He was determined to put his
ideas into force, to give life and durability to his ministry. There was
no use in being a minister if he must continue the habitual
go-as-you-please of current politics. In that case, the first chief of
bureau one might meet would make as good a minister as he.
At the moment of leaving the Council Chamber, the Minister of War said
to him, in a jocose, brusque way: "Well! my dear colleague, Warcolier's
election does not seem to have pleased you? Bah! if he has changed
shoulders with his gun, that only proves that he knows how to drill."
And the soldier laughed heartily behind his closely buttoned frock coat.
Vaudrey got into his carriage and returned to the ministry to breakfast.
Formerly the breakfast hour was generally the time of joyous freedom for
Sulpice. He felt soothed beside Adrienne and forgot his daily struggles.
In their home on Chaussee d'Antin, he usually abandoned himself freely
to lively and cheerful conversation, to allow his wife to find in him,
the man of forty years, the fiance, the young husband of former days.
But here, before these exclusive domestics, the familiars of the
ministry, planted around the table like so many inspectors, rather than
servants, he dared not manifest himself. He scarcely spoke. He felt that
he was watched and listened to. The valet who passed him the dishes
watched over Monsieur le Ministre. He imagined that _his attendants_ in
their silent reflections compared the present minister with those that
had gone before him.
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