Dupont

“ While Mother Dupont was preparing the meal, the young people would make a hasty toilet. Then they would get up a dance, and skip merrily to the notes of the violin which screeched beneath the old sergeant's bow. In spite of the remonstrances of Blanche, Jules would turn everything upside down and tease everybody to death. He would snatch the frying-pan from the hands of Mother Dupont, throw his arm around her waist, and compel her, in spite of her struggles, to dance with him; and these good people would shout with laughter till one would think they could never get too much of the racket. ”

“ A more perfect representative of this mingled jealousy and hate could not be found than Paul Dupont, the sous-officier in command of this little party. He was a Breton, and carried the ruling trait of his province into the most minute feature of his conduct. Bold, blunt, courageous, open-hearted, and fearless, but passionate to the verge of madness when thwarted, and unforgiving in his vengeance when insulted, he only believed in Brittany, and for the rest of France he cared as little as for Switzerland. ”

“ M. Dupont wisely remained silent, and Louis resumed, abruptly: "When I shall write as spontaneously as the spring bubbles or the ice melts, when my brain hardly knows what my pen is doing, when I experience that terrific uprush that would drown the more conscious parts of the intellect were it not for the perfect mastery of technique--that is it, monsieur! I am still an infant with my tools. ”

“ You are down, and you will never get up. You can only go lower still—fire, and blood, and shame!"
Criminal as he was he had never become hardened, he had only become degraded. Crime was not his vocation. He had no gift for it; still the crime he had committed had never been discovered—the crime that he did with others. There were himself and Dupont and another. Dupont was coming to-night—Dupont who had profited by the crime, and had not spent his profits, but had built upon them to further profit; for Dupont was avaricious and prudent, and a born criminal. ”

“ On these two conditions, inseparable one from the other, you remain bailiff; otherwise, I shall be forced, with grief and regret, to recommend some one else to Madame de la Sainte-Colombe."
"I beg you, sir," said Dupont, with emotion, "Be generous without any conditions!—I and my wife have only this place to give us bread, and we are too old to find another. Do not expose our probity of forty years' standing to be tempted by the fear of want, which is so bad a counsellor!" ”

“ Louis's lip curled. "I have no more intention of being a professor than of being a merchant," he said in his cold, precise voice. "I shall write."
"Ah!" M. Dupont drew a sigh of relief. He had feared the boy would be forbiddingly reticent. "I hoped as much from your letters. Your refinement of mind and style are remarkable for a man of your years. Shall you write plays?" ”

“ Hardly had Dupont uttered these words, when a formidable clamor was heard from the distance, the words "Long live the Reform!" being distinctly audible.
Gildas ran to the door.
"Let's hurry," said Dupont to his companion. "Our truck may be taken for the center of a barricade; it would be premature—we have still several errands to attend to;" and bowing to Madam Lebrenn, he added, "Our regards to your husband, madam."
The two men leaped upon the seat of their truck, gave their horse the whip, and drove away in the direction opposite to that whence the clamor proceeded. ”

“ There was, and this, with other things, excited in the masses the idea that their champion was the victim of a Royalist conspiracy, which all the influence of Armand Carrel and Dulong's uncle, Dupont de l'Eure was hardly sufficient to suppress. But Dupont immediately resigned his seat in the Chamber. He would sit no longer in a body one man of which he deemed the murderer of a beloved nephew. The obsequies were grand. Armand Carrel pronounced the eulogy, and two hundred and thirty-four deputies wet the grave with their tears. ”

“ In the bosom of the shirt were neat studs, and the cuffs were supplied with sleeve-buttons to correspond. When Frank stood before the glass, completely attired, he hardly knew himself. He was as well dressed as his aristocratic acquaintance, Victor Dupont, and looked more like a city boy than a boy bred in the country.
"I never looked so well in my life," thought our young hero, complacently. ”

“ For a while Rollo stood staring after Dupont, then he started off at a slow trot in the direction of home, and was soon out of sight.
"Drole de chien cela," [7] said I.
"C'est égal, il a du flaire," [8] rejoined Dupont. Beyond that he was not inclined for conversation, so I relapsed into silence.
And that is all. But I was to remember the moon of that night when once more Dupont and I sat together and watched "the true circle."
New-Year's Day in Paris is, as everybody knows, the most soul-foot-and-purse-stirring day of the year. Everybody has to conciliate everybody else. ”

“ Working like a sculptor with a cathode in one hand and an anode in the other, Dr. Kalmar began reshaping the girl who stood fixedly in the boxlike chamber. The flesh fled from the cathode and chased after the anode as he broadened the fine nose, thickened the mobile lips, squared the slender jaw and drew out carefully the delicately arched orbital ridges.
"I'll leave the curl in her hair," he said. "Every woman needs at least one feature she can be proud of."
"You're telling me," Miss Dupont replied. ”

“ Dupont, but I find it hard to think you are Joe Dupont, the clown," said Kit.
"Why?"
"Because you look so grave and sedate."
Joe Dupont smiled.
"I only make a fool of myself in the ring," he said. "Outside you might take me for a merchant or minister. Indeed, I am a minister's son."
"You a minister's son!" ejaculated Kit.
"Yes; you wouldn't think it, would you? I was rather a wild lad, as minister's sons often are. My poor father tried hard to give me an education, but my mind wasn't on books or school exercises, and at sixteen I cut and run."
"Did you join a circus then?" ”

“ That you do not think the place is good enough for her! Well, if you do not think so, neither will she— she will decide that she had a foolish impulse and stay away!
"'Mon Dieu! do you dream that a woman accustomed to the Café de Paris would choose to sup in an obscure little restaurant like ours?' said Dupont, fuming. 'Do you dream that I am going to buy partridges, and peaches, and wines, and heaven knows what other delicacies, in the dark? Do you dream that I am going to ruin myself while every instinct in me protests? ”

“ Somehow Frank in his new life seemed always running across Victor Dupont. That young gentleman and his sister sat in the row behind Mrs. Vivian and her youthful escort, but did not immediately become aware of it.
"Why, Victor," said his sister, who had been looking about her, "there is Mrs. Vivian in the next row. Who is that nice-looking boy with her? It can't be Fred, for he is larger." ”

“ Dupont, to be sure, is worth twenty of John for that employment; but I can never forget his long attachment, and I am now so habituated to him, that one generally esteemed a more perfect servant would not suit me so well. I think myself benefited even by his deficiencies, which have obliged me to do many things for myself that other people perform by the hands of their servants. Many of our acquaintances seem absolutely incapable of motion, till they have been wound up by their valets. They have no more use of their hands for any office about their own persons, than if they were paralytic. ”

“ DUPONT [astonished] What’s wrong with her? Crying! And she’s not even asked who he is. She’s to marry M. Antonin Mairaut, nephew of M. Maréchal.
MME. DUPONT. Don’t cry like that, my dear.
JULIE. Caroline.
CAROLINE [trying to restrain her sobs] Don’t mind me. It is only because I love you, dear. Now you at least will be happy.
JULIE [musing] Yes.
DUPONT [to himself] The moral of all this is that that little affair of Angèle’s is costing me an extra five thousand francs and my house at St. Laurent.
106-7
ACT II
The salon of a house in the country. ”

“ He is on his knees, with arms outspread in consternation, for, in putting Dupont, on a ‘peel,’ into the oven—‘Spain and Portugal’—flames burst out, labelled Asturian Legions, Army of Portugal, Biscay, Catalonian Army, Army of Galicia, Andalusian Army, Army of New and Old Castille, British Army and Fleet, Estramadurean Army, Leon, Army of Valencia, Murcia, and Army of Granada; whilst in the centre of the flames is the legend ‘A people United can never be conquered.’ Poor Dupont exclaims, ‘Oh Nap, Nap! ”

“ I have not preserved cuttings from the papers, but I think I can give a pretty correct idea of the opposite views taken by those heaven-born wiseacres, the art-critics of the day, only apologising to them for my poor rendering of their doctrines.
"Monsieur Claude Dupont," said one set, "is a young man of great promise; he is a powerful draughtsman, and his gifts, if turned to account, may prove him to be a worthy champion of that severe and chaste school that gave us a Lesueur, an Ingres, and a Flandrin. ”

“ The clergyman and the manager hurried away. Monsieur Dupont lingered at the inspector's side, and Tranter strolled back with Copplestone.
[Pg 116] "Well?" queried the inspector. "Not much doubt about it, is there?"
"You have a strong case," said Monsieur Dupont. "Very strong."
"You agree with it?"
Monsieur Dupont shrugged his shoulders.
"At all events, I am not in position, at present, to contradict it."
"You will have your work cut out to build up another one," said the inspector complacently. "There isn't a trace." ”

“ Papa Louis and Gerard were strong upholders of Jacob Leisler; Lendert Verplanck was as strongly arrayed on the side of Van Cortlandt, Bayard, and Phillipse; while François Dupont, an ardent Frenchman, was ready to do what mischief he could to any foe of his own country. He considered that no means should be despised if it brought about the ultimate benefit to France, and he was ready to declare himself a friend to any cause if by so doing he could accomplish his ends. ”

“ Listen: Dupont—the proprietor whom monsieur has just admired—used to be chef to a family on the boulevard Haussmann. He had a very fair salary, and probably he would have remained in the situation till now but for the fact that he fell in love with the parlourmaid. She was a sprightly little flirt, with ambitions, and she accepted him only on condition that they should withdraw from domestic service and start a business of their own. Dupont was of a cautious temperament; he would have preferred that they should jog along with some family in the capacities of chef and housekeeper. ”

“ Dupont, of Winfield & Camby, sounded the warning.
"You're not getting enough fish," he exclaimed on one of his periodical visits to Legonia. "I'm building up a demand for your product which is fast becoming national. The way things are going now, you will not be able to supply it. Then I'll be out of pocket for my advertising. I'm cutting into your surplus every day. In two weeks you'll be down to bed-rock. What are you going to do about it?"
As Gregory considered the question, Mr. Dupont answered for him: "You've got to have more boats. ”

“ Besides thus rehabilitating us, Monsieur le Maire profusely apologised for the gensdarmes' blunder.
"The fact is," he said, "they have instructions to look out for two young men who are wanted, and who are supposed to be in the neighbourhood, so they are all on the alert." To which Dupont added—
"Yes, I quite see; if they just weed out all the wrong ones, they can then easily lay hands on the real culprits." ”

“ On our arrival on board His Most Christian Majesty’s brig, the officer commanding (Lieutenant Dupont, to whom, as well as to his companion, I shall ever feel indebted for their attention to myself on all occasions) added another link to the chain of obligations by which I was already bound to them, in offering Mr. Dochard accommodation on board his brig, where Lieutenant Dupont politely said, no exertions of his to alleviate Mr. Dochard’s present sufferings, and, if possible, erase the remembrance of the past, should be wanting. ”

“ After Dupont had spent two years and a half of peace in the country-house of a relative, he was suddenly arrested at midnight on Feb. 12, 1812, and given a secret trial, not before a court of justice or a court-martial, but before a special military commission. He was allowed neither counsel nor documents, and forced to defend himself at forty-eight hours’ notice. ”

“ In the case of Dupont, the man who invented the Dupont motorcycle, which has brought us a large accession of wealth, the Legislative Council has allowed him a five years’ furlough and he is now traveling in Europe, but draws his full pay on the Industrial Army. ”

“ Now I fear for something more precious still. You look on the verge of collapse."
"It does not matter. Take me quickly to your room."
M. Dupont, who never hurried, and always carried his portly form with a certain stateliness, led Louis out of the library and up one flight of the broad staircase to his temporary quarters. Already, Louis automatically noted, his club bedroom had the intimate and sybaritic look of his famous apartment. He had brought to it silver and crystal for his bureau and little buffet, framed photographs of beautiful women, a Meissonier, and several easy-chairs. ”

“ Both his father, Henri Bac II., and his shrewd mother, Antoinette, had been agreed upon giving their studious ascetic little son a true American's chance to rise in the world, and, acting on the advice of their chief patron and the leader of the French colony, M. Cesar Dupont, who offered his escort, had sent the boy to the College Louis le Grand. They never saw their only child again ”