turned a mute, caressing glance on all, as if to say,—
“Whom shall I have the honor of first announcing?”
“Gentlemen,” said Colonel Franchessini, “I believe I have seen you all arrive.”
And he walked to the closed door, which the usher threw open, announcing in a loud, clear voice,—
“Monsieur le Colonel Franchessini!”
“Ha! so you are the first this morning,” said the minister, making a few steps towards the colonel, and giving him his hand. “What have you come for, my dear fellow?—a railroad, a canal, a suspension bridge?”
“I have come, my good-natured minister, on private business in which you are more interested than I.”