The Life of the Fly 



other an increase of his pension. I had only 

 to ask and I should obtain, said they. 



O simple people, what an illusion was 

 yours ! You could not have hit upon a worse 

 intermediary. I figuring as a postulant! I 

 have many faults, I admit, but that is certainly 

 not one of them. I got rid of the importunate 

 people as best I could, though they were ut- 

 terly unable to fathom my reserve. What 

 would they have said had they known of the 

 minister's offers with regard to my laboratory 

 and my jesting reply, in which I asked for a 

 crocodile-skin to hang from my ceiling! They 

 would have taken me for an idiot. 



Six months elapsed; and I received a letter 

 summoning me to call upon the minister at 

 his office. I suspected a proposal to promote 

 me to a more important grammar-school and 

 wrote begging that I might be left where I 

 was, among my vats and my insects. A second 

 letter arrived, more pressing than the first and 

 signed by the minister's own hand. This let- 

 ter said: 



'Come at once, or I shall send my gen- 

 darmes to fetch you.' 



There was no way out of it. Twenty-four 

 hours later, I was in M. Duruy's room. He 

 welcomed me with exquisite cordiality, gave 

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