Some portion of the Left had evidently joined hands with the Right and the Socialist group.

A prolonged hubbub followed this result.
"Well, so we are to have a Vignon Cabinet," said Massot, as he went off with Pierre and the General.

"All the same, though, Monferrand has saved himself, and if I were in Vignon's place I should distrust him." That evening there was a very touching farewell scene at the little house at Neuilly.

When Pierre returned thither from the Chamber, saddened but reassured with regard to the future, Guillaume at once made up his mind to go home on the morrow.

And as Nicholas Barthes was compelled to leave, the little dwelling seemed on the point of relapsing into dreary quietude once more.
Theophile Morin, whom Pierre had informed of the painful alternative in which Barthes was placed, duly came to dinner; but he did not have time to speak to the old man before they all sat down to table at seven o'clock.