Guy had no reply for this imperturbable moralist and he regretted that he had lost time in speaking to him. But his uncontrollable rage choked him. Enough remained however to show all his feelings to Vaudrey.
The minister was not in his cabinet. A messenger asked Lissac if he would speak to Monsieur Warcolier, the Under Secretary of State.
"I, I," then said a man who rose from the chair in which he had been sitting in the antechamber, "I should be glad to see Monsieur Warcolier—Monsieur Eugène, you know."
"Very well, Monsieur Eugène, I will announce you." Lissac explained that his visit was not official, he called on a personal matter.
"Is the minister in his apartments?"
"Yes, monsieur, but to-day, you know—"
What was going on to-day, then? Lissac had not noticed, in fact, that a marquee with red stripes was being erected at the entrance to the hôtel, and that upholsterers were bringing in wagons benches covered with red velvet with which they were blocking the peristyle. There was a reception at the ministry.
"That will not prevent Monsieur Vaudrey from seeing me," he said.
One of the messengers opened the doors in front of him and conducted him to the floor above, where Monsieur le Ministre was then resting near the fire and glancing over the papers after breakfast.
He appeared pleased but a little astonished at seeing Lissac.