The youngest,
appointed sous-prefet, ere long became a legal official and director
of a municipal board of the city of Paris, where he was safe from
changes in Legislature. These bounties, bestowed without parade, and
as secret as the favor enjoyed by the Count, fell unperceived. Though
the father and his three sons each had sinecures enough to enjoy an
income in salaries almost equal to that of a chief of department,
their political good fortune excited no envy. In those early days of
the constitutional system, few persons had very precise ideas of the
peaceful domain of the civil service, where astute favorites managed
to find an equivalent for the demolished abbeys. Monsieur le Comte de
Fontaine, who till lately boasted that he had not read the Charter,
and displayed such indignation at the greed of courtiers, had, before
long, proved to his august master that he understood, as well as the
King himself, the spirit and resources of the representative system.
At the same time, notwithstanding the established careers open to his
three sons, and the pecuniary advantages derived from four official
appointments, Monsieur de Fontaine was the head of too large a family
to be able to re-establish his fortune easily and rapidly.
His three sons were rich in prospects, in favor, and in talent; but he
had three daughters, and was afraid of wearying the monarch's
benevolence. It occurred to him to mention only one by one, these
virgins eager to light their torches.
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