CHAPTER LXXXVI
THE TRIAL
T eight o'clock in the morning Albert had arrived, like a lightning-flash, at Beauchamp's door. The valet-de-chambre had received orders to introduce him into his master's room, who was just then bathing.
"Here I am, Albert said."
"Well, my poor friend," replied Beauchamp, "I expected you."
"Here I am! I need not say I think you are too faithful and too kind to have spoken to any one of that painful circumstance. Your having sent for me is another proof of your affection. So, without losing time, tell me, have you any idea whence this blow proceeds?"
"I will say a couple of words about that, immediately."
"Yes! but first tell me all the particulars of this shameful plot."
Beauchamp proceeded to relate to the young man, overwhelmed with shame and grief, the following facts: Two days previously, the article had appeared in another paper besides the Impartial, and, what was more serious, one that was well known as a Government paper. Beauchamp was breakfasting when he read the passage: he sent immediately for a cabriolet, and hastened to the publisher's office. Although professing diametrically opposite principles from those of the editor of the accusing paper, Beauchamp, as it sometimes, we may say often, happens, was his intimate friend. The editor was reading, with apparent delight, a leading article in his paper on beet-root sugar, probably a composition of his own.
"Ah! pardieu!" said Beauchamp, "with the paper in your hand, my friend, I need not tell you the cause of my visit."
"Are you, perchance, concerned in the sugar question?" asked the editor of the ministerial paper.
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