He did immense services, and he
did them then and there; he assumed no importance, he made no boast,
he did not complain of ingratitude. He did them in the hope that his
patron would put him in a position to be elected deputy; Marcas wished
for nothing but a loan that might enable him to purchase a house in
Paris, the qualification required by law. Richard III. asked for
nothing but his horse.
In three years Marcas had made his man--one of the fifty supposed
great statesmen who are the battledores with which two cunning players
toss the ministerial portfolios exactly as the man behind the
puppet-show hits Punch against the constable in his street theatre, and
counts on always getting paid. This man existed only by Marcas, but he
had just brains enough to appreciate the value of his "ghost" and to
know that Marcas, if he ever came to the front, would remain there,
would be indispensable, while he himself would be translated to the
polar zone of Luxembourg. So he determined to put insurmountable
obstacles in the way of his Mentor's advancement, and hid his purpose
under the semblance of the utmost sincerity. Like all mean men, he
could dissimulate to perfection, and he soon made progress in the ways
of ingratitude, for he felt that he must kill Marcas, not to be killed
by him.
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