"Ah! yes, Dauvergne the senator for Dijon--but he's altogether ignorant of University matters, he hasn't the slightest qualification." "Well, as for that," resumed Fonsegue, "I'm trying to think.

Dauvergne is certainly a good-looking fellow, tall and fair and decorative.

Besides, he's immensely rich, has a most charming young wife--which does no harm, on the contrary--and he gives real _fetes_ at his place on the Boulevard St.Germain." It was only with hesitation that Fonsegue himself had ventured to suggest Dauvergne.

But by degrees his selection appeared to him a real "find." "Wait a bit! I recollect now that in his young days Dauvergne wrote a comedy, a one act comedy in verse, and had it performed at Dijon.

And Dijon's a literary town, you know, so that piece of his sets a little perfume of 'Belles-Lettres' around him.