“To see you grappling with that ability which you call meddlesome.”
“Well, you know, Monsieur le ministre, that we all spend three fourths of life in wishing for the impossible.”
“Why impossible? Would you be the first man of the Opposition to be seen at the Tuileries? An invitation to dinner given publicly, openly, which would, by bringing you into contact with one whom you misjudge at a distance—”
“I should have the honor to refuse.”
And he emphasized the words have the honor in a way to show the meaning he attached to them.
“You are all alike, you men of the Opposition!” cried the minister; “you won’t let yourselves be enlightened when the opportunity presents itself; or, to put it better, you—”
“Do you call the rays of those gigantic red bottles in a chemist’s shop light, when they flash into your eyes as you pass them after dark? Don’t they, on the contrary, seem to blind you?”
“It is not our rays that frighten you,” said Rastignac; “it is the dark lantern of your party watchmen on their rounds.”
“There may be some truth in what you say; a party and the man who undertakes to represent it are in some degree a married couple, who in order to live peaceably together must be mutually courteous, frank, and faithful in heart as well as in principle.”
“Well, try to be moderate. Your dream is far more impossible to realize than mine; the day will come when you will have more to say about the courtesy of your chaste better half.”