"Is not that enough?"
"Yes! yes! Au revoir, Jéliotte."
"Au revoir! Till—you know when."
"Yes. When I feel my position threatened, I will call upon you. Don't be afraid. That time will come."
"The idiot!" said Sulpice, angrily shrugging his shoulders, when the advocate was gone.
He snatched his hat and went out hurriedly to his carriage, the messengers rising to bow to him as he passed through the antechamber.
It was hardly necessary for him to order his coachman to drive to the Élysée. The duties of each day were so well ordered in advance, and besides, the attendants at the department knew quite as well as the minister if a Council was to be held at the Élysée.
Sulpice was somewhat upset. Jéliotte's visit, following that of Granet, presented the human species in an evil aspect. He had never felt envious of any one, and it seemed to him that the whole world should be gratified at his modest bearing under success.
"For, after all, I triumph, that is certain!—That animal of a Jéliotte is not such a simpleton!—There are many who, if they were in my place, would swagger!"
So he complacently awarded himself a patent of modesty.