“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.”