She had sagely
judged that her husband, by ranging himself on the side of the
d'Esgrignons, would find favor with Mme. la Duchesse de Maufrigneuse,
and with two powerful families on whose influence with the King the
Sieur Thirion could depend at an opportune moment. Camusot might get
an appointment at the first opportunity within the jurisdiction of
Paris, and afterwards at Paris itself. That promotion, dreamed of and
longed for at every moment, was certain to have a salary of six
thousand francs attached to it, as well as the alleviation of living
in her own father's house, or under the Camusots' roof, and all the
advantages of a father's fortune on either side. If the adage, "Out of
sight is out of mind," holds good of most women, it is particularly
true where family feeling or royal or ministerial patronage is
concerned. The personal attendants of kings prosper at all times; you
take an interest in a man, be it only a man in livery, if you see him
every day.
Mme. Camusot, regarding herself as a bird of passage, had taken a
little house in the Rue du Cygne. Furnished lodgings there were none;
the town was not enough of a thoroughfare, and the Camusots could not
afford to live at an inn like M. Michu. So the fair Parisian had no
choice for it but to take such furniture as she could find; and as she
paid a very moderate rent, the house was remarkably ugly, albeit a
certain quaintness of detail was not wanting.
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