The two were standing near the Marquis de Ronquerolles, the Duc de Rhétoré, de Marsay, and General Montriveau. The Minister came across to join the group. “Well,” said he, addressing Lucien with a bluff German heartiness that concealed his dangerous subtlety; “well, so you have made your peace with Mme. d’Espard; she is delighted with you, and we all know,” he added, looking round the group, “how difficult it is to please her.” “Yes, but she adores intellect,” said Rastignac, “and my illustrious fellow-countryman has wit enough to sell.” “He will soon find out that he is not doing well for himself,” Blondet put in briskly. “He will come over; he will soon be one of us.” Those who stood about Lucien rang the changes on this theme; the older and responsible men laid down the law with one or two profound remarks; the younger ones made merry at the expense of the Liberals. “He simply tossed up head or tails for Right or Left, I am sure,” remarked Blondet, “but now he will choose for himself.” Lucien burst out laughing; he thought of his talk with Lousteau that evening in the Luxembourg Gardens. “He has taken on a bear-leader,” continued Blondet, “one Étienne Lousteau, a newspaper hack who sees a five-franc piece in a column. Lousteau’s politics consist in a belief that Napoleon will return, and (and this seems to me to be still more simple) in a confidence in the gratitude and patriotism of their worships the gentlemen of the Left. As a Rubempré, Lucien’s sympathies should lean towards the aristocracy; as a journalist, he ought to be for authority, or he will never be either Rubempré or a secretary-general.” The Minister now asked Lucien to take a hand at whist; but, to the great astonishment of those present, he declared that he did not know the game. “Come early to me on the day of that breakfast affair,” Rastignac whispered, “and I will teach you to play. You are a discredit to the royal city of Angoulême; and, to repeat M. de Talleyrand’s saying, you are laying up an unhappy old age for yourself.”