To this letter was joined a request for permission to go to Paris on
urgent family business; and Monsieur Mouilleron annexed letters from
the mayor, the sub-prefect, and the commissary of police at Issoudun,
all bestowing many praises on Philippe's conduct, and dwelling upon
the newspaper article relating to his uncle's marriage.
Two weeks later, Philippe received the desired permission, and a
letter, in which the minister of war informed him that, by order of
the King, he was, as a preliminary favor, reinstated
lieutenant-colonel in the royal army.
CHAPTER XVII
Lieutenant-Colonel Bridau returned to Paris, taking with him his aunt
and the helpless Rouget, whom he escorted, three days after their
arrival, to the Treasury, where Jean-Jacques signed the transfer of
the income, which henceforth became Philippe's. The exhausted old man
and the Rabouilleuse were now plunged by their nephew into the
excessive dissipations of the dangerous and restless society of
actresses, journalists, artists, and the equivocal women among whom
Philippe had already wasted his youth; where old Rouget found
excitements that soon after killed him. Instigated by Giroudeau,
Lolotte, one of the handsomest of the Opera ballet-girls, was the
amiable assassin of the old man. Rouget died after a splendid supper
at Florentine's, and Lolotte threw the blame of his death upon a slice
of pate de foie gras; as the Strasburg masterpiece could make no
defence, it was considered settled that the old man died of
indigestion.
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