Finding Monsieur Chapuzot alone in his office, Victorin thanked him
for his help.
"You sent me an old woman who might stand for the incarnation of the
criminal side of Paris."
Monsieur Chapuzot laid his spectacles on his papers and looked at the
lawyer with astonishment.
"I should not have taken the liberty of sending anybody to see you
without giving you notice beforehand, or a line of introduction," said
he.
"Then it was Monsieur le Prefet--?"
"I think not," said Chapuzot. "The last time that the Prince de
Wissembourg dined with the Minister of the Interior, he spoke to the
Prefet of the position in which you find yourself--a deplorable
position--and asked him if you could be helped in any friendly way.
The Prefet, who was interested by the regrets his Excellency expressed
as to this family affair, did me the honor to consult me about it.
"Ever since the present Prefet has held the reins of this department
--so useful and so vilified--he has made it a rule that family matters
are never to be interfered in. He is right in principle and in
morality; but in practice he is wrong. In the forty-five years that I
have served in the police, it did, from 1799 till 1815, great services
in family concerns. Since 1820 a constitutional government and the
press have completely altered the conditions of existence. So my
advice, indeed, was not to intervene in such a case, and the Prefet
did me the honor to agree with my remarks.
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