diff options
Diffstat (limited to '13159-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 13159-0.txt | 27456 |
1 files changed, 27456 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/13159-0.txt b/13159-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fcc1b03 --- /dev/null +++ b/13159-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,27456 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13159 *** + + LOST ILLUSIONS + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + +PREPARER'S NOTE + + The trilogy known as Lost Illusions consists of: + Two Poets + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Eve and David + + In many references parts one and three are combined under + the title Lost Illusions and A Distinguished Provincial at + Paris is given its individual title. Following this trilogy + is a sequel, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, which is set + directly following the end of Eve and David. + + + + LOST ILLUSIONS + + + + INTRODUCTION + + + +The longest, without exception, of Balzac's books, and one which +contains hardly any passage that is not very nearly of his best, +_Illusions Perdues_ suffers, I think, a little in point of composition +from the mixture of the Angouleme scenes of its first and third parts +with the purely Parisian interest of _Un Grand Homme de Province_. It +is hardly possible to exaggerate the gain in distinctness and lucidity +of arrangement derived from putting _Les Deux Poetes_ and _Eve et +David_ (a much better title than that which has been preferred in the +_Edition Definitive_) together in one volume, and reserving the +greatness and decadence of Lucien de Rubempre for another. It is +distinctly awkward that this should be divided, as it is itself an +enormous episode, a sort of Herodotean parenthesis, rather than an +integral part of the story. And, as a matter of fact, it joins on much +more to the _Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes_ than to its actual +companions. In fact, it is an instance of the somewhat haphazard and +arbitrary way in which the actual division of the _Comedie_ has +worked, that it should, dealing as it does wholly and solely with +Parisian life, be put in the _Scenes de la Vie de Province_, and +should be separated from its natural conclusion not merely as a matter +of volumes, but as a matter of divisions. In making the arrangement, +however, it is necessary to remember Balzac's own scheme, especially +as the connection of the three parts in other ways is too close to +permit the wrenching of them asunder altogether and finally. This +caution given, all that is necessary can be done by devoting the first +part of the introduction entirely to the first and third or Angouleme +parts, and by consecrating the latter part to the egregious Lucien by +himself. + +There is a double gain in doing this, for, independently of the +connection as above referred to, Lucien has little to do except as an +opportunity for the display of virtue by his sister and David Sechard; +and the parts in which they appear are among the most interesting of +Balzac's work. The "Idyllic" charm of this marriage for love, combined +as it is with exhibitions of the author's power in more than one of +the ways in which he loved best to show it, has never escaped +attention from Balzac's most competent critics. He himself had +speculated in print and paper before David Sechard was conceived; he +himself had for all "maniacs," all men of one idea, the fraternal +enthusiasm of a fellow-victim. He could never touch a miser without a +sort of shudder of interest; and that singular fancy of his for +describing complicated legal and commercial undertakings came in too. +Nor did he spare, in this wide-ranging book, to bring in other +favorite matters of his, the _hobereau_--or squireen--aristocracy, the +tittle-tattle of the country town and so forth. + +The result is a book of multifarious interest, not hampered, as some +of its fellows are, by an uncertainty on the author's part as to what +particular hare he is coursing. Part of the interest, after the +description of the printing office and of old Sechard's swindling of +his son, is a doubling, it is true, upon that of _La muse du +Departement_, and is perhaps a little less amusingly done; but it is +blended with better matters. Sixte du Chatelet is a considerable +addition to Balzac's gallery of the aristocracy in transition--of the +Bonaparte _parvenus_ whom perhaps he understood even better than the +old nobility, for they were already in his time becoming adulterated +and alloyed; or than the new folk of business and finance, for they +were but in their earliest stages. Nor is the rest of the society of +Madame de Bargeton inferior. + +But the real interest both of _Les Deux Poetes_, and still more of +_Eve et David_, between which two, be it always remembered, comes in +the _Distinguished Provincial_, lies in the characters who gave their +name to the last part. In David, the man of one idea, who yet has room +for an honest love and an all-deserved friendship, Balzac could not go +wrong. David Sechard takes a place by himself among the sheep of the +_Comedie_. Some may indeed say that this phrase is unfortunate, that +Balzac's sheep have more qualities of the mutton than innocence. It is +not quite to be denied. But David is very far indeed from being a good +imbecile, like Cesar Birotteau, or a man intoxicated out of +common-sense by a passion respectable in itself, like Goriot. His +sacrifice of his mania in time is something--nay, it is very much; and +his disinterested devotion to his brother-in-law does not quite pass +the limits of sense. + +But what shall we say of Eve? She is good of course, good as gold, as +Eugenie Grandet herself; and the novelist has been kind enough to +allow her to be happier. But has he quite interested us in her love +for David? Has he even persuaded us that the love existed in a form +deserving the name? Did not Eve rather take her husband to protect +him, to look after him, than either to love, honor, and obey in the +orthodox sense, or to love for love's sake only, as some still take +their husbands and wives even at the end of the nineteenth century? +This is a question which each reader must answer for himself; but few +are likely to refuse assent to the sentence, "Happy the husband who +has such a wife as Eve Chardon!" + +The central part of _Illusions Perdues_, which in reason stands by +itself, and may do so ostensibly with considerably less than the +introduction explanatory which Balzac often gives to his own books, is +one of the most carefully worked out and diversely important of his +novels. It should, of course, be read before _Splendeurs et Miseres +des Courtisanes_, which is avowedly its second part, a small piece of +_Eve et David_ serving as the link between them. But it is almost +sufficient by and to itself. _Lucien de Rubempre ou le Journalisme_ +would be the most straightforward and descriptive title for it, and +one which Balzac in some of his moods would have been content enough +to use. + +The story of it is too continuous and interesting to need elaborate +argument, for nobody is likely to miss any important link in it. But +Balzac has nowhere excelled in finesse and success of analysis, the +double disillusion which introduces itself at once between Madame de +Bargeton and Lucien, and which makes any _redintegratio amoris_ of a +valid kind impossible, because each cannot but be aware that the other +has anticipated the rupture. It will not, perhaps, be a matter of such +general agreement whether he has or has not exceeded the fair license +of the novelist in attributing to Lucien those charms of body and +gifts of mind which make him, till his moral weakness and +worthlessness are exposed, irresistible, and enable him for a time to +repair his faults by a sort of fairy good-luck. The sonnets of _Les +Marguerites_, which were given to the author by poetical friends +--Gautier, it is said, supplied the "Tulip"--are undoubtedly good and +sufficient. But Lucien's first article, which is (according to a +practice the rashness of which cannot be too much deprecated) given +likewise, is certainly not very wonderful; and the Paris press must +have been rather at a low ebb if it made any sensation. As we are not +favored with any actual portrait of Lucien, detection is less possible +here, but the novelist has perhaps a very little abused the privilege +of making a hero, "Like Paris handsome, and like Hector brave," or +rather "Like Paris handsome, and like Phoebus clever." There is no +doubt, however, that the interest of the book lies partly in the vivid +and severe picture of journalism given in it, and partly in the way in +which the character of Lucien is adjusted to show up that of the +abstract journalist still farther. + +How far is the picture true? It must be said, in fairness to Balzac, +that a good many persons of some competence in France have pronounced +for its truth there; and if that be so, all one can say is, "So much +the worse for French journalists." It is also certain that a lesser, +but still not inconsiderable number of persons in England--generally +persons who, not perhaps with Balzac's genius, have like Balzac +published books, and are not satisfied with their reception by the +press--agree more or less as to England. For myself, I can only say +that I do not believe things have ever been quite so bad in England, +and that I am quite sure there never has been any need for them to be. +There are, no doubt, spiteful, unprincipled, incompetent practitioners +of journalism as of everything else; and it is of course obvious that +while advertisements, the favor of the chiefs of parties, and so +forth, are temptations to newspaper managers not to hold up a very +high standard of honor, anonymity affords to newspaper writers a +dangerously easy shield to cover malice or dishonesty. But I can only +say that during long practice in every kind of political and literary +journalism, I never was seriously asked to write anything I did not +think, and never had the slightest difficulty in confining myself to +what I did think. + +In fact Balzac, like a good many other men of letters who abuse +journalism, put himself very much out of court by continually +practising it, not merely during his struggling period, but long after +he had made his name, indeed almost to the very last. And it is very +hard to resist the conclusion that when he charged journalism +generally not merely with envy, hatred, malice, and all +uncharitableness, but with hopeless and pervading dishonesty, he had +little more ground for it than an inability to conceive how any one, +except from vile reasons of this kind, could fail to praise Honore de +Balzac. + +At any rate, either his art by itself, or his art assisted and +strengthened by that personal feeling which, as we have seen counted +for much with him, has here produced a wonderfully vivid piece of +fiction--one, I think, inferior in success to hardly anything he +has done. Whether, as at a late period a very well-informed, +well-affected, and well-equipped critic hinted, his picture of the +Luciens and the Lousteaus did not a little to propagate both is +another matter. The seriousness with which Balzac took the accusation +perhaps shows a little sense of galling. But putting this aside, _Un +Grand Homme de Province a Paris_ must be ranked, both for comedy and +tragedy, both for scheme and execution, in the first rank of his work. + +The bibliography of this long and curious book--almost the only one +which contains some verse, some of Balzac's own, some given to him by +his more poetical friends--occupies full ten pages of M. de +Lovenjoul's record. The first part, which bore the general title, was +a book from the beginning, and appeared in 1837 in the _Scenes de la +Vie de Province_. It had five chapters, and the original verse it +contained had appeared in the _Annalaes Romantiques_ ten years earlier +with slight variants. The second part, _Un Grand Homme de Province_, +likewise appeared as a book, independently published by Souverain in +1839 in two volumes and forty chapters. But two of these chapters had +been inserted a few days before the publications in the _Estafette_. +Here Canalis was more distinctly identified with Lamartine than in the +subsequent texts. The third part, unlike its forerunners, appeared +serially in two papers, _L'Etat_ and _Le Parisien_, in the year 1843, +under the title of _David Sechard, ou les Souffrances d'un Inventeur_, +and next year became a book under the first title only. But before +this last issue it had been united to the other two parts, and had +appeared as _Eve et David_ in the first edition of the _Comedie. + + George Saintsbury + + + + I + + + + TWO POETS + (Lost Illusions Part I) + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated By + Ellen Marriage + + + + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur Victor Hugo, + + It was your birthright to be, like a Rafael or a Pitt, a great + poet at an age when other men are children; it was your fate, the + fate of Chateaubriand and of every man of genius, to struggle + against jealousy skulking behind the columns of a newspaper, or + crouching in the subterranean places of journalism. For this + reason I desired that your victorious name should help to win a + victory for this work that I inscribe to you, a work which, if + some persons are to be believed, is an act of courage as well as a + veracious history. If there had been journalists in the time of + Moliere, who can doubt but that they, like marquises, financiers, + doctors, and lawyers, would have been within the province of the + writer of plays? And why should Comedy, _qui castigat ridendo + mores_, make an exception in favor of one power, when the Parisian + press spares none? I am happy, monsieur, in this opportunity of + subscribing myself your sincere admirer and friend, + +DE BALZAC. + + + + + TWO POETS + + + +At the time when this story opens, the Stanhope press and the +ink-distributing roller were not as yet in general use in small +provincial printing establishments. Even at Angouleme, so closely +connected through its paper-mills with the art of typography in Paris, +the only machinery in use was the primitive wooden invention to which +the language owes a figure of speech--"the press groans" was no mere +rhetorical expression in those days. Leather ink-balls were still used +in old-fashioned printing houses; the pressman dabbed the ink by hand +on the characters, and the movable table on which the form of type was +placed in readiness for the sheet of paper, being made of marble, +literally deserved its name of "impression-stone." Modern machinery +has swept all this old-world mechanism into oblivion; the wooden press +which, with all its imperfections, turned out such beautiful work for +the Elzevirs, Plantin, Aldus, and Didot is so completely forgotten, +that something must be said as to the obsolete gear on which +Jerome-Nicolas Sechard set an almost superstitious affection, for it +plays a part in this chronicle of great small things. + +Sechard had been in his time a journeyman pressman, a "bear" in +compositors' slang. The continued pacing to and fro of the pressman +from ink-table to press, from press to ink-table, no doubt suggested +the nickname. The "bears," however, make matters even by calling the +compositors monkeys, on account of the nimble industry displayed by +those gentlemen in picking out the type from the hundred and fifty-two +compartments of the cases. + +In the disastrous year 1793, Sechard, being fifty years old and a +married man, escaped the great Requisition which swept the bulk of +French workmen into the army. The old pressman was the only hand left +in the printing-house; and when the master (otherwise the "gaffer") +died, leaving a widow, but no children, the business seemed to be on +the verge of extinction; for the solitary "bear" was quite incapable +of the feat of transformation into a "monkey," and in his quality of +pressman had never learned to read or write. Just then, however, a +Representative of the People being in a mighty hurry to publish the +Decrees of the Convention, bestowed a master printer's license on +Sechard, and requisitioned the establishment. Citizen Sechard accepted +the dangerous patent, bought the business of his master's widow with +his wife's savings, and took over the plant at half its value. But he +was not even at the beginning. He was bound to print the Decrees of +the Republic without mistakes and without delay. + +In this strait Jerome-Nicolas Sechard had the luck to discover a noble +Marseillais who had no mind to emigrate and lose his lands, nor yet to +show himself openly and lose his head, and consequently was fain to +earn a living by some lawful industry. A bargain was struck. M. le +Comte de Maucombe, disguised in a provincial printer's jacket, set up, +read, and corrected the decrees which forbade citizens to harbor +aristocrats under pain of death; while the "bear," now a "gaffer," +printed the copies and duly posted them, and the pair remained safe +and sound. + +In 1795, when the squall of the Terror had passed over, Nicolas +Sechard was obliged to look out for another jack-of-all-trades to be +compositor, reader, and foreman in one; and an Abbe who declined the +oath succeeded the Comte de Maucombe as soon as the First Consul +restored public worship. The Abbe became a Bishop at the Restoration, +and in after days the Count and the Abbe met and sat together on the +same bench of the House of Peers. + +In 1795 Jerome-Nicolas had not known how to read or write; in 1802 he +had made no progress in either art; but by allowing a handsome margin +for "wear and tear" in his estimates, he managed to pay a foreman's +wages. The once easy-going journeyman was a terror to his "bears" and +"monkeys." Where poverty ceases, avarice begins. From the day when +Sechard first caught a glimpse of the possibility of making a fortune, +a growing covetousness developed and sharpened in him a certain +practical faculty for business--greedy, suspicious, and keen-eyed. He +carried on his craft in disdain of theory. In course of time he had +learned to estimate at a glance the cost of printing per page or per +sheet in every kind of type. He proved to unlettered customers that +large type costs more to move; or, if small type was under discussion, +that it was more difficult to handle. The setting-up of the type was +the one part of his craft of which he knew nothing; and so great was +his terror lest he should not charge enough, that he always made a +heavy profit. He never took his eyes off his compositors while they +were paid by the hour. If he knew that a paper manufacturer was in +difficulties, he would buy up his stock at a cheap rate and warehouse +the paper. So from this time forward he was his own landlord, and +owned the old house which had been a printing office from time +immemorial. + +He had every sort of luck. He was left a widower with but one son. The +boy he sent to the grammar school; he must be educated, not so much +for his own sake as to train a successor to the business; and Sechard +treated the lad harshly so as to prolong the time of parental rule, +making him work at case on holidays, telling him that he must learn to +earn his own living, so as to recompense his poor old father, who was +slaving his life out to give him an education. + +Then the Abbe went, and Sechard promoted one of his four compositors +to be foreman, making his choice on the future bishop's recommendation +of the man as an honest and intelligent workman. In these ways the +worthy printer thought to tide over the time until his son could take +a business which was sure to extend in young and clever hands. + +David Sechard's school career was a brilliant one. Old Sechard, as a +"bear" who had succeeded in life without any education, entertained a +very considerable contempt for attainments in book learning; and when +he sent his son to Paris to study the higher branches of typography, +he recommended the lad so earnestly to save a good round sum in the +"working man's paradise" (as he was pleased to call the city), and so +distinctly gave the boy to understand that he was not to draw upon the +paternal purse, that it seemed as if old Sechard saw some way of +gaining private ends of his own by that sojourn in the Land of +Sapience. So David learned his trade, and completed his education at +the same time, and Didot's foreman became a scholar; and yet when he +left Paris at the end of 1819, summoned home by his father to take the +helm of business, he had not cost his parent a farthing. + +Now Nicolas Sechard's establishment hitherto had enjoyed a monopoly of +all the official printing in the department, besides the work of the +prefecture and the diocese--three connections which should prove +mighty profitable to an active young printer; but precisely at this +juncture the firm of Cointet Brothers, paper manufacturers, applied to +the authorities for the second printer's license in Angouleme. +Hitherto old Sechard had contrived to reduce this license to a dead +letter, thanks to the war crisis of the Empire, and consequent atrophy +of commercial enterprise; but he had neglected to buy up the right +himself, and this piece of parsimony was the ruin of the old business. +Sechard thought joyfully when he heard the news that the coming +struggle with the Cointets would be fought out by his son and not by +himself. + +"I should have gone to the wall," he thought, "but a young fellow from +the Didots will pull through." + +The septuagenarian sighed for the time when he could live at ease in +his own fashion. If his knowledge of the higher branches of the craft +of printing was scanty, on the other hand, he was supposed to be past +master of an art which workmen pleasantly call "tipple-ography," an +art held in high esteem by the divine author of _Pantagruel_; though of +late, by reason of the persecution of societies yclept of Temperance, +the cult has fallen, day by day, into disuse. + +Jerome-Nicolas Sechard, bound by the laws of etymology to be a dry +subject, suffered from an inextinguishable thirst. His wife, during +her lifetime, managed to control within reasonable bounds the passion +for the juice of the grape, a taste so natural to the bear that M. de +Chateaubriand remarked it among the ursine tribes of the New World. +But philosophers inform us that old age is apt to revert to the habits +of youth, and Sechard senior is a case in point--the older he grew, +the better he loved to drink. The master-passion had given a stamp of +originality to an ursine physiognomy; his nose had developed till it +reached the proportions of a double great-canon A; his veined cheeks +looked like vine-leaves, covered, as they were, with bloated patches +of purple, madder red, and often mottled hues; till altogether, the +countenance suggested a huge truffle clasped about by autumn vine +tendrils. The little gray eyes, peering out from beneath thick +eyebrows like bushes covered with snow, were agleam with the cunning +of avarice that had extinguished everything else in the man, down to +the very instinct of fatherhood. Those eyes never lost their cunning +even when disguised in drink. Sechard put you in mind of one of La +Fontaine's Franciscan friars, with the fringe of grizzled hair still +curling about his bald pate. He was short and corpulent, like one of +the old-fashioned lamps for illumination, that burn a vast deal of oil +to a very small piece of wick; for excess of any sort confirms the +habit of body, and drunkenness, like much study, makes the fat man +stouter, and the lean man leaner still. + +For thirty years Jerome-Nicolas-Sechard had worn the famous municipal +three-cornered hat, which you may still see here and there on the head +of the towncrier in out-of-the-way places. His breeches and waistcoat +were of greenish velveteen, and he wore an old-fashioned brown +greatcoat, gray cotton stockings, and shoes with silver buckles to +them. This costume, in which the workman shone through the burgess, +was so thoroughly in keeping with the man's character, defects, and +way of life, that he might have come ready dressed into the world. You +could no more imagine him apart from his clothes than you could think +of a bulb without its husk. If the old printer had not long since +given the measure of his blind greed, the very nature of the man came +out in the manner of his abdication. + +Knowing, as he did, that his son must have learned his business pretty +thoroughly in the great school of the Didots, he had yet been +ruminating for a long while over the bargain that he meant to drive +with David. All that the father made, the son, of course, was bound to +lose, but in business this worthy knew nothing of father or son. If, +in the first instance, he had looked on David as his only child, later +he came to regard him as the natural purchaser of the business, whose +interests were therefore his own. Sechard meant to sell dear; David, +of course, to buy cheap; his son, therefore, was an antagonist, and it +was his duty to get the better of him. The transformation of sentiment +into self-seeking, ordinarily slow, tortuous, and veiled by hypocrisy +in better educated people, was swift and direct in the old "bear," who +demonstrated the superiority of shrewd tipple-ography over +book-learned typography. + +David came home, and the old man received him with all the cordiality +which cunning folk can assume with an eye to business. He was as full +of thought for him as any lover for his mistress; giving him his arm, +telling him where to put his foot down so as to avoid the mud, warming +the bed for him, lighting a fire in his room, making his supper ready. +The next day, after he had done his best to fluster his son's wits +over a sumptuous dinner, Jerome-Nicolas Sechard, after copious +potations, began with a "Now for business," a remark so singularly +misplaced between two hiccoughs, that David begged his parent to +postpone serious matters until the morrow. But the old "bear" was by +no means inclined to put off the long-expected battle; he was too well +prepared to turn his tipsiness to good account. He had dragged the +chain these fifty years, he would not wear it another hour; to-morrow +his son should be the "gaffer." + +Perhaps a word or two about the business premises may be said here. +The printing-house had been established since the reign of Louis XIV. +in the angle made by the Rue de Beaulieu and the Place du Murier; it +had been devoted to its present purposes for a long time past. The +ground floor consisted of a single huge room lighted on the side next +the street by an old-fashioned casement, and by a large sash window +that gave upon the yard at the back. A passage at the side led to the +private office; but in the provinces the processes of typography +excite such a lively interest, that customers usually preferred to +enter by way of the glass door in the street front, though they at +once descended three steps, for the floor of the workshop lay below +the level of the street. The gaping newcomer always failed to note the +perils of the passage through the shop; and while staring at the +sheets of paper strung in groves across the ceiling, ran against the +rows of cases, or knocked his hat against the tie-bars that secured +the presses in position. Or the customer's eyes would follow the agile +movements of a compositor, picking out type from the hundred and +fifty-two compartments of his case, reading his copy, verifying the +words in the composing-stick, and leading the lines, till a ream of +damp paper weighted with heavy slabs, and set down in the middle of +the gangway, tripped up the bemused spectator, or he caught his hip +against the angle of a bench, to the huge delight of boys, "bears," +and "monkeys." No wight had ever been known to reach the further end +without accident. A couple of glass-windowed cages had been built out +into the yard at the back; the foreman sat in state in the one, the +master printer in the other. Out in the yard the walls were agreeably +decorated by trellised vines, a tempting bit of color, considering the +owner's reputation. On the one side of the space stood the kitchen, on +the other the woodshed, and in a ramshackle penthouse against the hall +at the back, the paper was trimmed and damped down. Here, too, the +forms, or, in ordinary language, the masses of set-up type, were +washed. Inky streams issuing thence blended with the ooze from the +kitchen sink, and found their way into the kennel in the street +outside; till peasants coming into the town of a market day believed +that the Devil was taking a wash inside the establishment. + +As to the house above the printing office, it consisted of three rooms +on the first floor and a couple of attics in the roof. The first room +did duty as dining-room and lobby; it was exactly the same length as +the passage below, less the space taken up by the old-fashioned wooden +staircase; and was lighted by a narrow casement on the street and a +bull's-eye window looking into the yard. The chief characteristic of +the apartment was a cynic simplicity, due to money-making greed. The +bare walls were covered with plain whitewash, the dirty brick floor +had never been scoured, the furniture consisted of three rickety +chairs, a round table, and a sideboard stationed between the two doors +of a bedroom and a sitting-room. Windows and doors alike were dingy +with accumulated grime. Reams of blank paper or printed matter usually +encumbered the floor, and more frequently than not the remains of +Sechard's dinner, empty bottles and plates, were lying about on the +packages. + +The bedroom was lighted on the side of the yard by a window with +leaded panes, and hung with the old-world tapestry that decorated +house fronts in provincial towns on Corpus Christi Day. For furniture +it boasted a vast four-post bedstead with canopy, valances and quilt +of crimson serge, a couple of worm-eaten armchairs, two +tapestry-covered chairs in walnut wood, an aged bureau, and a timepiece +on the mantel-shelf. The Seigneur Rouzeau, Jerome-Nicolas' master and +predecessor, had furnished the homely old-world room; it was just as +he had left it. + +The sitting-room had been partly modernized by the late Mme. Sechard; +the walls were adorned with a wainscot, fearful to behold, painted +the color of powder blue. The panels were decorated with wall-paper +--Oriental scenes in sepia tint--and for all furniture, half-a-dozen +chairs with lyre-shaped backs and blue leather cushions were ranged +round the room. The two clumsy arched windows that gave upon the Place +du Murier were curtainless; there was neither clock nor candle sconce +nor mirror above the mantel-shelf, for Mme. Sechard had died before +she carried out her scheme of decoration; and the "bear," unable to +conceive the use of improvements that brought in no return in money, +had left it at this point. + +Hither, _pede titubante_, Jerome-Nicolas Sechard brought his son, and +pointed to a sheet of paper lying on the table--a valuation of plant +drawn up by the foreman under his direction. + +"Read that, my boy," said Jerome-Nicolas, rolling a drunken eye from +the paper to his son, and back to the paper. "You will see what a +jewel of a printing-house I am giving you." + +"'Three wooden presses, held in position by iron tie-bars, cast-iron +plates----'" + +"An improvement of my own," put in Sechard senior. + +"'----Together with all the implements, ink-tables, balls, benches, +et cetera, sixteen hundred francs!' Why, father," cried David, letting +the sheet fall, "these presses of yours are old sabots not worth a +hundred crowns; they are only fit for firewood." + +"Sabots?" cried old Sechard, "_Sabots_? There, take the inventory and +let us go downstairs. You will soon see whether your paltry iron-work +contrivances will work like these solid old tools, tried and trusty. +You will not have the heart after that to slander honest old presses +that go like mail coaches, and are good to last you your lifetime +without needing repairs of any sort. Sabots! Yes, sabots that are like +to hold salt enough to cook your eggs with--sabots that your father +has plodded on with these twenty years; they have helped him to make +you what you are." + +The father, without coming to grief on the way, lurched down the worn, +knotty staircase that shook under his tread. In the passage he opened +the door of the workshop, flew to the nearest press (artfully oiled +and cleaned for the occasion) and pointed out the strong oaken cheeks, +polished up by the apprentice. + +"Isn't it a love of a press?" + +A wedding announcement lay in the press. The old "bear" folded down +the frisket upon the tympan, and the tympan upon the form, ran in the +carriage, worked the lever, drew out the carriage, and lifted the +frisket and tympan, all with as much agility as the youngest of the +tribe. The press, handled in this sort, creaked aloud in such fine +style that you might have thought some bird had dashed itself against +the window pane and flown away again. + +"Where is the English press that could go at that pace?" the parent +asked of his astonished son. + +Old Sechard hurried to the second, and then to the third in order, +repeating the manoeuvre with equal dexterity. The third presenting to +his wine-troubled eye a patch overlooked by the apprentice, with a +notable oath he rubbed it with the skirt of his overcoat, much as a +horse-dealer polishes the coat of an animal that he is trying to sell. + +"With those three presses, David, you can make your nine thousand +francs a year without a foreman. As your future partner, I am opposed +to your replacing these presses by your cursed cast-iron machinery, +that wears out the type. You in Paris have been making such a to-do +over that damned Englishman's invention--a foreigner, an enemy of +France who wants to help the ironfounders to a fortune. Oh! you wanted +Stanhopes, did you? Thanks for your Stanhopes, that cost two thousand +five hundred francs apiece, about twice as much as my three jewels put +together, and maul your type to pieces, because there is no give in +them. I haven't book-learning like you, but you keep this well in +mind, the life of the Stanhope is the death of the type. Those three +presses will serve your turn well enough, the printing will be +properly done, and folk here in Angouleme won't ask any more of you. +You may print with presses made of wood or iron or gold or silver, +_they_ will never pay you a farthing more." + +"'Item,'" pursued David, "'five thousand pounds weight of type from +M. Vaflard's foundry----'" Didot's apprentice could not help smiling +at the name. + +"Laugh away! After twelve years of wear, that type is as good as new. +That is what I call a typefounder! M. Vaflard is an honest man, who +uses hard metal; and, to my way of thinking, the best typefounder is +the one you go to most seldom." + +"'----Taken at ten thousand francs,'" continued David. "Ten thousand +francs, father! Why, that is two francs a pound, and the Messrs. Didot +only ask thirty-six sous for their _Cicero_! These nail-heads of yours +will only fetch the price of old metal--fivepence a pound." + +"You call M. Gille's italics, running-hand and round-hand, +'nail-heads,' do you? M. Gille, that used to be printer to the Emperor! +And type that costs six francs a pound! masterpieces of engraving, +bought only five years ago. Some of them are as bright yet as when they +came from the foundry. Look here!" + +Old Sechard pounced upon some packets of unused sorts, and held them +out for David to see. + +"I am not book-learned; I don't know how to read or write; but, all +the same, I know enough to see that M. Gille's sloping letters are the +fathers of your Messrs. Didot's English running-hand. Here is the +round-hand," he went on, taking up an unused pica type. + +David saw that there was no way of coming to terms with his father. It +was a case of Yes or No--of taking or leaving it. The very ropes +across the ceiling had gone down into the old "bear's" inventory, and +not the smallest item was omitted; jobbing chases, wetting-boards, +paste-pots, rinsing-trough, and lye-brushes had all been put down and +valued separately with miserly exactitude. The total amounted to +thirty thousand francs, including the license and the goodwill. David +asked himself whether or not this thing was feasible. + +Old Sechard grew uneasy over his son's silence; he would rather have +had stormy argument than a wordless acceptance of the situation. +Chaffering in these sorts of bargains means that a man can look after +his interests. "A man who is ready to pay you anything you ask will +pay nothing," old Sechard was saying to himself. While he tried to +follow his son's train of thought, he went through the list of odds +and ends of plant needed by a country business, drawing David now to a +hot-press, now to a cutting-press, bragging of its usefulness and +sound condition. + +"Old tools are always the best tools," said he. "In our line of +business they ought to fetch more than the new, like goldbeaters' +tools." + +Hideous vignettes, representing Hymen and Cupids, skeletons raising +the lids of their tombs to describe a V or an M, and huge borders of +masks for theatrical posters became in turn objects of tremendous +value through old Jerome-Nicolas' vinous eloquence. Old custom, he +told his son, was so deeply rooted in the district that he (David) +would only waste his pains if he gave them the finest things in life. +He himself had tried to sell them a better class of almanac than the +_Double Liegeois_ on grocers' paper; and what came of it?--the original +_Double Liegeois_ sold better than the most sumptuous calendars. David +would soon see the importance of these old-fashioned things when he +found he could get more for them than for the most costly new-fangled +articles. + +"Aha! my boy, Paris is Paris, and the provinces are the provinces. If +a man came in from L'Houmeau with an order for wedding cards, and you +were to print them without a Cupid and garlands, he would not believe +that he was properly married; you would have them all back again if +you sent them out with a plain M on them after the style of your +Messrs. Didot. They may be fine printers, but their inventions won't +take in the provinces for another hundred years. So there you are." + +A generous man is a bad bargain-driver. David's nature was of the +sensitive and affectionate type that shrinks from a dispute, and gives +way at once if an opponent touches his feelings. His loftiness of +feeling, and the fact that the old toper had himself well in hand, put +him still further at a disadvantage in a dispute about money matters +with his own father, especially as he credited that father with the +best intentions, and took his covetous greed for a printer's +attachment to his old familiar tools. Still, as Jerome-Nicolas Sechard +had taken the whole place over from Rouzeau's widow for ten thousand +francs, paid in assignats, it stood to reason that thirty thousand +francs in coin at the present day was an exorbitant demand. + +"Father, you are cutting my throat!" exclaimed David. + +"_I_," cried the old toper, raising his hand to the lines of cord +across the ceiling, "I who gave you life? Why, David, what do you +suppose the license is worth? Do you know that the sheet of +advertisements alone, at fivepence a line, brought in five hundred +francs last month? You turn up the books, lad, and see what we make by +placards and the registers at the Prefecture, and the work for the +mayor's office, and the bishop too. You are a do-nothing that has no +mind to get on. You are haggling over the horse that will carry you to +some pretty bit of property like Marsac." + +Attached to the valuation of plant there was a deed of partnership +between Sechard senior and his son. The good father was to let his +house and premises to the new firm for twelve hundred francs per +annum, reserving one of the two rooms in the roof for himself. So long +as David's purchase-money was not paid in full, the profits were to be +divided equally; as soon as he paid off his father, he was to be made +sole proprietor of the business. + +David made a mental calculation of the value of the license, the +goodwill, and the stock of paper, leaving the plant out of account. It +was just possible, he thought, to clear off the debt. He accepted the +conditions. Old Sechard, accustomed to peasants' haggling, knowing +nothing of the wider business views of Paris, was amazed at such a +prompt conclusion. + +"Can he have been putting money by?" he asked himself. "Or is he +scheming out, at this moment, some way of not paying me?" + +With this notion in his head, he tried to find out whether David had +any money with him; he wanted to be paid something on account. The old +man's inquisitiveness roused his son's distrust; David remained close +buttoned up to the chin. + +Next day, old Sechard made the apprentice move all his own household +stuff up into the attic until such time as an empty market cart could +take it out on the return journey into the country; and David entered +into possession of three bare, unfurnished rooms on the day that saw +him installed in the printing-house, without one sou wherewith to pay +his men's wages. When he asked his father, as a partner, to contribute +his share towards the working expenses, the old man pretended not to +understand. He had found the printing-house, he said, and he was not +bound to find the money too. He had paid his share. Pressed close by +his son's reasoning, he answered that when he himself had paid +Rouzeau's widow he had not had a penny left. If he, a poor, ignorant +working man, had made his way, Didot's apprentice should do still +better. Besides, had not David been earning money, thanks to an +education paid for by the sweat of his old father's brow? Now surely +was the time when the education would come in useful. + +"What have you done with your 'polls?'" he asked, returning to the +charge. He meant to have light on a problem which his son left +unresolved the day before. + +"Why, had I not to live?" David asked indignantly, "and books to buy +besides?" + +"Oh! you bought books, did you? You will make a poor man of business. +A man that buys books is hardly fit to print them," retorted the +"bear." + +Then David endured the most painful of humiliations--the sense of +shame for a parent; there was nothing for it but to be passive while +his father poured out a flood of reasons--sordid, whining, +contemptible, money-getting reasons--in which the niggardly old man +wrapped his refusal. David crushed down his pain into the depths of +his soul; he saw that he was alone; saw that he had no one to look to +but himself; saw, too, that his father was trying to make money out of +him; and in a spirit of philosophical curiosity, he tried to find out +how far the old man would go. He called old Sechard's attention to the +fact that he had never as yet made any inquiry as to his mother's +fortune; if that fortune would not buy the printing-house, it might go +some ways towards paying the working expenses. + +"Your mother's fortune?" echoed old Sechard; "why, it was her beauty +and intelligence!" + +David understood his father thoroughly after that answer; he +understood that only after an interminable, expensive, and disgraceful +lawsuit could he obtain any account of the money which by rights was +his. The noble heart accepted the heavy burden laid upon it, seeing +clearly beforehand how difficult it would be to free himself from the +engagements into which he had entered with his father. + +"I will work," he said to himself. "After all, if I have a rough time +of it, so had the old man; besides, I shall be working for myself, +shall I not?" + +"I am leaving you a treasure," said Sechard, uneasy at his son's +silence. + +David asked what the treasure might be. + +"Marion!" said his father. + +Marion, a big country girl, was an indispensable part of the +establishment. It was Marion who damped the paper and cut it to size; +Marion did the cooking, washing, and marketing; Marion unloaded the +paper carts, collected accounts, and cleaned the ink-balls; and if +Marion had but known how to read, old Sechard would have put her to +set up type into the bargain. + + + +Old Sechard set out on foot for the country. Delighted as he was with +his sale of the business, he was not quite easy in his mind as to the +payment. To the throes of the vendor, the agony of uncertainty as to +the completion of the purchase inevitably succeeds. Passion of every +sort is essentially Jesuitical. Here was a man who thought that +education was useless, forcing himself to believe in the influence of +education. He was mortgaging thirty thousand francs upon the ideas of +honor and conduct which education should have developed in his son; +David had received a good training, so David would sweat blood and +water to fulfil his engagements; David's knowledge would discover new +resources; and David seemed to be full of fine feelings, so--David +would pay! Many a parent does in this way, and thinks that he has +acted a father's part; old Sechard was quite of that opinion by the +time that he had reached his vineyard at Marsac, a hamlet some four +leagues out of Angouleme. The previous owner had built a nice little +house on the bit of property, and from year to year had added other +bits of land to it, until in 1809 the old "bear" bought the whole, and +went thither, exchanging the toil of the printing press for the labor +of the winepress. As he put it himself, "he had been in that line so +long that he ought to know something about it." + +During the first twelvemonth of rural retirement, Sechard senior +showed a careful countenance among his vine props; for he was always +in his vineyard now, just as, in the old days, he had lived in his +shop, day in, day out. The prospect of thirty thousand francs was even +more intoxicating than sweet wine; already in imagination he fingered +the coin. The less the claim to the money, the more eager he grew to +pouch it. Not seldom his anxieties sent him hurrying from Marsac to +Angouleme; he would climb up the rocky staircases into the old city +and walk into his son's workshop to see how business went. There stood +the presses in their places; the one apprentice, in a paper cap, was +cleaning the ink-balls; there was a creaking of a press over the +printing of some trade circular, the old type was still unchanged, and +in the dens at the end of the room he saw his son and the foreman +reading books, which the "bear" took for proof-sheets. Then he would +join David at dinner and go back to Marsac, chewing the cud of uneasy +reflection. + +Avarice, like love, has the gift of second sight, instinctively +guessing at future contingencies, and hugging its presentiments. +Sechard senior living at a distance, far from the workshop and the +machinery which possessed such a fascination for him, reminding him, +as it did, of days when he was making his way, could _feel_ that there +were disquieting symptoms of inactivity in his son. The name of +Cointet Brothers haunted him like a dread; he saw Sechard & Son +dropping into the second place. In short, the old man scented +misfortune in the wind. + +His presentiments were too well founded; disaster was hovering over +the house of Sechard. But there is a tutelary deity for misers, and by +a chain of unforeseen circumstances that tutelary deity was so +ordering matters that the purchase-money of his extortionate bargain +was to be tumbled after all into the old toper's pouch. + +Indifferent to the religious reaction brought about by the +Restoration, indifferent no less to the Liberal movement, David +preserved a most unlucky neutrality on the burning questions of the +day. In those times provincial men of business were bound to profess +political opinions of some sort if they meant to secure custom; they +were forced to choose for themselves between the patronage of the +Liberals on the one hand or the Royalists on the other. And Love, +moreover, had come to David's heart, and with his scientific +preoccupation and finer nature he had not room for the dogged greed of +which our successful man of business is made; it choked the keen +money-getting instinct which would have led him to study the +differences between the Paris trade and the business of a provincial +printing-house. The shades of opinion so sharply defined in the +country are blurred and lost in the great currents of Parisian +business life. Cointet Brothers set themselves deliberately to +assimilate all shades of monarchical opinion. They let every one know +that they fasted of a Friday and kept Lent; they haunted the +cathedral; they cultivated the society of the clergy; and in +consequence, when books of devotion were once more in demand, Cointet +Brothers were the first in this lucrative field. They slandered David, +accusing him of Liberalism, Atheism, and what not. How, asked they, +could any one employ a man whose father had been a Septembrist, a +Bonapartist, and a drunkard to boot? The old man was sure to leave +plenty of gold pieces behind him. They themselves were poor men with +families to support, while David was a bachelor and could do as he +pleased; he would have plenty one of these days; he could afford to +take things easily; whereas . . . and so forth and so forth. + +Such tales against David, once put into circulation, produced their +effect. The monopoly of the prefectorial and diocesan work passed +gradually into the hands of Cointet Brothers; and before long David's +keen competitors, emboldened by his inaction, started a second local +sheet of advertisements and announcements. The older establishment was +left at length with the job-printing orders from the town, and the +circulation of the _Charente Chronicle_ fell off by one-half. Meanwhile +the Cointets grew richer; they had made handsome profits on their +devotional books; and now they offered to buy Sechard's paper, to have +all the trade and judicial announcements of the department in their +own hands. + +The news of this proposal sent by David to his father brought the old +vinegrower from Marsac into the Place du Murier with the swiftness of +the raven that scents the corpses on a battlefield. + +"Leave me to manage the Cointets," said he to his son; "don't you +meddle in this business." + +The old man saw what the Cointets meant; and they took alarm at his +clearsighted sagacity. His son was making a blunder, he said, and he, +Sechard, had come to put a stop to it. + +"What was to become of the connection if David gave up the paper? It +all depended upon the paper. All the attorneys and solicitors and men +of business in L'Houmeau were Liberals to a man. The Cointets had +tried to ruin the Sechards by accusing them of Liberalism, and by so +doing gave them a plank to cling to--the Sechards should keep the +Liberal business. Sell the paper indeed! Why, you might as well sell +the stock-in-trade and the license!" + +Old Sechard asked the Cointets sixty thousand francs for the printing +business, so as not to ruin his son; he was fond of his son; he was +taking his son's part. The vinegrower brought his son to the front to +gain his point, as a peasant brings in his wife. + +His son was unwilling to do this, that, or the other; it varied +according to the offers which he wrung one after another from the +Cointets, until, not without an effort, he drew them on to give +twenty-two thousand francs for the _Charente Chronicle_. But, at the +same time, David must pledge himself thenceforward to print no +newspaper whatsoever, under a penalty of thirty thousand francs for +damages. + +That transaction dealt the deathblow to the Sechard establishment; but +the old vinegrower did not trouble himself much on that head. Murder +usually follows robbery. Our worthy friend intended to pay himself +with the ready money. To have the cash in his own hands he would have +given in David himself over and above the bargain, and so much the +more willingly since that this nuisance of a son could claim one-half +of the unexpected windfall. Taking this fact into consideration, +therefore, the generous parent consented to abandon his share of the +business but not the business premises; and the rental was still +maintained at the famous sum of twelve hundred francs per annum. + +The old man came into town very seldom after the paper was sold to the +Cointets. He pleaded his advanced age, but the truth was that he took +little interest in the establishment now that it was his no longer. +Still, he could not quite shake off his old kindness for his +stock-in-trade; and when business brought him into Angouleme, it would +have been hard to say which was the stronger attraction to the old house +--his wooden presses or the son whom (as a matter of form) he asked for +rent. The old foreman, who had gone over to the rival establishment, +knew exactly how much this fatherly generosity was worth; the old fox +meant to reserve a right to interfere in his son's affairs, and had +taken care to appear in the bankruptcy as a privileged creditor for +arrears of rent. + +The causes of David's heedlessness throw a light on the character of +that young man. Only a few days after his establishment in the +paternal printing office, he came across an old school friend in the +direst poverty. Lucien Chardon, a young fellow of one-and-twenty or +thereabouts, was the son of a surgeon-major who had retired with a +wound from the republican army. Nature had meant M. Chardon senior for +a chemist; chance opened the way for a retail druggist's business in +Angouleme. After many years of scientific research, death cut him off +in the midst of his incompleted experiments, and the great discovery +that should have brought wealth to the family was never made. Chardon +had tried to find a specific for the gout. Gout is a rich man's +malady; the rich will pay large sums to recover health when they have +lost it, and for this reason the druggist deliberately selected gout +as his problem. Halfway between the man of science on the one side and +the charlatan on the other, he saw that the scientific method was the +one road to assured success, and had studied the causes of the +complaint, and based his remedy on a certain general theory of +treatment, with modifications in practice for varying temperaments. +Then, on a visit to Paris undertaken to solicit the approval of the +_Academie des Sciences_, he died, and lost all the fruits of his labors. + +It may have been that some presentiment of the end had led the country +druggist to do all that in him lay to give his boy and girl a good +education; the family had been living up to the income brought in by +the business; and now when they were left almost destitute, it was an +aggravation of their misfortune that they had been brought up in the +expectations of a brilliant future; for these hopes were extinguished +by their father's death. The great Desplein, who attended Chardon in +his last illness, saw him die in convulsions of rage. + +The secret of the army surgeon's ambition lay in his passionate love +for his wife, the last survivor of the family of Rubempre, saved as by +a miracle from the guillotine in 1793. He had gained time by declaring +that she was pregnant, a lie told without the girl's knowledge or +consent. Then, when in a manner he had created a claim to call her his +wife, he had married her in spite of their common poverty. The +children of this marriage, like all children of love, inherited the +mother's wonderful beauty, that gift so often fatal when accompanied +by poverty. The life of hope and hard work and despair, in all of +which Mme. Chardon had shared with such keen sympathy, had left deep +traces in her beautiful face, just as the slow decline of a scanty +income had changed her ways and habits; but both she and her children +confronted evil days bravely enough. She sold the druggist's shop in +the Grand' Rue de L'Houmeau, the principal suburb of Angouleme; but it +was impossible for even one woman to exist on the three hundred francs +of income brought in by the investment of the purchase-money, so the +mother and daughter accepted the position, and worked to earn a +living. The mother went out as a monthly nurse, and for her gentle +manners was preferred to any other among the wealthy houses, where she +lived without expense to her children, and earned some seven francs a +week. To save her son the embarrassment of seeing his mother reduced +to this humble position, she assumed the name of Madame Charlotte; and +persons requiring her services were requested to apply to M. Postel, +M. Chardon's successor in the business. Lucien's sister worked for a +laundress, a decent woman much respected in L'Houmeau, and earned +fifteen daily sous. As Mme. Prieur's forewoman she had a certain +position in the workroom, which raised her slightly above the class of +working-girls. + +The two women's slender earnings, together with Mme. Chardon's three +hundred francs of _rentes_, amounted to about eight hundred francs a +year, and on this sum three persons must be fed, clothed, and lodged. +Yet, with all their frugal thrift, the pittance was scarcely +sufficient; nearly the whole of it was needed for Lucien. Mme. Chardon +and her daughter Eve believed in Lucien as Mahomet's wife believed in +her husband; their devotion for his future knew no bounds. Their +present landlord was the successor to the business, for M. Postel let +them have rooms at the further end of a yard at the back of the +laboratory for a very low rent, and Lucien slept in the poor garret +above. A father's passion for natural science had stimulated the boy, +and at first induced him to follow in the same path. Lucien was one of +the most brilliant pupils at the grammar school of Angouleme, and when +David Sechard left, his future friend was in the third form. + +When chance brought the school-fellows together again, Lucien was +weary of drinking from the rude cup of penury, and ready for any of +the rash, decisive steps that youth takes at the age of twenty. +David's generous offer of forty francs a month if Lucien would come to +him and learn the work of a printer's reader came in time; David had +no need whatever of a printer's reader, but he saved Lucien from +despair. The ties of a school friendship thus renewed were soon drawn +closer than ever by the similarity of their lot in life and the +dissimilarity of their characters. Both felt high swelling hopes of +manifold success; both consciously possessed the high order of +intelligence which sets a man on a level with lofty heights, consigned +though they were socially to the lowest level. Fate's injustice was a +strong bond between them. And then, by different ways, following each +his own bent of mind, they had attained to poesy. Lucien, destined for +the highest speculative fields of natural science, was aiming with hot +enthusiasm at fame through literature; while David, with that +meditative temperament which inclines to poetry, was drawn by his +tastes towards natural science. + +The exchange of roles was the beginning of an intellectual +comradeship. Before long, Lucien told David of his own father's +farsighted views of the application of science to manufacture, while +David pointed out the new ways in literature that Lucien must follow +if he meant to succeed. Not many days had passed before the young +men's friendship became a passion such as is only known in early +manhood. Then it was that David caught a glimpse of Eve's fair face, +and loved, as grave and meditative natures can love. The _et nunc et +semper et in secula seculorum_ of the Liturgy is the device taken by +many a sublime unknown poet, whose works consist in magnificent epics +conceived and lost between heart and heart. With a lover's insight, +David read the secret hopes set by the mother and sister on Lucien's +poet's brow; and knowing their blind devotion, it was very sweet to +him to draw nearer to his love by sharing her hopes and her +self-sacrifice. And in this way Lucien came to be David's chosen +brother. As there are ultras who would fain be more Royalist than the +King, so David outdid the mother and sister in his belief in Lucien's +genius; he spoiled Lucien as a mother spoils her child. + +Once, under pressure of the lack of money which tied their hands, the +two were ruminating after the manner of young men over ways of +promptly realizing a large fortune; and, after fruitless shakings of +all the trees already stripped by previous comers, Lucien bethought +himself of two of his father's ideas. M. Chardon had talked of a +method of refining sugar by a chemical process, which would reduce the +cost of production by one-half; and he had another plan for employing +an American vegetable fibre for making paper, something after the +Chinese fashion, and effecting an enormous saving in the cost of raw +material. David, knowing the importance of a question raised already +by the Didots, caught at this latter notion, saw a fortune in it, and +looked upon Lucien as the benefactor whom he could never repay. + +Any one may guess how the ruling thoughts and inner life of this pair +of friends unfitted them for carrying on the business of a printing +house. So far from making fifteen to twenty thousand francs, like +Cointet Brothers, printers and publishers to the diocese, and +proprietors of the _Charente Chronicle_ (now the only newspaper in the +department)--Sechard & Son made a bare three hundred francs per month, +out of which the foreman's salary must be paid, as well as Marion's +wages and the rent and taxes; so that David himself was scarcely +making twelve hundred francs per annum. Active and industrious men of +business would have bought new type and new machinery, and made an +effort to secure orders for cheap printing from the Paris book trade; +but master and foreman, deep in absorbing intellectual interests, were +quite content with such orders as came to them from their remaining +customers. + +In the long length the Cointets had come to understand David's +character and habits. They did not slander him now; on the contrary, +wise policy required that they should allow the business to flicker +on; it was to their interest indeed to maintain it in a small way, +lest it should fall into the hands of some more formidable +competitor; they made a practice of sending prospectuses and circulars +--job-printing, as it is called--to the Sechard's establishment. So it +came about that, all unwittingly, David owed his existence, +commercially speaking, to the cunning schemes of his competitors. The +Cointets, well pleased with his "craze," as they called it, behaved to +all appearance both fairly and handsomely; but, as a matter of fact, +they were adopting the tactics of the mail-coach owners who set up a +sham opposition coach to keep _bona fide_ rivals out of the field. + + + +Inside and outside, the condition of the Sechard printing +establishment bore testimony to the sordid avarice of the old "bear," +who never spent a penny on repairs. The old house had stood in sun and +rain, and borne the brunt of the weather, till it looked like some +venerable tree trunk set down at the entrance of the alley, so riven +it was with seams and cracks of all sorts and sizes. The house front, +built of brick and stone, with no pretensions to symmetry, seemed to +be bending beneath the weight of a worm-eaten roof covered with the +curved pantiles in common use in the South of France. The decrepit +casements were fitted with the heavy, unwieldy shutters necessary in +that climate, and held in place by massive iron cross bars. It would +have puzzled you to find a more dilapidated house in Angouleme; +nothing but sheer tenacity of mortar kept it together. Try to picture +the workshop, lighted at either end, and dark in the middle; the walls +covered with handbills and begrimed by friction of all the workmen who +had rubbed past them for thirty years; the cobweb of cordage across +the ceiling, the stacks of paper, the old-fashioned presses, the pile +of slabs for weighting the damp sheets, the rows of cases, and the two +dens in the far corners where the master printer and foreman sat--and +you will have some idea of the life led by the two friends. + +One day early in May, 1821, David and Lucien were standing together by +the window that looked into the yard. It was nearly two o'clock, and +the four or five men were going out to dinner. David waited until the +apprentice had shut the street door with the bell fastened to it; then +he drew Lucien out into the yard as if the smell of paper, ink, and +presses and old woodwork had grown intolerable to him, and together +they sat down under the vines, keeping the office and the door in +view. The sunbeams, playing among the trellised vine-shoots, hovered +over the two poets, making, as it were, an aureole about their heads, +bringing the contrast between their faces and their characters into a +vigorous relief that would have tempted the brush of some great +painter. + +David's physique was of the kind that Nature gives to the fighter, the +man born to struggle in obscurity, or with the eyes of all men turned +upon him. The strong shoulders, rising above the broad chest, were in +keeping with the full development of his whole frame. With his thick +crop of black hair, his fleshy, high-colored, swarthy face, supported +by a thick neck, he looked at first sight like one of Boileau's +canons: but on a second glance there was that in the lines about the +thick lips, in the dimple of the chin, in the turn of the square +nostrils, with the broad irregular line of central cleavage, and, +above all, in the eyes, with the steady light of an all-absorbing love +that burned in them, which revealed the real character of the man--the +wisdom of the thinker, the strenuous melancholy of a spirit that +discerns the horizon on either side, and sees clearly to the end of +winding ways, turning the clear light of analysis upon the joys of +fruition, known as yet in idea alone, and quick to turn from them in +disgust. You might look for the flash of genius from such a face; you +could not miss the ashes of the volcano; hopes extinguished beneath a +profound sense of the social annihilation to which lowly birth and +lack of fortune condemns so many a loftier mind. And by the side of +the poor printer, who loathed a handicraft so closely allied to +intellectual work, close to this Silenus, joyless, self-sustained, +drinking deep draughts from the cup of knowledge and of poetry that he +might forget the cares of his narrow lot in the intoxication of soul +and brain, stood Lucien, graceful as some sculptured Indian Bacchus. + +For in Lucien's face there was the distinction of line which stamps +the beauty of the antique; the Greek profile, with the velvet +whiteness of women's faces, and eyes full of love, eyes so blue that +they looked dark against a pearly setting, and dewy and fresh as those +of a child. Those beautiful eyes looked out from under their long +chestnut lashes, beneath eyebrows that might have been traced by a +Chinese pencil. The silken down on his cheeks, like his bright curling +hair, shone golden in the sunlight. A divine graciousness transfused +the white temples that caught that golden gleam; a matchless nobleness +had set its seal in the short chin raised, but not abruptly. The smile +that hovered about the coral lips, yet redder as they seemed by force +of contrast with the even teeth, was the smile of some sorrowing +angel. Lucien's hands denoted race; they were shapely hands; hands +that men obey at a sign, and women love to kiss. Lucien was slender +and of middle height. From a glance at his feet, he might have been +taken for a girl in disguise, and this so much the more easily from +the feminine contour of the hips, a characteristic of keen-witted, not +to say, astute, men. This is a trait which seldom misleads, and in +Lucien it was a true indication of character; for when he analyzed the +society of to-day, his restless mind was apt to take its stand on the +lower ground of those diplomatists who hold that success justifies the +use of any means however base. It is one of the misfortunes attendant +upon great intellects that perforce they comprehend all things, both +good and evil. + +The two young men judged society by the more lofty standard because +their social position was at the lowest end of the scale, for +unrecognized power is apt to avenge itself for lowly station by +viewing the world from a lofty standpoint. Yet it is, nevertheless, +true that they grew but the more bitter and hopeless after these swift +soaring flights to the upper regions of thought, their world by right. +Lucien had read much and compared; David had thought much and deeply. +In spite of the young printer's look of robust, country-bred health, +his turn of mind was melancholy and somewhat morbid--he lacked +confidence in himself; but Lucien, on the other hand, with a boldness +little to be expected from his feminine, almost effeminate, figure, +graceful though it was, Lucien possessed the Gascon temperament to the +highest degree--rash, brave, and adventurous, prone to make the most +of the bright side, and as little as possible of the dark; his was the +nature that sticks at no crime if there is anything to be gained by +it, and laughs at the vice which serves as a stepping-stone. Just now +these tendencies of ambition were held in check, partly by the fair +illusions of youth, partly by the enthusiasm which led him to prefer +the nobler methods, which every man in love with glory tries first of +all. Lucien was struggling as yet with himself and his own desires, +and not with the difficulties of life; at strife with his own power, +and not with the baseness of other men, that fatal exemplar for +impressionable minds. The brilliancy of his intellect had a keen +attraction for David. David admired his friend, while he kept him out +of the scrapes into which he was led by the _furie francaise_. + +David, with his well-balanced mind and timid nature at variance with a +strong constitution, was by no means wanting in the persistence of the +Northern temper; and if he saw all the difficulties before him, none +the less he vowed to himself to conquer, never to give way. In him the +unswerving virtue of an apostle was softened by pity that sprang from +inexhaustible indulgence. In the friendship grown old already, one was +the worshiper, and that one was David; Lucien ruled him like a woman +sure of love, and David loved to give way. He felt that his friend's +physical beauty implied a real superiority, which he accepted, looking +upon himself as one made of coarser and commoner human clay. + +"The ox for patient labor in the fields, the free life for the bird," +he thought to himself. "I will be the ox, and Lucien shall be the +eagle." + +So for three years these friends had mingled the destinies bright with +such glorious promise. Together they read the great works that +appeared above the horizon of literature and science since the Peace +--the poems of Schiller, Goethe, and Byron, the prose writings of +Scott, Jean-Paul, Berzelius, Davy, Cuvier, Lamartine, and many more. +They warmed themselves beside these great hearthfires; they tried +their powers in abortive creations, in work laid aside and taken up +again with new glow of enthusiasm. Incessantly they worked with the +unwearied vitality of youth; comrades in poverty, comrades in the +consuming love of art and science, till they forgot the hard life of +the present, for their minds were wholly bent on laying the +foundations of future fame. + +"Lucien," said David, "do you know what I have just received from +Paris?" He drew a tiny volume from his pocket. "Listen!" + +And David read, as a poet can read, first Andre de Chenier's Idyll +_Neere_, then _Le Malade_, following on with the Elegy on a Suicide, +another elegy in the classic taste, and the last two _Iambes_. + +"So that is Andre de Chenier!" Lucien exclaimed again and again. "It +fills one with despair!" he cried for the third time, when David +surrendered the book to him, unable to read further for emotion.--"A +poet rediscovered by a poet!" said Lucien, reading the signature of +the preface. + +"After Chenier had written those poems, he thought that he had written +nothing worth publishing," added David. + +Then Lucien in his turn read aloud the fragment of an epic called +_L'Aveugle_ and two or three of the Elegies, till, when he came upon the +line-- + + If they know not bliss, is there happiness on earth? + +He pressed the book to his lips, and tears came to the eyes of either, +for the two friends were lovers and fellow-worshipers. + +The vine-stems were changing color with the spring; covering the +rifted, battered walls of the old house where squalid cracks were +spreading in every direction, with fluted columns and knots and +bas-reliefs and uncounted masterpieces of I know not what order of +architecture, erected by fairy hands. Fancy had scattered flowers and +crimson gems over the gloomy little yard, and Chenier's _Camille_ became +for David the Eve whom he worshiped, for Lucien a great lady to whom +he paid his homage. Poetry had shaken out her starry robe above the +workshop where the "monkeys" and "bears" were grotesquely busy among +types and presses. Five o'clock struck, but the friends felt neither +hunger nor thirst; life had turned to a golden dream, and all the +treasures of the world lay at their feet. Far away on the horizon lay +the blue streak to which Hope points a finger in storm and stress; and +a siren voice sounded in their ears, calling, "Come, spread your +wings; through that streak of gold or silver or azure lies the sure +way of escape from evil fortune!" + +Just at that moment the low glass door of the workshop was opened, and +out came Cerizet, an apprentice (David had brought the urchin from +Paris). This youth introduced a stranger, who saluted the friends +politely, and spoke to David. + +"This, sir, is a monograph which I am desirous of printing," said he, +drawing a huge package of manuscript from his pocket. "Will you oblige +me with an estimate?" + +"We do not undertake work on such a scale, sir," David answered, +without looking at the manuscript. "You had better see the Messieurs +Cointet about it." + +"Still we have a very pretty type which might suit it," put in Lucien, +taking up the roll. "We must ask you to be kind enough, sir, to leave +your commission with us and call again to-morrow, and we will give you +an estimate." + +"Have I the pleasure of addressing M. Lucien Chardon?" + +"Yes, sir," said the foreman. + +"I am fortunate in this opportunity of meeting with a young poet +destined to such greatness," returned the author. "Mme. de Bargeton +sent me here." + +Lucien flushed red at the name, and stammered out something about +gratitude for the interest which Mme. de Bargeton took in him. David +noticed his friend's embarrassed flush, and left him in conversation +with the country gentleman, the author of a monograph on silkwork +cultivation, prompted by vanity to print the effort for the benefit of +fellow-members of the local agricultural society. + +When the author had gone, David spoke. + +"Lucien, are you in love with Mme. de Bargeton?" + +"Passionately." + +"But social prejudices set you as far apart as if she were living at +Pekin and you in Greenland." + +"The will of two lovers can rise victorious over all things," said +Lucien, lowering his eyes. + +"You will forget us," returned the alarmed lover, as Eve's fair face +rose before his mind. + +"On the contrary, I have perhaps sacrificed my love to you," cried +Lucien. + +"What do you mean?" + +"In spite of my love, in spite of the different motives which bid me +obtain a secure footing in her house, I have told her that I will +never go thither again unless another is made welcome too, a man whose +gifts are greater than mine, a man destined for a brilliant future +--David Sechard, my brother, my friend. I shall find an answer waiting +when I go home. All the aristocrats may have been asked to hear me +read my verses this evening, but I shall not go if the answer is +negative, and I will never set foot in Mme. de Bargeton's house +again." + +David brushed the tears from his eyes, and wrung Lucien's hand. The +clock struck six. + +"Eve must be anxious; good-bye," Lucien added abruptly. + +He hurried away. David stood overcome by the emotion that is only felt +to the full at his age, and more especially in such a position as his +--the friends were like two young swans with wings unclipped as yet by +the experiences of provincial life. + +"Heart of gold!" David exclaimed to himself, as his eyes followed +Lucien across the workshop. + + + +Lucien went down to L'Houmeau along the broad Promenade de Beaulieu, +the Rue du Minage, and Saint-Peter's Gate. It was the longest way +round, so you may be sure that Mme. de Bargeton's house lay on the +way. So delicious it was to pass under her windows, though she knew +nothing of his presence, that for the past two months he had gone +round daily by the Palet Gate into L'Houmeau. + +Under the trees of Beaulieu he saw how far the suburb lay from the +city. The custom of the country, moreover, had raised other barriers +harder to surmount than the mere physical difficulty of the steep +flights of steps which Lucien was descending. Youth and ambition had +thrown the flying-bridge of glory across the gulf between the city and +the suburb, yet Lucien was as uneasy in his mind over his lady's +answer as any king's favorite who has tried to climb yet higher, and +fears that being over-bold he is like to fall. This must seem a dark +saying to those who have never studied the manners and customs of +cities divided into the upper and lower town; wherefore it is +necessary to enter here upon some topographical details, and this so +much the more if the reader is to comprehend the position of one of +the principal characters in the story--Mme. de Bargeton. + +The old city of Angouleme is perched aloft on a crag like a +sugar-loaf, overlooking the plain where the Charente winds away through +the meadows. The crag is an outlying spur on the Perigord side of a +long, low ridge of hill, which terminates abruptly just above the road +from Paris to Bordeaux, so that the Rock of Angouleme is a sort of +promontory marking out the line of three picturesque valleys. The +ramparts and great gateways and ruined fortress on the summit of the +crag still remain to bear witness to the importance of this stronghold +during the Religious Wars, when Angouleme was a military position +coveted alike of Catholics and Calvinists, but its old-world strength +is a source of weakness in modern days; Angouleme could not spread +down to the Charente, and shut in between its ramparts and the steep +sides of the crag, the old town is condemned to stagnation of the most +fatal kind. + +The Government made an attempt about this very time to extend the town +towards Perigord, building a Prefecture, a Naval School, and barracks +along the hillside, and opening up roads. But private enterprise had +been beforehand elsewhere. For some time past the suburb of L'Houmeau +had sprung up, a mushroom growth at the foot of the crag and along the +river-side, where the direct road runs from Paris to Bordeaux. +Everybody has heard of the great paper-mills of Angouleme, established +perforce three hundred years ago on the Charente and its branch +streams, where there was a sufficient fall of water. The largest State +factory of marine ordnance in France was established at Ruelle, some +six miles away. Carriers, wheelwrights, posthouses, and inns, every +agency for public conveyance, every industry that lives by road or +river, was crowded together in Lower Angouleme, to avoid the +difficulty of the ascent of the hill. Naturally, too, tanneries, +laundries, and all such waterside trades stood within reach of the +Charente; and along the banks of the river lay the stores of brandy +and great warehouses full of the water-borne raw material; all the +carrying trade of the Charente, in short, had lined the quays with +buildings. + +So the Faubourg of L'Houmeau grew into a busy and prosperous city, a +second Angouleme rivaling the upper town, the residence of the powers +that be, the lords spiritual and temporal of Angouleme; though +L'Houmeau, with all its business and increasing greatness, was still a +mere appendage of the city above. The _noblesse_ and officialdom dwelt +on the crag, trade and wealth remained below. No love was lost between +these two sections of the community all the world over, and in +Angouleme it would have been hard to say which of the two camps +detested the other the more cordially. Under the Empire the machinery +worked fairly smoothly, but the Restoration wrought both sides to the +highest pitch of exasperation. + +Nearly every house in the upper town of Angouleme is inhabited by +noble, or at any rate by old burgher, families, who live independently +on their incomes--a sort of autochthonous nation who suffer no aliens +to come among them. Possibly, after two hundred years of unbroken +residence, and it may be an intermarriage or two with one of the +primordial houses, a family from some neighboring district may be +adopted, but in the eyes of the aboriginal race they are still +newcomers of yesterday. + +Prefects, receivers-general, and various administrations that have +come and gone during the last forty years, have tried to tame the +ancient families perched aloft like wary ravens on their crag; the +said families were always willing to accept invitations to dinners and +dances; but as to admitting the strangers to their own houses, they +were inexorable. Ready to scoff and disparage, jealous and niggardly, +marrying only among themselves, the families formed a serried phalanx +to keep out intruders. Of modern luxury they had no notion; and as for +sending a boy to Paris, it was sending him, they thought to certain +ruin. Such sagacity will give a sufficient idea of the old-world +manners and customs of this society, suffering from thick-headed +Royalism, infected with bigotry rather than zeal, all stagnating +together, motionless as their town founded upon a rock. Yet Angouleme +enjoyed a great reputation in the provinces round about for its +educational advantages, and neighboring towns sent their daughters to +its boarding schools and convents. + +It is easy to imagine the influence of the class sentiment which held +Angouleme aloof from L'Houmeau. The merchant classes are rich, the +_noblesse_ are usually poor. Each side takes its revenge in scorn of the +other. The tradespeople in Angouleme espouse the quarrel. "He is a man +of L'Houmeau!" a shopkeeper of the upper town will tell you, speaking +of a merchant in the lower suburb, throwing an accent into the speech +which no words can describe. When the Restoration defined the position +of the French _noblesse_, holding out hopes to them which could only be +realized by a complete and general topsy-turvydom, the distance +between Angouleme and L'Houmeau, already more strongly marked than the +distance between the hill and plain, was widened yet further. The +better families, all devoted as one man to the Government, grew more +exclusive here than in any other part of France. "The man of +L'Houmeau" became little better than a pariah. Hence the deep, +smothered hatred which broke out everywhere with such ugly unanimity +in the insurrection of 1830 and destroyed the elements of a durable +social system in France. As the overweening haughtiness of the Court +nobles detached the provincial _noblesse_ from the throne, so did these +last alienate the _bourgeoisie_ from the royal cause by behavior that +galled their vanity in every possible way. + +So "a man of L'Houmeau," a druggist's son, in Mme. de Bargeton's house +was nothing less than a little revolution. Who was responsible for it? +Lamartine and Victor Hugo, Casimir Delavigne and Canalis, Beranger and +Chateaubriand. Davrigny, Benjamin Constant and Lamennais, Cousin and +Michaud,--all the old and young illustrious names in literature in +short, Liberals and Royalists, alike must divide the blame among them. +Mme. de Bargeton loved art and letters, eccentric taste on her part, a +craze deeply deplored in Angouleme. In justice to the lady, it is +necessary to give a sketch of the previous history of a woman born to +shine, and left by unlucky circumstances in the shade, a woman whose +influence decided Lucien's career. + +M. de Bargeton was the great-grandson of an alderman of Bordeaux named +Mirault, ennobled under Louis XIII. for long tenure of office. His +son, bearing the name of Mirault de Bargeton, became an officer in the +household troops of Louis XIV., and married so great a fortune that in +the reign of Louis XV. his son dropped the Mirault and was called +simply M. de Bargeton. This M. de Bargeton, the alderman's grandson, +lived up to his quality so strenuously that he ran through the family +property and checked the course of its fortunes. Two of his brothers +indeed, great-uncles of the present Bargeton, went into business +again, for which reason you will find the name of Mirault among +Bordeaux merchants at this day. The lands of Bargeton, in Angoumois in +the barony of Rochefoucauld, being entailed, and the house in +Angouleme, called the Hotel Bargeton, likewise, the grandson of M. de +Bargeton the Waster came in for these hereditaments; though the year +1789 deprived him of all seignorial rights save to the rents paid by +his tenants, which amounted to some ten thousand francs per annum. If +his grandsire had but walked in the ways of his illustrious +progenitors, Bargeton I. and Bargeton II., Bargeton V. (who may be +dubbed Bargeton the Mute by way of distinction) should by rights have +been born to the title of Marquis of Bargeton; he would have been +connected with some great family or other, and in due time he would +have been a duke and a peer of France, like many another; whereas, in +1805, he thought himself uncommonly lucky when he married Mlle. +Marie-Louise-Anais de Negrepelisse, the daughter of a noble long +relegated to the obscurity of his manor-house, scion though he was of +the younger branch of one of the oldest families in the south of +France. There had been a Negrepelisse among the hostages of St. Louis. +The head of the elder branch, however, had borne the illustrious name +of d'Espard since the reign of Henri Quatre, when the Negrepelisse of +that day married an heiress of the d'Espard family. As for M. de +Negrepelisse, the younger son of a younger son, he lived upon his +wife's property, a small estate in the neighborhood of Barbezieux, +farming the land to admiration, selling his corn in the market +himself, and distilling his own brandy, laughing at those who +ridiculed him, so long as he could pile up silver crowns, and now and +again round out his estate with another bit of land. + +Circumstances unusual enough in out-of-the-way places in the country +had inspired Mme. de Bargeton with a taste for music and reading. +During the Revolution one Abbe Niollant, the Abbe Roze's best pupil, +found a hiding-place in the old manor-house of Escarbas, and brought +with him his baggage of musical compositions. The old country +gentleman's hospitality was handsomely repaid, for the Abbe undertook +his daughter's education. Anais, or Nais, as she was called must +otherwise have been left to herself, or, worse still, to some +coarse-minded servant-maid. The Abbe was not only a musician, he was +well and widely read, and knew both Italian and German; so Mlle. de +Negrepelise received instruction in those tongues, as well as in +counterpoint. He explained the great masterpieces of the French, +German, and Italian literatures, and deciphered with her the music of +the great composers. Finally, as time hung heavy on his hands in the +seclusion enforced by political storms, he taught his pupil Latin and +Greek and some smatterings of natural science. A mother might have +modified the effects of a man's education upon a young girl, whose +independent spirit had been fostered in the first place by a country +life. The Abbe Niollant, an enthusiast and a poet, possessed the +artistic temperament in a peculiarly high degree, a temperament +compatible with many estimable qualities, but prone to raise itself +above _bourgeois_ prejudices by the liberty of its judgments and +breadth of view. In society an intellect of this order wins pardon for +its boldness by its depth and originality; but in private life it +would seem to do positive mischief, by suggesting wanderings from the +beaten track. The Abbe was by no means wanting in goodness of heart, +and his ideas were therefore the more contagious for this high-spirited +girl, in whom they were confirmed by a lonely life. The Abbe Niollant's +pupil learned to be fearless in criticism and ready in judgement; it +never occurred to her tutor that qualities so necessary in a man are +disadvantages in a woman destined for the homely life of a +house-mother. And though the Abbe constantly impressed it upon his +pupil that it behoved her to be the more modest and gracious with the +extent of her attainments, Mlle. de Negrepelisse conceived an excellent +opinion of herself and a robust contempt for ordinary humanity. All +those about her were her inferiors, or persons who hastened to do her +bidding, till she grew to be as haughty as a great lady, with none of +the charming blandness and urbanity of a great lady. The instincts of +vanity were flattered by the pride that the poor Abbe took in his +pupil, the pride of an author who sees himself in his work, and for +her misfortune she met no one with whom she could measure herself. +Isolation is one of the greatest drawbacks of a country life. We lose +the habit of putting ourselves to any inconvenience for the sake of +others when there is no one for whom to make the trifling sacrifices +of personal effort required by dress and manner. And everything in us +shares in the change for the worse; the form and the spirit +deteriorate together. + +With no social intercourse to compel self-repression, Mlle. de +Negrepelisse's bold ideas passed into her manner and the expression of +her face. There was a cavalier air about her, a something that seems +at first original, but only suited to women of adventurous life. So +this education, and the consequent asperities of character, which +would have been softened down in a higher social sphere, could only +serve to make her ridiculous at Angouleme so soon as her adorers +should cease to worship eccentricities that charm only in youth. + +As for M. de Negrepelisse, he would have given all his daughter's +books to save the life of a sick bullock; and so miserly was he, that +he would not have given her two farthings over and above the allowance +to which she had a right, even if it had been a question of some +indispensable trifle for her education. + +In 1802 the Abbe died, before the marriage of his dear child, a +marriage which he, doubtless, would never have advised. The old father +found his daughter a great care now that the Abbe was gone. The +high-spirited girl, with nothing else to do, was sure to break into +rebellion against his niggardliness, and he felt quite unequal to the +struggle. Like all young women who leave the appointed track of +woman's life, Nais had her own opinions about marriage, and had no +great inclination thereto. She shrank from submitting herself, body +and soul, to the feeble, undignified specimens of mankind whom she had +chanced to meet. She wished to rule, marriage meant obedience; and +between obedience to coarse caprices and a mind without indulgence for +her tastes, and flight with a lover who should please her, she would +not have hesitated for a moment. + +M. de Negrepelisse maintained sufficient of the tradition of birth to +dread a _mesalliance_. Like many another parent, he resolved to marry +his daughter, not so much on her account as for his own peace of mind. +A noble or a country gentleman was the man for him, somebody not too +clever, incapable of haggling over the account of the trust; stupid +enough and easy enough to allow Nais to have her own way, and +disinterested enough to take her without a dowry. But where to look +for a son-in-law to suit father and daughter equally well, was the +problem. Such a man would be the phoenix of sons-in-law. + +To M. de Negrepelisse pondering over the eligible bachelors of the +province with these double requirements in his mind. M. de Bargeton +seemed to be the only one who answered to this description. M. de +Bargeton, aged forty, considerably shattered by the amorous +dissipations of his youth, was generally held to be a man of +remarkably feeble intellect; but he had just the exact amount of +commonsense required for the management of his fortune, and breeding +sufficient to enable him to avoid blunders or blatant follies in +society in Angouleme. In the bluntest manner M. de Negrepelisse +pointed out the negative virtues of the model husband designed for his +daughter, and made her see the way to manage him so as to secure her +own happiness. So Nais married the bearer of arms, two hundred years +old already, for the Bargeton arms are blazoned thus: _the first or, +three attires gules; the second, three ox's heads cabossed, two and +one, sable; the third, barry of six, azure and argent, in the first, +six shells or, three, two, and one_. Provided with a chaperon, Nais +could steer her fortunes as she chose under the style of the firm, and +with the help of such connections as her wit and beauty would obtain +for her in Paris. Nais was enchanted by the prospect of such liberty. +M. de Bargeton was of the opinion that he was making a brilliant +marriage, for he expected that in no long while M. de Negrepelisse +would leave him the estates which he was rounding out so lovingly; but +to an unprejudiced spectator it certainly seemed as though the duty of +writing the bridegroom's epitaph might devolve upon his father-in-law. + +By this time Mme. de Bargeton was thirty-six years old and her husband +fifty-eight. The disparity in age was the more startling since M. de +Bargeton looked like a man of seventy, whereas his wife looked +scarcely half her age. She could still wear rose-color, and her hair +hanging loose upon her shoulders. Although their income did not exceed +twelve thousand francs, they ranked among the half-dozen largest +fortunes in the old city, merchants and officials excepted; for M. and +Mme. de Bargeton were obliged to live in Angouleme until such time as +Mme. de Bargeton's inheritance should fall in and they could go to +Paris. Meanwhile they were bound to be attentive to old M. de +Negrepelisse (who kept them waiting so long that his son-in-law in +fact predeceased him), and Nais' brilliant intellectual gifts, and the +wealth that lay like undiscovered ore in her nature, profited her +nothing, underwent the transforming operation of Time and changed to +absurdities. For our absurdities spring, in fact, for the most part, +from the good in us, from some faculty or quality abnormally +developed. Pride, untempered by intercourse with the great world +becomes stiff and starched by contact with petty things; in a loftier +moral atmosphere it would have grown to noble magnanimity. Enthusiasm, +that virtue within a virtue, forming the saint, inspiring the devotion +hidden from all eyes and glowing out upon the world in verse, turns to +exaggeration, with the trifles of a narrow existence for its object. +Far away from the centres of light shed by great minds, where the air +is quick with thought, knowledge stands still, taste is corrupted like +stagnant water, and passion dwindles, frittered away upon the +infinitely small objects which it strives to exalt. Herein lies the +secret of the avarice and tittle-tattle that poison provincial life. +The contagion of narrow-mindedness and meanness affects the noblest +natures; and in such ways as these, men born to be great, and women +who would have been charming if they had fallen under the forming +influence of greater minds, are balked of their lives. + +Here was Mme. de Bargeton, for instance, smiting the lyre for every +trifle, and publishing her emotions indiscriminately to her circle. As +a matter of fact, when sensations appeal to an audience of one, it is +better to keep them to ourselves. A sunset certainly is a glorious +poem; but if a woman describes it, in high-sounding words, for the +benefit of matter-of-fact people, is she not ridiculous? There are +pleasures which can only be felt to the full when two souls meet, poet +and poet, heart and heart. She had a trick of using high-sounding +phrases, interlarded with exaggerated expressions, the kind of stuff +ingeniously nicknamed _tartines_ by the French journalist, who furnishes +a daily supply of the commodity for a public that daily performs the +difficult feat of swallowing it. She squandered superlatives +recklessly in her talk, and the smallest things took giant +proportions. It was at this period of her career that she began to +type-ize, individualize, synthesize, dramatize, superiorize, analyze, +poetize, angelize, neologize, tragedify, prosify, and colossify--you +must violate the laws of language to find words to express the +new-fangled whimsies in which even women here and there indulge. The +heat of her language communicated itself to the brain, and the +dithyrambs on her lips were spoken out of the abundance of her heart. +She palpitated, swooned, and went into ecstasies over anything and +everything, over the devotion of a sister of Charity, and the +execution of the brothers Fauchet, over M. d'Arlincourt's _Ipsiboe_, +Lewis' _Anaconda_, or the escape of La Valette, or the presence of mind +of a lady friend who put burglars to flight by imitating a man's +voice. Everything was heroic, extraordinary, strange, wonderful, and +divine. She would work herself into a state of excitement, +indignation, or depression; she soared to heaven, and sank again, +gazed at the sky, or looked to earth; her eyes were always filled with +tears. She wore herself out with chronic admiration, and wasted her +strength on curious dislikes. Her mind ran on the Pasha of Janina; she +would have liked to try conclusions with him in his seraglio, and had +a great notion of being sewn in a sack and thrown into the water. She +envied that blue-stocking of the desert, Lady Hester Stanhope; she +longed to be a sister of Saint Camilla and tend the sick and die of +yellow fever in a hospital at Barcelona; 'twas a high, a noble +destiny! In short, she thirsted for any draught but the clear spring +water of her own life, flowing hidden among green pastures. She adored +Byron and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, or anybody else with a picturesque or +dramatic career. Her tears were ready to flow for every misfortune; +she sang paeans for every victory. She sympathized with the fallen +Napoleon, and with Mehemet Ali, massacring the foreign usurpers of +Egypt. In short, any kind of genius was accommodated with an aureole, +and she was fully persuaded that gifted immortals lived on incense and +light. + +A good many people looked upon her as a harmless lunatic, but in these +extravagances of hers a keener observer surely would have seen the +broken fragments of a magnificent edifice that had crumbled into ruin +before it was completed, the stones of a heavenly Jerusalem--love, in +short, without a lover. And this was indeed the fact. + +The story of the first eighteen years of Mme. de Bargeton's married +life can be summed up in a few words. For a long while she lived upon +herself and distant hopes. Then, when she began to see that their +narrow income put the longed-for life in Paris quite out of the +question, she looked about her at the people with whom her life must +be spent, and shuddered at her loneliness. There was not a single man +who could inspire the madness to which women are prone when they +despair of a life become stale and unprofitable in the present, and +with no outlook for the future. She had nothing to look for, nothing +to expect from chance, for there are lives in which chance plays no +part. But when the Empire was in the full noonday of glory, and +Napoleon was sending the flower of his troops to the Peninsula, her +disappointed hopes revived. Natural curiosity prompted her to make an +effort to see the heroes who were conquering Europe in obedience to a +word from the Emperor in the order of the day; the heroes of a modern +time who outdid the mythical feats of paladins of old. The cities of +France, however avaricious or refractory, must perforce do honor to +the Imperial Guard, and mayors and prefects went out to meet them with +set speeches as if the conquerors had been crowned kings. Mme. de +Bargeton went to a _ridotto_ given to the town by a regiment, and fell +in love with an officer of a good family, a sub-lieutenant, to whom +the crafty Napoleon had given a glimpse of the baton of a Marshal of +France. Love, restrained, greater and nobler than the ties that were +made and unmade so easily in those days, was consecrated coldly by the +hands of death. On the battlefield of Wagram a shell shattered the +only record of Mme. de Bargeton's young beauty, a portrait worn on the +heart of the Marquis of Cante-Croix. For long afterwards she wept for +the young soldier, the colonel in his second campaign, for the heart +hot with love and glory that set a letter from Nais above Imperial +favor. The pain of those days cast a veil of sadness over her face, a +shadow that only vanished at the terrible age when a woman first +discovers with dismay that the best years of her life are over, and +she has had no joy of them; when she sees her roses wither, and the +longing for love is revived again with the desire to linger yet for a +little on the last smiles of youth. Her nobler qualities dealt so many +wounds to her soul at the moment when the cold of the provinces seized +upon her. She would have died of grief like the ermine if by chance +she had been sullied by contact with those men whose thoughts are bent +on winning a few sous nightly at cards after a good dinner; pride +saved her from the shabby love intrigues of the provinces. A woman so +much above the level of those about her, forced to decide between the +emptiness of the men whom she meets and the emptiness of her own life, +can make but one choice; marriage and society became a cloister for +Anais. She lived by poetry as the Carmelite lives by religion. All the +famous foreign books published in France for the first time between +1815 and 1821, the great essayists, M. de Bonald and M. de Maistre +(those two eagles of thought)--all the lighter French literature, in +short, that appeared during that sudden outburst of first vigorous +growth might bring delight into her solitary life, but not flexibility +of mind or body. She stood strong and straight like some forest tree, +lightning-blasted but still erect. Her dignity became a stilted +manner, her social supremacy led her into affectation and sentimental +over-refinements; she queened it with her foibles, after the usual +fashion of those who allow their courtiers to adore them. + +This was Mme. de Bargeton's past life, a dreary chronicle which must +be given if Lucien's position with regard to the lady is to be +comprehensible. Lucien's introduction came about oddly enough. In the +previous winter a newcomer had brought some interest into Mme. de +Bargeton's monotonous life. The place of controller of excise fell +vacant, and M. de Barante appointed a man whose adventurous life was a +sufficient passport to the house of the sovereign lady who had her +share of feminine curiosity. + +M. de Chatelet--he began life as plain Sixte Chatelet, but since 1806 +had the wit to adopt the particle--M. du Chatelet was one of the +agreeable young men who escaped conscription after conscription by +keeping very close to the Imperial sun. He had begun his career as +private secretary to an Imperial Highness, a post for which he +possessed every qualification. Personable and of a good figure, a +clever billiard-player, a passable amateur actor, he danced well, and +excelled in most physical exercises; he could, moreover, sing a ballad +and applaud a witticism. Supple, envious, never at a loss, there was +nothing that he did not know--nothing that he really knew. He knew +nothing, for instance, of music, but he could sit down to the piano +and accompany, after a fashion, a woman who consented after much +pressing to sing a ballad learned by heart in a month of hard +practice. Incapable though he was of any feeling for poetry, he would +boldly ask permission to retire for ten minutes to compose an +impromptu, and return with a quatrain, flat as a pancake, wherein +rhyme did duty for reason. M. du Chatelet had besides a very pretty +talent for filling in the ground of the Princess' worsted work after +the flowers had been begun; he held her skeins of silk with infinite +grace, entertained her with dubious nothings more or less +transparently veiled. He was ignorant of painting, but he could copy a +landscape, sketch a head in profile, or design a costume and color it. +He had, in short, all the little talents that a man could turn to such +useful account in times when women exercised more influence in public +life than most people imagine. Diplomacy he claimed to be his strong +point; it usually is with those who have no knowledge, and are +profound by reason of their emptiness; and, indeed, this kind of skill +possesses one signal advantage, for it can only be displayed in the +conduct of the affairs of the great, and when discretion is the +quality required, a man who knows nothing can safely say nothing, and +take refuge in a mysterious shake of the head; in fact; the cleverest +practitioner is he who can swim with the current and keep his head +well above the stream of events which he appears to control, a man's +fitness for this business varying inversely as his specific gravity. +But in this particular art or craft, as in all others, you shall find +a thousand mediocrities for one man of genius; and in spite of +Chatelet's services, ordinary and extraordinary, Her Imperial Highness +could not procure a seat in the Privy Council for her private +secretary; not that he would not have made a delightful Master of +Requests, like many another, but the Princess was of the opinion that +her secretary was better placed with her than anywhere else in the +world. He was made a Baron, however, and went to Cassel as +envoy-extraordinary, no empty form of words, for he cut a very +extraordinary figure there--Napoleon used him as a diplomatic courier +in the thick of a European crisis. Just as he had been promised the +post of minister to Jerome in Westphalia, the Empire fell to pieces; +and balked of his _ambassade de famille_ as he called it, he went off +in despair to Egypt with General de Montriveau. A strange chapter of +accidents separated him from his traveling companion, and for two long +years Sixte du Chatelet led a wandering life among the Arab tribes of +the desert, who sold and resold their captive--his talents being not +of the slightest use to the nomad tribes. At length, about the time +that Montriveau reached Tangier, Chatelet found himself in the +territory of the Imam of Muscat, had the luck to find an English +vessel just about to set sail, and so came back to Paris a year sooner +than his sometime companion. Once in Paris, his recent misfortunes, +and certain connections of long standing, together with services +rendered to great persons now in power, recommended him to the +President of the Council, who put him in M. de Barante's department +until such time as a controllership should fall vacant. So the part +that M. du Chatelet once had played in the history of the Imperial +Princess, his reputation for success with women, the strange story of +his travels and sufferings, all awakened the interest of the ladies of +Angouleme. + +M. le Baron Sixte du Chatelet informed himself as to the manners and +customs of the upper town, and took his cue accordingly. He appeared +on the scene as a jaded man of the world, broken in health, and weary +in spirit. He would raise his hand to his forehead at all seasons, as +if pain never gave him a moment's respite, a habit that recalled his +travels and made him interesting. He was on visiting terms with the +authorities--the general in command, the prefect, the +receiver-general, and the bishop but in every house he was frigid, +polite, and slightly supercilious, like a man out of his proper place +awaiting the favors of power. His social talents he left to conjecture, +nor did they lose anything in reputation on that account; then when +people began to talk about him and wish to know him, and curiosity was +still lively; when he had reconnoitred the men and found them nought, +and studied the women with the eyes of experience in the cathedral for +several Sundays, he saw that Mme. de. Bargeton was the person with +whom it would be best to be on intimate terms. Music, he thought, +should open the doors of a house where strangers were never received. +Surreptitiously he procured one of Miroir's Masses, learned it upon +the piano; and one fine Sunday when all Angouleme went to the +cathedral, he played the organ, sent those who knew no better into +ecstasies over the performance, and stimulated the interest felt in +him by allowing his name to slip out through the attendants. As he +came out after mass, Mme. de Bargeton complimented him, regretting +that she had no opportunity of playing duets with such a musician; and +naturally, during an interview of her own seeking, he received the +passport, which he could not have obtained if he had asked for it. + +So the adroit Baron was admitted to the circle of the queen of +Angouleme, and paid her marked attention. The elderly beau--he was +forty-five years old--saw that all her youth lay dormant and ready to +revive, saw treasures to be turned to account, and possibly a rich +widow to wed, to say nothing of expectations; it would be a marriage +into the family of Negrepelisse, and for him this meant a family +connection with the Marquise d'Espard, and a political career in +Paris. Here was a fair tree to cultivate in spite of the ill-omened, +unsightly mistletoe that grew thick upon it; he would hang his +fortunes upon it, and prune it, and wait till he could gather its +golden fruit. + +High-born Angouleme shrieked against the introduction of a Giaour into +the sanctuary, for Mme. de Bargeton's salon was a kind of holy of +holies in a society that kept itself unspotted from the world. The +only outsider intimate there was the bishop; the prefect was admitted +twice or thrice in a year, the receiver-general was never received at +all; Mme. de Bargeton would go to concerts and "at homes" at his +house, but she never accepted invitations to dinner. And now, she who +had declined to open her doors to the receiver-general, welcomed a +mere controller of excise! Here was a novel order of precedence for +snubbed authority; such a thing it had never entered their minds to +conceive. + +Those who by dint of mental effort can understand a kind of pettiness +which, for that matter, can be found on any and every social level, +will realize the awe with which the _bourgeoisie_ of Angouleme regarded +the Hotel de Bargeton. The inhabitant of L'Houmeau beheld the grandeur +of that miniature Louvre, the glory of the Angoumoisin Hotel de +Rambouillet, shining at a solar distance; and yet, within it there was +gathered together all the direst intellectual poverty, all the decayed +gentility from twenty leagues round about. + +Political opinion expanded itself in wordy commonplaces vociferated +with emphasis; the _Quotidienne_ was comparatively Laodicean in its +loyalty, and Louis XVIII. a Jacobin. The women, for the most part, +were awkward, silly, insipid, and ill dressed; there was always +something amiss that spoiled the whole; nothing in them was complete, +toilette or talk, flesh or spirit. But for his designs on Mme. de +Bargeton, Chatelet could not have endured the society. And yet the +manners and spirit of the noble in his ruined manor-house, the +knowledge of the traditions of good breeding,--these things covered a +multitude of deficiencies. Nobility of feeling was far more real here +than in the lofty world of Paris. You might compare these country +Royalists, if the metaphor may be allowed, to old-fashioned silver +plate, antiquated and tarnished, but weighty; their attachment to the +House of Bourbon as the House of Bourbon did them honor. The very +fixity of their political opinions was a sort of faithfulness. The +distance that they set between themselves and the _bourgeoisie_, their +very exclusiveness, gave them a certain elevation, and enhanced their +value. Each noble represented a certain price for the townsmen, as +Bambara Negroes, we are told, attach a money value to cowrie shells. + +Some of the women, flattered by M. du Chatelet, discerned in him the +superior qualities lacking in the men of their own sect, and the +insurrection of self-love was pacified. These ladies all hoped to +succeed to the Imperial Highness. Purists were of the opinion that you +might see the intruder in Mme. de Bargeton's house, but not elsewhere. +Du Chatelet was fain to put up with a good deal of insolence, but he +held his ground by cultivating the clergy. He encouraged the queen of +Angouleme in foibles bred of the soil; he brought her all the newest +books; he read aloud the poetry that appeared. Together they went into +ecstasies over these poets; she in all sincerity, he with suppressed +yawns; but he bore with the Romantics with a patience hardly to be +expected of a man of the Imperial school, who scarcely could make out +what the young writers meant. Not so Mme. de Bargeton; she waxed +enthusiastic over the renaissance, due to the return of the Bourbon +Lilies; she loved M. de Chateaubriand for calling Victor Hugo "a +sublime child." It depressed her that she could only know genius from +afar, she sighed for Paris, where great men live. For these reasons M. +du Chatelet thought he had done a wonderfully clever thing when he +told the lady that at that moment in Angouleme there was "another +sublime child," a young poet, a rising star whose glory surpassed the +whole Parisian galaxy, though he knew it not. A great man of the +future had been born in L'Houmeau! The headmaster of the school had +shown the Baron some admirable verses. The poor and humble lad was a +second Chatterton, with none of the political baseness and ferocious +hatred of the great ones of earth that led his English prototype to +turn pamphleteer and revile his benefactors. Mme. de Bargeton in her +little circle of five or six persons, who were supposed to share her +tastes for art and letters, because this one scraped a fiddle, and +that splashed sheets of white paper, more or less, with sepia, and the +other was president of a local agricultural society, or was gifted +with a bass voice that rendered _Se fiato in corpo_ like a war whoop +--Mme. de Bargeton amid these grotesque figures was like a famished +actor set down to a stage dinner of pasteboard. No words, therefore, +can describe her joy at these tidings. She must see this poet, this +angel! She raved about him, went into raptures, talked of him for +whole hours together. Before two days were out the sometime diplomatic +courier had negotiated (through the headmaster) for Lucien's +appearance in the Hotel de Bargeton. + +Poor helots of the provinces, for whom the distances between class and +class are so far greater than for the Parisian (for whom, indeed, +these distances visibly lessen day by day); souls so grievously +oppressed by the social barriers behind which all sorts and conditions +of men sit crying _Raca_! with mutual anathemas--you, and you alone, +will fully comprehend the ferment in Lucien's heart and brain, when +his awe-inspiring headmaster told him that the great gates of the +Hotel de Bargeton would shortly open and turn upon their hinges at his +fame! Lucien and David, walking together of an evening in the +Promenade de Beaulieu, had looked up at the house with the +old-fashioned gables, and wondered whether their names would ever so +much as reach ears inexorably deaf to knowledge that came from a lowly +origin; and now he (Lucien) was to be made welcome there! + +No one except his sister was in the secret. Eve, like the thrifty +housekeeper and divine magician that she was, conjured up a few louis +d'or from her savings to buy thin shoes for Lucien of the best +shoemaker in Angouleme, and an entirely new suit of clothes from the +most renowned tailor. She made a frill for his best shirt, and washed +and pleated it with her own hands. And how pleased she was to see him +so dressed! How proud she felt of her brother, and what quantities of +advice she gave him! Her intuition foresaw countless foolish fears. +Lucien had a habit of resting his elbows on the table when he was in +deep thought; he would even go so far as to draw a table nearer to +lean upon it; Eve told him that he must not forget himself in those +aristocratic precincts. + +She went with him as far as St. Peter's Gate, and when they were +almost opposite the cathedral she stopped, and watched him pass down +the Rue de Beaulieu to the Promenade, where M. du Chatelet was waiting +for him. And after he was out of sight, she still stood there, poor +girl! in a great tremor of emotion, as though some great thing had +happened to them. Lucien in Mme. de Bargeton's house!--for Eve it +meant the dawn of success. The innocent creature did not suspect that +where ambition begins, ingenuous feeling ends. + +Externals in the Rue du Minage gave Lucien no sense of surprise. This +palace, that loomed so large in his imagination, was a house built of +the soft stone of the country, mellowed by time. It looked dismal +enough from the street, and inside it was extremely plain; there was +the usual provincial courtyard--chilly, prim, and neat; and the house +itself was sober, almost convent-like, but in good repair. + +Lucien went up the old staircase with the balustrade of chestnut wood +(the stone steps ceased after the second floor), crossed a shabby +antechamber, and came into the presence in a little wainscoted +drawing-room, beyond a dimly-lit salon. The carved woodwork, in the +taste of the eighteenth century, had been painted gray. There were +monochrome paintings on the frieze panels, and the walls were adorned +with crimson damask with a meagre border. The old-fashioned furniture +shrank piteously from sight under covers of a red-and-white check +pattern. On the sofa, covered with thin mattressed cushions, sat Mme. +de Bargeton; the poet beheld her by the light of two wax candles on a +sconce with a screen fitted to it, that stood before her on a round +table with a green cloth. + +The queen did not attempt to rise, but she twisted very gracefully on +her seat, smiling on the poet, who was not a little fluttered by the +serpentine quiverings; her manner was distinguished, he thought. For +Mme. de Bargeton, she was impressed with Lucien's extreme beauty, with +his diffidence, with everything about him; for her the poet already +was poetry incarnate. Lucien scrutinized his hostess with discreet +side glances; she disappointed none of his expectations of a great +lady. + +Mme. de Bargeton, following a new fashion, wore a coif of slashed +black velvet, a head-dress that recalls memories of mediaeval legend +to a young imagination, to amplify, as it were, the dignity of +womanhood. Her red-gold hair, escaping from under her cap, hung loose; +bright golden color in the light, red in the rounded shadow of the +curls that only partially hid her neck. Beneath a massive white brow, +clean cut and strongly outlined, shone a pair of bright gray eyes +encircled by a margin of mother-of-pearl, two blue veins on each side +of the nose bringing out the whiteness of that delicate setting. The +Bourbon curve of the nose added to the ardent expression of an oval +face; it was as if the royal temper of the House of Conde shone +conspicuous in this feature. The careless cross-folds of the bodice +left a white throat bare, and half revealed the outlines of a still +youthful figure and shapely, well placed contours beneath. + +With fingers tapering and well-kept, though somewhat too thin, Mme. de +Bargeton amiably pointed to a seat by her side, M. du Chatelet +ensconced himself in an easy-chair, and Lucien then became aware that +there was no one else in the room. + +Mme. de Bargeton's words intoxicated the young poet from L'Houmeau. +For Lucien those three hours spent in her presence went by like a +dream that we would fain have last forever. She was not thin, he +thought; she was slender; in love with love, and loverless; and +delicate in spite of her strength. Her foibles, exaggerated by her +manner, took his fancy; for youth sets out with a love of hyperbole, +that infirmity of noble souls. He did not so much as see that her +cheeks were faded, that the patches of color on the cheek-bone were +faded and hardened to a brick-red by listless days and a certain +amount of ailing health. His imagination fastened at once on the +glowing eyes, on the dainty curls rippling with light, on the dazzling +fairness of her skin, and hovered about those bright points as the +moth hovers about the candle flame. For her spirit made such appeal to +his that he could no longer see the woman as she was. Her feminine +exaltation had carried him away, the energy of her expressions, a +little staled in truth by pretty hard and constant wear, but new to +Lucien, fascinated him so much the more easily because he was +determined to be pleased. He had brought none of his own verses to +read, but nothing was said of them; he had purposely left them behind +because he meant to return; and Mme. de Bargeton did not ask for them, +because she meant that he should come back some future day to read +them to her. Was not this a beginning of an understanding? + +As for M. Sixte du Chatelet, he was not over well pleased with all +this. He perceived rather too late in the day that he had a rival in +this handsome young fellow. He went with him as far as the first +flight of steps below Beaulieu to try the effect of a little +diplomacy; and Lucien was not a little astonished when he heard the +controller of excise pluming himself on having effected the +introduction, and proceeding in this character to give him (Lucien) +the benefit of his advice. + +"Heaven send that Lucien might meet with better treatment than he had +done," such was the matter of M. du Chatelet's discourse. "The Court +was less insolent that this pack of dolts in Angouleme. You were +expected to endure deadly insults; the superciliousness you had to put +up with was something abominable. If this kind of folk did not alter +their behavior, there would be another Revolution of '89. As for +himself, if he continued to go to the house, it was because he had +found Mme. de Bargeton to his taste; she was the only woman worth +troubling about in Angouleme; he had been paying court to her for want +of anything better to do, and now he was desperately in love with her. +She would be his before very long, she loved him, everything pointed +that way. The conquest of this haughty queen of the society would be +his one revenge on the whole houseful of booby clodpates." + +Chatelet talked of his passion in the tone of a man who would have a +rival's life if he crossed his path. The elderly butterfly of the +Empire came down with his whole weight on the poor poet, and tried to +frighten and crush him by his self-importance. He grew taller as he +gave an embellished account of his perilous wanderings; but while he +impressed the poet's imagination, the lover was by no means afraid of +him. + +In spite of the elderly coxcomb, and regardless of his threats and +airs of a _bourgeois_ bravo, Lucien went back again and again to the +house--not too often at first, as became a man of L'Houmeau; but +before very long he grew accustomed to the vast condescension, as it +had seemed to him at the outset, and came more and more frequently. +The druggist's son was a completely insignificant being. If any of the +_noblesse_, men or women, calling upon Nais, found Lucien in the room, +they met him with the overwhelming graciousness that well-bred people +use towards their inferiors. Lucien thought them very kind for a time, +and later found out the real reason for their specious amiability. It +was not long before he detected a patronizing tone that stirred his +gall and confirmed him in his bitter Republicanism, a phase of opinion +through which many a would-be patrician passes by way of prelude to +his introduction to polite society. + +But was there anything that he would not have endured for Nais?--for +so he heard her named by the clan. Like Spanish grandees and the old +Austrian nobility at Vienna, these folk, men and women alike, called +each other by their Christian names, a final shade of distinction in +the inmost ring of Angoumoisin aristocracy. + +Lucien loved Nais as a young man loves the first woman who flatters +him, for Nais prophesied great things and boundless fame for Lucien. +She used all her skill to secure her hold upon her poet; not merely +did she exalt him beyond measure, but she represented him to himself +as a child without fortune whom she meant to start in life; she +treated him like a child, to keep him near her; she made him her +reader, her secretary, and cared more for him than she would have +thought possible after the dreadful calamity that had befallen her. + +She was very cruel to herself in those days, telling herself that it +would be folly to love a young man of twenty, so far apart from her +socially in the first place; and her behavior to him was a bewildering +mixture of familiarity and capricious fits of pride arising from her +fears and scruples. She was sometimes a lofty patroness, sometimes she +was tender and flattered him. At first, while he was overawed by her +rank, Lucien experienced the extremes of dread, hope, and despair, the +torture of a first love, that is beaten deep into the heart with the +hammer strokes of alternate bliss and anguish. For two months Mme. de +Bargeton was for him a benefactress who would take a mother's interest +in him; but confidences came next. Mme. de Bargeton began to address +her poet as "dear Lucien," and then as "dear," without more ado. The +poet grew bolder, and addressed the great lady as Nais, and there +followed a flash of anger that captivates a boy; she reproached him +for calling her by a name in everybody's mouth. The haughty and +high-born Negrepelisse offered the fair angel youth that one of her +appellations which was unsoiled by use; for him she would be "Louise." +Lucien was in the third heaven. + +One evening when Lucien came in, he found Mme. de Bargeton looking at +a portrait, which she promptly put away. He wished to see it, and to +quiet the despair of a first fit of jealousy Louise showed him +Cante-Croix's picture, and told with tears the piteous story of a love +so stainless, so cruelly cut short. Was she experimenting with herself? +Was she trying a first unfaithfulness to the memory of the dead? Or +had she taken it into her head to raise up a rival to Lucien in the +portrait? Lucien was too much of a boy to analyze his lady-love; he +gave way to unfeigned despair when she opened the campaign by +entrenching herself behind the more or less skilfully devised scruples +which women raise to have them battered down. When a woman begins to +talk about her duty, regard for appearances or religion, the +objections she raises are so many redoubts which she loves to have +carried by storm. But on the guileless Lucien these coquetries were +thrown away; he would have advanced of his own accord. + +"_I_ shall not die for you, I will live for you," he cried audaciously +one evening; he meant to have no more of M. de Cante-Croix, and gave +Louise a glance which told plainly that a crisis was at hand. + +Startled at the progress of this new love in herself and her poet, +Louise demanded some verses promised for the first page of her album, +looking for a pretext for a quarrel in his tardiness. But what became +of her when she read the following stanzas, which, naturally, she +considered finer than the finest work of Canalis, the poet of the +aristocracy?-- + + The magic brush, light flying flights of song-- + To these, but not to these alone, belong + My pages fair; + Often to me, my mistress' pencil steals + To tell the secret gladness that she feels, + The hidden care. + + And when her fingers, slowlier at the last, + Of a rich Future, now become the Past, + Seek count of me, + Oh Love, when swift, thick-coming memories rise, + I pray of Thee. + May they bring visions fair as cloudless skies + Of happy voyage o'er a summer sea! + +"Was it really I who inspired those lines?" she asked. + +The doubt suggested by coquetry to a woman who amused herself by +playing with fire brought tears to Lucien's eyes; but her first kiss +upon his forehead calmed the storm. Decidedly Lucien was a great man, +and she meant to form him; she thought of teaching him Italian and +German and perfecting his manners. That would be pretext sufficient +for having him constantly with her under the very eyes of her tiresome +courtiers. What an interest in her life! She took up music again for +her poet's sake, and revealed the world of sound to him, playing grand +fragments of Beethoven till she sent him into ecstasy; and, happy in +his delight, turned to the half-swooning poet. + +"Is not such happiness as this enough?" she asked hypocritically; and +poor Lucien was stupid enough to answer, "Yes." + +In the previous week things had reached such a point, that Louise had +judged it expedient to ask Lucien to dine with M. de Bargeton as a +third. But in spite of this precaution, the whole town knew the state +of affairs; and so extraordinary did it appear, that no one would +believe the truth. The outcry was terrific. Some were of the opinion +that society was on the eve of cataclysm. "See what comes of Liberal +doctrines!" cried others. + +Then it was that the jealous du Chatelet discovered that Madame +Charlotte, the monthly nurse, was no other than Mme. Chardon, "the +mother of the Chateaubriand of L'Houmeau," as he put it. The remark +passed muster as a joke. Mme. de Chandour was the first to hurry to +Mme. de Bargeton. + +"Nais, dear," she said, "do you know what everybody is talking about +in Angouleme? This little rhymster's mother is the Madame Charlotte +who nursed my sister-in-law through her confinement two months ago." + +"What is there extraordinary in that, my dear?" asked Mme. de Bargeton +with her most regal air. "She is a druggist's widow, is she not? A +poor fate for a Rubempre. Suppose that you and I had not a penny in +the world, what should either of us do for a living? How would you +support your children?" + +Mme. de Bargeton's presence of mind put an end to the jeremiads of the +_noblesse_. Great natures are prone to make a virtue of misfortune; and +there is something irresistibly attractive about well-doing when +persisted in through evil report; innocence has the piquancy of the +forbidden. + +Mme. de Bargeton's rooms were crowded that evening with friends who +came to remonstrate with her. She brought her most caustic wit into +play. She said that as noble families could not produce a Moliere, a +Racine, a Rousseau, a Voltaire, a Massillon, a Beaumarchais, or a +Diderot, people must make up their minds to it, and accept the fact +that great men had upholsterers and clockmakers and cutlers for their +fathers. She said that genius was always noble. She railed at boorish +squires for understanding their real interests so imperfectly. In +short, she talked a good deal of nonsense, which would have let the +light into heads less dense, but left her audience agape at her +eccentricity. And in these ways she conjured away the storm with her +heavy artillery. + +When Lucien, obedient to her request, appeared for the first time in +the faded great drawing-room, where the whist-tables were set out, she +welcomed him graciously, and brought him forward, like a queen who +means to be obeyed. She addressed the controller of excise as "M. +Chatelet," and left that gentleman thunderstruck by the discovery that +she knew about the illegal superfetation of the particle. Lucien was +forced upon her circle, and was received as a poisonous element, which +every person in it vowed to expel with the antidote of insolence. + +Nais had won a victory, but she had lost her supremacy of empire. +There was a rumor of insurrection. Amelie, otherwise Mme. de Chandour, +harkening to "M. Chatelet's" counsels, determined to erect a rival +altar by receiving on Wednesdays. Now Mme. de Bargeton's salon was +open every evening; and those who frequented it were so wedded to +their ways, so accustomed to meet about the same tables, to play the +familiar game of backgammon, to see the same faces and the same candle +sconces night after night; and afterwards to cloak and shawl, and put +on overshoes and hats in the old corridor, that they were quite as +much attached to the steps of the staircase as to the mistress of the +house. + +"All resigned themselves to endure the songster" (_chardonneret_) "of +the sacred grove," said Alexandre de Brebian, which was witticism +number two. Finally, the president of the agricultural society put an +end to the sedition by remarking judicially that "before the +Revolution the greatest nobles admitted men like Dulcos and Grimm and +Crebillon to their society--men who were nobodies, like this little +poet of L'Houmeau; but one thing they never did, they never received +tax-collectors, and, after all, Chatelet is only a tax-collector." + +Du Chatelet suffered for Chardon. Every one turned the cold shoulder +upon him; and Chatelet was conscious that he was attacked. When Mme. +de Bargeton called him "M. Chatelet," he swore to himself that he +would possess her; and now he entered into the views of the mistress +of the house, came to the support of the young poet, and declared +himself Lucien's friend. The great diplomatist, overlooked by the +shortsighted Emperor, made much of Lucien, and declared himself his +friend! To launch the poet into society, he gave a dinner, and asked +all the authorities to meet him--the prefect, the receiver-general, +the colonel in command of the garrison, the head of the Naval School, +the president of the Court, and so forth. The poet, poor fellow, was +feted so magnificently, and so belauded, that anybody but a young man +of two-and-twenty would have shrewdly suspected a hoax. After dinner, +Chatelet drew his rival on to recite _The Dying Sardanapalus_, the +masterpiece of the hour; and the headmaster of the school, a man of a +phlegmatic temperament, applauded with both hands, and vowed that +Jean-Baptiste Rousseau had done nothing finer. Sixte, Baron du +Chatelet, thought in his heart that this slip of a rhymster would +wither incontinently in a hothouse of adulation; perhaps he hoped that +when the poet's head was turned with brilliant dreams, he would +indulge in some impertinence that would promptly consign him to the +obscurity from which he had emerged. Pending the decease of genius, +Chatelet appeared to offer up his hopes as a sacrifice at Mme. de +Bargeton's feet; but with the ingenuity of a rake, he kept his own +plan in abeyance, watching the lovers' movements with keenly critical +eyes, and waiting for the opportunity of ruining Lucien. + +From this time forward, vague rumors reported the existence of a great +man in Angoumois. Mme. de Bargeton was praised on all sides for the +interest which she took in this young eagle. No sooner was her conduct +approved than she tried to win a general sanction. She announced a +soiree, with ices, tea, and cakes, a great innovation in a city where +tea, as yet, was sold only by druggists as a remedy for indigestion. +The flower of Angoumoisin aristocracy was summoned to hear Lucien read +his great work. Louise had hidden all the difficulties from her +friend, but she let fall a few words touching the social cabal formed +against him; she would not have him ignorant of the perils besetting +his career as a man of genius, nor of the obstacles insurmountable to +weaklings. She drew a lesson from the recent victory. Her white hands +pointed him to glory that lay beyond a prolonged martyrdom; she spoke +of stakes and flaming pyres; she spread the adjectives thickly on her +finest _tartines_, and decorated them with a variety of her most pompous +epithets. It was an infringement of the copyright of the passages of +declamation that disfigure _Corinne_; but Louise grew so much the +greater in her own eyes as she talked, that she loved the Benjamin who +inspired her eloquence the more for it. She counseled him to take a +bold step and renounce his patronymic for the noble name of Rubempre; +he need not mind the little tittle-tattle over a change which the +King, for that matter, would authorize. Mme. de Bargeton undertook to +procure this favor; she was related to the Marquise d'Espard, who was +a Blamont-Chauvry before her marriage, and a _persona grata_ at Court. +The words "King," "Marquise d'Espard," and "the Court" dazzled Lucien +like a blaze of fireworks, and the necessity of the baptism was plain +to him. + +"Dear child," said Louise, with tender mockery in her tones, "the +sooner it is done, the sooner it will be sanctioned." + +She went through social strata and showed the poet that this step +would raise him many rungs higher in the ladder. Seizing the moment, +she persuaded Lucien to forswear the chimerical notions of '89 as to +equality; she roused a thirst for social distinction allayed by +David's cool commonsense; she pointed out fashionable society as the +goal and the only stage for such a talent as his. The rabid Liberal +became a Monarchist _in petto_; Lucien set his teeth in the apple of +desire of rank, luxury, and fame. He swore to win a crown to lay at +his lady's feet, even if there should be blood-stains on the bays. He +would conquer at any cost, _quibuscumque viis_. To prove his courage, he +told her of his present way of life; Louise had known nothing of its +hardships, for there is an indefinable pudency inseparable from strong +feeling in youth, a delicacy which shrinks from a display of great +qualities; and a young man loves to have the real quality of his +nature discerned through the incognito. He described that life, the +shackles of poverty borne with pride, his days of work for David, his +nights of study. His young ardor recalled memories of the colonel of +six-and-twenty; Mme. de Bargeton's eyes grew soft; and Lucien, seeing +this weakness in his awe-inspiring mistress, seized a hand that she +had abandoned to him, and kissed it with the frenzy of a lover and a +poet in his youth. Louise even allowed him to set his eager, quivering +lips upon her forehead. + +"Oh, child! child! if any one should see us, I should look very +ridiculous," she said, shaking off the ecstatic torpor. + +In the course of that evening, Mme. de Bargeton's wit made havoc of +Lucien's prejudices, as she styled them. Men of genius, according to +her doctrine, had neither brothers nor sisters nor father nor mother; +the great tasks laid upon them required that they should sacrifice +everything that they might grow to their full stature. Perhaps their +families might suffer at first from the all-absorbing exactions of a +giant brain, but at a later day they were repaid a hundredfold for +self-denial of every kind during the early struggles of the kingly +intellect with adverse fate; they shared the spoils of victory. Genius +was answerable to no man. Genius alone could judge of the means used +to an end which no one else could know. It was the duty of a man of +genius, therefore, to set himself above law; it was his mission to +reconstruct law; the man who is master of his age may take all that he +needs, run any risks, for all is his. She quoted instances. Bernard +Palissy, Louis XI., Fox, Napoleon, Christopher Columbus, and Julius +Caesar,--all these world-famous gamblers had begun life hampered with +debt, or as poor men; all of them had been misunderstood, taken for +madmen, reviled for bad sons, bad brothers, bad fathers; and yet in +after life each one had come to be the pride of his family, of his +country, of the civilized world. + +Her arguments fell upon fertile soil in the worst of Lucien's nature, +and spread corruption in his heart; for him, when his desires were +hot, all means were admissible. But--failure is high treason against +society; and when the fallen conqueror has run amuck through _bourgeois_ +virtues, and pulled down the pillars of society, small wonder that +society, finding Marius seated among the ruins, should drive him forth +in abhorrence. All unconsciously Lucien stood with the palm of genius +on the one hand and a shameful ending in the hulks upon the other; +and, on high upon the Sinai of the prophets, beheld no Dead Sea +covering the cities of the plain--the hideous winding-sheet of +Gomorrah. + +So well did Louise loosen the swaddling-bands of provincial life that +confined the heart and brain of her poet that the said poet determined +to try an experiment upon her. He wished to feel certain that this +proud conquest was his without laying himself open to the +mortification of a rebuff. The forthcoming soiree gave him his +opportunity. Ambition blended with his love. He loved, and he meant to +rise, a double desire not unnatural in young men with a heart to +satisfy and the battle of life to fight. Society, summoning all her +children to one banquet, arouses ambition in the very morning of life. +Youth is robbed of its charm, and generous thoughts are corrupted by +mercenary scheming. The idealist would fain have it otherwise, but +intrusive fact too often gives the lie to the fiction which we should +like to believe, making it impossible to paint the young man of the +nineteenth century other than he is. Lucien imagined that his scheming +was entirely prompted by good feeling, and persuaded himself that it +was done solely for his friend David's sake. + +He wrote a long letter to his Louise; he felt bolder, pen in hand, +than face to face. In a dozen sheets, copied out three several times, +he told her of his father's genius and blighted hopes and of his +grinding poverty. He described his beloved sister as an angel, and +David as another Cuvier, a great man of the future, and a father, +friend, and brother to him in the present. He should feel himself +unworthy of his Louise's love (his proudest distinction) if he did not +ask her to do for David all that she had done for him. He would give +up everything rather than desert David Sechard; David must witness his +success. It was one of those wild letters in which a young man points +a pistol at a refusal, letters full of boyish casuistry and the +incoherent reasoning of an idealist; a delicious tissue of words +embroidered here and there by the naive utterances that women love so +well--unconscious revelations of the writer's heart. + +Lucien left the letter with the housemaid, went to the office, and +spent the day in reading proofs, superintending the execution of +orders, and looking after the affairs of the printing-house. He said +not a word to David. While youth bears a child's heart, it is capable +of sublime reticence. Perhaps, too, Lucien began to dread the +Phocion's axe which David could wield when he chose, perhaps he was +afraid to meet those clear-sighted eyes that read the depths of his +soul. But when he read Chenier's poems with David, his secret rose +from his heart to his lips at the sting of a reproach that he felt as +the patient feels the probing of a wound. + + + +And now try to understand the thoughts that troubled Lucien's mind as +he went down from Angouleme. Was the great lady angry with him? Would +she receive David? Had he, Lucien, in his ambition, flung himself +headlong back into the depths of L'Houmeau? Before he set that kiss on +Louise's forehead, he had had time to measure the distance between a +queen and her favorite, so far had he come in five months, and he did +not tell himself that David could cross over the same ground in a +moment. Yet he did not know how completely the lower orders were +excluded from this upper world; he did not so much as suspect that a +second experiment of this kind meant ruin for Mme. de Bargeton. Once +accused and fairly convicted of a liking for _canaille_, Louise would be +driven from the place, her caste would shun her as men shunned a leper +in the Middle Ages. Nais might have broken the moral law, and her +whole circle, the clergy and the flower of the aristocracy, would have +defended her against the world through thick and then; but a breach of +another law, the offence of admitting all sorts of people to her house +--this was sin without remission. The sins of those in power are +always overlooked--once let them abdicate, and they shall pay the +penalty. And what was it but abdication to receive David? + +But if Lucien did not see these aspects of the question, his +aristocratic instinct discerned plenty of difficulties of another +kind, and he took alarm. A fine manner is not the invariable outcome +of noble feeling; and while no man at court had a nobler air than +Racine, Corneille looked very much like a cattle-dealer, and Descartes +might have been taken for an honest Dutch merchant; and visitors to La +Brede, meeting Montesquieu in a cotton nightcap, carrying a rake over +his shoulder, mistook him for a gardener. A knowledge of the world, +when it is not sucked in with mother's milk and part of the +inheritance of descent, is only acquired by education, supplemented by +certain gifts of chance--a graceful figure, distinction of feature, a +certain ring in the voice. All these, so important trifles, David +lacked, while Nature had bestowed them upon his friend. Of gentle +blood on the mother's side, Lucien was a Frank, even down to the +high-arched instep. David had inherited the physique of his father the +pressman and the flat foot of the Gael. Lucien could hear the shower +of jokes at David's expense; he could see Mme. de Bargeton's repressed +smile; and at length, without being exactly ashamed of his brother, he +made up his mind to disregard his first impulse and to think twice +before yielding to it in future. + +So, after the hour of poetry and self-sacrifice, after the reading of +verse that opened out before the friends the fields of literature in +the light of a newly-risen sun, the hour of worldly wisdom and of +scheming struck for Lucien. + +Down once more in L'Houmeau he wished that he had not written that +letter; he wished he could have it back again; for down the vista of +the future he caught a glimpse of the inexorable laws of the world. He +guessed that nothing succeeds like success, and it cost him something +to step down from the first rung of the scaling ladder by which he +meant to reach and storm the heights above. Pictures of his quiet and +simple life rose before him, pictures fair with the brightest colors +of blossoming love. There was David; what a genius David had--David +who had helped him so generously, and would die for him at need; he +thought of his mother, of how great a lady she was in her lowly lot, +and how she thought that he was as good as he was clever; then of his +sister so gracious in submission to her fate, of his own innocent +childhood and conscience as yet unstained, of budding hopes +undespoiled by rough winds, and at these thoughts the past broke into +flowers once more for his memory. + +Then he told himself that it was a far finer thing to hew his own way +through serried hostile mobs of aristocrats or philistines by repeated +successful strokes, than to reach the goal through a woman's favor. +Sooner or later his genius should shine out; it had been so with the +others, his predecessors; they had tamed society. Women would love him +when that day came! The example of Napoleon, which, unluckily for this +nineteenth century of ours, has filled a great many ordinary persons +with aspirations after extraordinary destinies,--the example of +Napoleon occurred to Lucien's mind. He flung his schemes to the winds +and blamed himself for thinking of them. For Lucien was so made that +he went from evil to good, or from good to evil, with the same +facility. + +Lucien had none of the scholar's love for his retreat; for the past +month indeed he had felt something like shame at the sight of the shop +front, where you could read-- + + POSTEL (LATE CHARDON), PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMIST, + +in yellow letters on a green ground. It was an offence to him that his +father's name should be thus posted up in a place where every carriage +passed. + +Every evening, when he closed the ugly iron gate and went up to +Beaulieu to give his arm to Mme. de Bargeton among the dandies of the +upper town, he chafed beyond all reason at the disparity between his +lodging and his fortune. + +"I love Mme. de Bargeton; perhaps in a few days she will be mine, yet +here I live in this rat-hole!" he said to himself this evening, as he +went down the narrow passage into the little yard behind the shop. +This evening bundles of boiled herbs were spread out along the wall, +the apprentice was scouring a caldron, and M. Postel himself, girded +about with his laboratory apron, was standing with a retort in his +hand, inspecting some chemical product while keeping an eye upon the +shop door, or if the eye happened to be engaged, he had at any rate an +ear for the bell. + +A strong scent of camomile and peppermint pervaded the yard and the +poor little dwelling at the side, which you reached by a short ladder, +with a rope on either side by way of hand-rail. Lucien's room was an +attic just under the roof. + +"Good-day, sonny," said M. Postel, that typical, provincial tradesman. +"Are you pretty middling? I have just been experimenting on treacle, +but it would take a man like your father to find what I am looking +for. Ah! he was a famous chemist, he was! If I had only known his gout +specific, you and I should be rolling along in our carriage this day." + +The little druggist, whose head was as thick as his heart was kind, +never let a week pass without some allusion to Chardon senior's +unlucky secretiveness as to that discovery, words that Lucien felt +like a stab. + +"It is a great pity," Lucien answered curtly. He was beginning to +think his father's apprentice prodigiously vulgar, though he had +blessed the man for his kindness, for honest Postel had helped his +master's widow and children more than once. + +"Why, what is the matter with you?" M. Postel inquired, putting down +his test tube on the laboratory table. + +"Is there a letter for me?" + +"Yes, a letter that smells like balm! it is lying on the corner near +my desk." + +Mme. de Bargeton's letter lying among the physic bottles in a +druggist's shop! Lucien sprang in to rescue it. + +"Be quick, Lucien! your dinner has been waiting an hour for you, it +will be cold!" a sweet voice called gently through a half-opened +window; but Lucien did not hear. + +"That brother of yours has gone crazy, mademoiselle," said Postel, +lifting his face. + +The old bachelor looked rather like a miniature brandy cask, +embellished by a painter's fancy, with a fat, ruddy countenance much +pitted with the smallpox; at the sight of Eve his face took a +ceremonious and amiable expression, which said plainly that he had +thoughts of espousing the daughter of his predecessor, but could not +put an end to the strife between love and interest in his heart. He +often said to Lucien, with a smile, "Your sister is uncommonly pretty, +and you are not so bad looking neither! Your father did everything +well." + +Eve was tall, dark-haired, dark of complexion, and blue-eyed; but +notwithstanding these signs of virile character, she was gentle, +tender-hearted, and devoted to those she loved. Her frank innocence, +her simplicity, her quiet acceptance of a hard-working life, her +character--for her life was above reproach--could not fail to win +David Sechard's heart. So, since the first time that these two had +met, a repressed and single-hearted love had grown up between them in +the German fashion, quietly, with no fervid protestations. In their +secret souls they thought of each other as if there were a bar between +that kept them apart; as if the thought were an offence against some +jealous husband; and hid their feelings from Lucien as though their +love in some way did him a wrong. David, moreover, had no confidence +in himself, and could not believe that Eve could care for him; Eve was +a penniless girl, and therefore shy. A real work-girl would have been +bolder; but Eve, gently bred, and fallen into poverty, resigned +herself to her dreary lot. Diffident as she seemed, she was in reality +proud, and would not make a single advance towards the son of a father +said to be rich. People who knew the value of a growing property, said +that the vineyard at Marsac was worth more than eighty thousand +francs, to say nothing of the traditional bits of land which old +Sechard used to buy as they came into the market, for old Sechard had +savings--he was lucky with his vintages, and a clever salesman. +Perhaps David was the only man in Angouleme who knew nothing of his +father's wealth. In David's eyes Marsac was a hovel bought in 1810 for +fifteen or sixteen thousand francs, a place that he saw once a year at +vintage time when his father walked him up and down among the vines +and boasted of an output of wine which the young printer never saw, +and he cared nothing about it. + +David was a student leading a solitary life; and the love that gained +even greater force in solitude, as he dwelt upon the difficulties in +the way, was timid, and looked for encouragement; for David stood more +in awe of Eve than a simple clerk of some high-born lady. He was +awkward and ill at ease in the presence of his idol, and as eager to +hurry away as he had been to come. He repressed his passion, and was +silent. Often of an evening, on some pretext of consulting Lucien, he +would leave the Place du Murier and go down through the Palet Gate as +far as L'Houmeau, but at the sight of the green iron railings his +heart failed. Perhaps he had come too late, Eve might think him a +nuisance; she would be in bed by this time no doubt; and so he turned +back. But though his great love had only appeared in trifles, Eve read +it clearly; she was proud, without a touch of vanity in her pride, of +the deep reverence in David's looks and words and manner towards her, +but it was the young printer's enthusiastic belief in Lucien that drew +her to him most of all. He had divined the way to win Eve. The mute +delights of this love of theirs differed from the transports of stormy +passion, as wildflowers in the fields from the brilliant flowers in +garden beds. Interchange of glances, delicate and sweet as blue +water-flowers on the surface of the stream; a look in either face, +vanishing as swiftly as the scent of briar-rose; melancholy, tender as +the velvet of moss--these were the blossoms of two rare natures, +springing up out of a rich and fruitful soil on foundations of rock. +Many a time Eve had seen revelations of the strength that lay below +the appearance of weakness, and made such full allowance for all that +David left undone, that the slightest word now might bring about a +closer union of soul and soul. + +Eve opened the door, and Lucien sat down without a word at the little +table on an X-shaped trestle. There was no tablecloth; the poor little +household boasted but three silver spoons and forks, and Eve had laid +them all for the dearly loved brother. + +"What have you there?" she asked, when she had set a dish on the +table, and put the extinguisher on the portable stove, where it had +been kept hot for him. + +Lucien did not answer. Eve took up a little plate, daintily garnished +with vine-leaves, and set it on the table with a jug full of cream. + +"There, Lucien, I have had strawberries for you." + +But Lucien was so absorbed in his letter that he did not hear a word. +Eve came to sit beside him without a murmur; for in a sister's love +for a brother it is an element of great pleasure to be treated without +ceremony. + +"Oh! what is it?" she cried as she saw tears shining in her brother's +eyes. + +"Nothing, nothing, Eve," he said, and putting his arm about her waist, +he drew her towards him and kissed her forehead, her hair, her throat, +with warmth that surprised her. + +"You are keeping something from me." + +"Well, then--she loves me." + +"I knew very well that you kissed me for somebody else," the poor +sister pouted, flushing red. + +"We shall all be happy," cried Lucien, swallowing great spoonfuls of +soup. + +"_We_?" echoed Eve. The same presentiment that had crossed David's mind +prompted her to add, "You will not care so much about us now." + +"How can you think that, if you know me?" + +Eve put out her hand and grasped his tightly; then she carried off the +empty plate and the brown earthen soup-tureen, and brought the dish +that she had made for him. But instead of eating his dinner, Lucien +read his letter over again; and Eve, discreet maiden, did not ask +another question, respecting her brother's silence. If he wished to +tell her about it, she could wait; if he did not, how could she ask +him to tell her? She waited. Here is the letter:-- + + + "MY FRIEND,--Why should I refuse to your brother in science the + help that I have lent you? All merits have equal rights in my + eyes; but you do not know the prejudices of those among whom I + live. We shall never make an aristocracy of ignorance understand + that intellect ennobles. If I have not sufficient influence to + compel them to accept M. David Sechard, I am quite willing to + sacrifice the worthless creatures to you. It would be a perfect + hecatomb in the antique manner. But, dear friend, you would not, + of course, ask me to leave them all in exchange for the society of + a person whose character and manner might not please me. I know + from your flatteries how easily friendship can be blinded. Will + you think the worse of me if I attach a condition to my consent? + In the interests of your future I should like to see your friend, + and know and decide for myself whether you are not mistaken. What + is this but the mother's anxious care of my dear poet, which I am + in duty bound to take? + + "LOUISE DE NEGREPELISSE." + + +Lucien had no suspicion of the art with which polite society puts +forward a "Yes" on the way to a "No," and a "No" that leads to a +"Yes." He took this note for a victory. David should go to Mme. de +Bargeton's house! David would shine there in all the majesty of his +genius! He raised his head so proudly in the intoxication of a victory +which increased his belief in himself and his ascendency over others, +his face was so radiant with the brightness of many hopes, that his +sister could not help telling him that he looked handsome. + +"If that woman has any sense, she must love you! And if so, to-night +she will be vexed, for all the ladies will try all sorts of coquetries +on you. How handsome you will look when you read your _Saint John in +Patmos_! If only I were a mouse, and could just slip in and see it! +Come, I have put your clothes out in mother's room." + +The mother's room bore witness to self-respecting poverty. There were +white curtains to the walnut wood bedstead, and a strip of cheap green +carpet at the foot. A chest of drawers with a wooden top, a +looking-glass, and a few walnut wood chairs completed the furniture. +The clock on the chimney-piece told of the old vanished days of +prosperity. White curtains hung in the windows, a gray flowered paper +covered the walls, and the tiled floor, colored and waxed by Eve +herself, shone with cleanliness. On the little round table in the +middle of the room stood a red tray with a pattern of gilt roses, and +three cups and a sugar-basin of Limoges porcelain. Eve slept in the +little adjoining closet, where there was just room for a narrow bed, +an old-fashioned low chair, and a work-table by the window; there was +about as much space as there is in a ship's cabin, and the door always +stood open for the sake of air. But if all these things spoke of great +poverty, the atmosphere was sedate and studious; and for those who knew +the mother and children, there was something touchingly appropriate in +their surroundings. + +Lucien was tying his cravat when David's step sounded outside in the +little yard, and in another moment the young printer appeared. From +his manner and looks he seemed to have come down in a hurry. + +"Well, David!" cried the ambitious poet, "we have gained the day! She +loves me! You shall come too." + +"No," David said with some confusion, "I came down to thank you for +this proof of friendship, but I have been thinking things over +seriously. My own life is cut out for me, Lucien. I am David Sechard, +printer to His Majesty in Angouleme, with my name at the bottom of the +bills posted on every wall. For people of that class, I am an artisan, +or I am in business, if you like it better, but I am a craftsman who +lives over a shop in the Rue de Beaulieu at the corner of the Place du +Murier. I have not the wealth of a Keller just yet, nor the name of a +Desplein, two sorts of power that the nobles still try to ignore, and +--I am so far agreed with them--this power is nothing without a +knowledge of the world and the manners of a gentleman. How am I to +prove my claim to this sudden elevation? I should only make myself a +laughing-stock for nobles and _bourgeoisie_ to boot. As for you, your +position is different. A foreman is not committed to anything. You are +busy gaining knowledge that will be indispensable by and by; you can +explain your present work by your future. And, in any case, you can +leave your place to-morrow and begin something else; you might study +law or diplomacy, or go into civil service. Nobody had docketed and +pigeon-holed _you_, in fact. Take advantage of your social maiden fame +to walk alone and grasp honors. Enjoy all pleasures gladly, even +frivolous pleasures. I wish you luck, Lucien; I shall enjoy your +success; you will be like a second self for me. Yes, in my own +thoughts I shall live your life. You shall have the holiday life, in +the glare of the world and among the swift working springs of +intrigue. I will lead the work-a-day life, the tradesman's life of +sober toil, and the patient labor of scientific research. + +"You shall be our aristocracy," he went on, looking at Eve as he +spoke. "If you totter, you shall have my arm to steady you. If you +have reason to complain of the treachery of others, you will find a +refuge in our hearts, the love there will never change. And influence +and favor and the goodwill of others might fail us if we were two; we +should stand in each other's way; go forward, you can tow me after you +if it comes to that. So far from envying you, I will dedicate my life +to yours. The thing that you have just done for me, when you risked +the loss of your benefactress, your love it may be, rather than +forsake or disown me, that little thing, so great as it was--ah, well, +Lucien, that in itself would bind me to you forever if we were not +brothers already. Have no remorse, no concern over seeming to take the +larger share. This one-sided bargain is exactly to my taste. And, +after all, suppose that you should give me a pang now and again, who +knows that I shall not still be your debtor all my life long?" + +He looked timidly towards Eve as he spoke; her eyes were full of +tears, she saw all that lay below the surface. + +"In fact," he went on, turning to Lucien, who stood amazed at this, +"you are well made, you have a graceful figure, you wear your clothes +with an air, you look like a gentleman in that blue coat of yours with +the yellow buttons and the plain nankeen trousers; now I should look +like a workingman among those people, I should be awkward and out of +my element, I should say foolish things, or say nothing at all; but as +for you, you can overcome any prejudice as to names by taking your +mother's; you can call yourself Lucien de Rubempre; I am and always +shall be David Sechard. In this society that you frequent, everything +tells for you, everything would tell against me. You were born to +shine in it. Women will worship that angel face of yours; won't they, +Eve?" + +Lucien sprang up and flung his arms about David. David's humility had +made short work of many doubts and plenty of difficulties. Was it +possible not to feel twice tenderly towards this friend, who by the +way of friendship had come to think the very thoughts that he, Lucien, +had reached through ambition? The aspirant for love and honors felt +that the way had been made smooth for him; the young man and the +comrade felt all his heart go out towards his friend. + +It was one of those moments that come very seldom in our lives, when +all the forces in us are sweetly strung, and every chord vibrating +gives out full resonance. + +And yet, this goodness of a noble nature increased Lucien's human +tendency to take himself as the centre of things. Do not all of us say +more or less, "_L'Etat, c'est moi!_" with Louis Quatorze? Lucien's +mother and sister had concentrated all their tenderness on him, David +was his devoted friend; he was accustomed to see the three making +every effort for him in secret, and consequently he had all the faults +of a spoiled eldest son. The noble is eaten up with the egoism which +their unselfishness was fostering in Lucien; and Mme. de Bargeton was +doing her best to develop the same fault by inciting him to forget all +that he owed to his sister, and mother, and David. He was far from +doing so as yet; but was there not ground for the fear that as his +sphere of ambition widened, his whole thought perforce would be how he +might maintain himself in it? + +When emotion had subsided, David had a suggestion to make. He thought +that Lucien's poem, _Saint John in Patmos_, was possibly too biblical to +be read before an audience but little familiar with apocalyptic +poetry. Lucien, making his first appearance before the most exacting +public in the Charente, seemed to be nervous. David advised him to +take Andre de Chenier and substitute certain pleasure for a dubious +delight. Lucien was a perfect reader, the listeners would enjoy +listening to him, and his modesty would doubtless serve him well. Like +most young people, the pair were endowing the rest of the world with +their own intelligence and virtues; for if youth that has not yet gone +astray is pitiless for the sins of others, it is ready, on the other +hand, to put a magnificent faith in them. It is only, in fact, after a +good deal of experience of life that we recognize the truth of +Raphael's great saying--"To comprehend is to equal." + +The power of appreciating poetry is rare, generally speaking, in +France; _esprit_ soon dries up the source of the sacred tears of +ecstasy; nobody cares to be at the trouble of deciphering the sublime, +of plumbing the depths to discover the infinite. Lucien was about to +have his first experience of the ignorance and indifference of +worldlings. He went round by way of the printing office for David's +volume of poetry. + +The two lovers were left alone, and David had never felt more +embarrassed in his life. Countless terrors seized upon him; he half +wished, half feared that Eve would praise him; he longed to run away, +for even modesty is not exempt from coquetry. David was afraid to +utter a word that might seem to beg for thanks; everything that he +could think of put him in some false position, so he held his tongue +and looked guilty. Eve, guessing the agony of modesty, was enjoying +the pause; but when David twisted his hat as if he meant to go, she +looked at him and smiled. + +"Monsieur David," she said, "if you are not going to pass the evening +at Mme. de Bargeton's, we can spend the time together. It is fine; +shall we take a walk along the Charente? We will have a talk about +Lucien." + +David longed to fling himself at the feet of this delicious girl. Eve +had rewarded him beyond his hopes by that tone in her voice; the +kindness of her accent had solved the difficulties of the position, +her suggestion was something better than praise; it was the first +grace given by love. + +"But give me time to dress!" she said, as David made as if to go at +once. + +David went out; he who all his life long had not known one tune from +another, was humming to himself; honest Postel hearing him with +surprise, conceived a vehement suspicion of Eve's feelings towards the +printer. + + + +The most trifling things that happened that evening made a great +impression on Lucien, and his character was peculiarly susceptible to +first impressions. Like all inexperienced lovers he arrived so early +that Louise was not in the drawing-room; but M. de Bargeton was there, +alone. Lucien had already begun to serve his apprenticeship in the +practice of the small deceits with which the lover of a married woman +pays for his happiness--deceits through which, moreover, she learns +the extent of her power; but so far Lucien had not met the lady's +husband face to face. + +M. de Bargeton's intellect was of the limited kind, exactly poised on +the border line between harmless vacancy, with some glimmerings of +sense, and the excessive stupidity that can neither take in nor give +out any idea. He was thoroughly impressed with the idea of doing his +duty in society; and, doing his utmost to be agreeable, had adopted +the smile of an opera dancer as his sole method of expression. +Satisfied, he smiled; dissatisfied, he smiled again. He smiled at good +news and evil tidings; with slight modifications the smile did duty on +all occasions. If he was positively obliged to express his personal +approval, a complacent laugh reinforced the smile; but he never +vouchsafed a word until driven to the last extremity. A _tete-a-tete_ +put him in the one embarrassment of his vegetative existence, for then +he was obliged to look for something to say in the vast blank of his +vacant interior. He usually got out of the difficulty by a return to +the artless ways of childhood; he thought aloud, took you into his +confidence concerning the smallest details of his existence, his +physical wants, the small sensations which did duty for ideas with +him. He never talked about the weather, nor did he indulge in the +ordinary commonplaces of conversation--the way of escape provided for +weak intellects; he plunged you into the most intimate and personal +topics. + +"I took veal this morning to please Mme. de Bargeton, who is very fond +of veal, and my stomach has been very uneasy since," he would tell +you. "I knew how it would be; it never suits me. How do you explain +it?" Or, very likely-- + +"I am just about to ring for a glass of _eau sucree_; will you have some +at the same time?" + +Or, "I am going to take a ride to-morrow; I am going over to see my +father-in-law." + +These short observations did not permit of discussion; a "Yes" or +"No," extracted from his interlocutor, the conversation dropped dead. +Then M. de Bargeton mutely implored his visitor to come to his +assistance. Turning westward his old asthmatic pug-dog countenance, he +gazed at you with big, lustreless eyes, in a way that said, "You were +saying?" + +The people whom he loved best were bores anxious to talk about +themselves; he listened to them with an unfeigned and delicate +interest which so endeared him to the species that all the twaddlers +of Angouleme credited M. de Bargeton with more understanding than he +chose to show, and were of the opinion that he was underrated. So it +happened that when these persons could find nobody else to listen to +them, they went off to give M. de Bargeton the benefit of the rest of +the story, argument, or what not, sure beforehand of his eulogistic +smile. Madame de Bargeton's rooms were always crowded, and generally +her husband felt quite at ease. He interested himself in the smallest +details; he watched those who came in and bowed and smiled, and +brought the new arrivals to his wife; he lay in wait for departing +visitors, and went with them to the door, taking leave of them with +that eternal smile. When conversation grew lively, and he saw that +every one was interested in one thing or another, he stood, happy and +mute, planted like a swan on both feet, listening, to all appearance, +to a political discussion; or he looked over the card-players' hands +without a notion of what it was all about, for he could not play at +any game; or he walked about and took snuff to promote digestion. +Anais was the bright side of his life; she made it unspeakably +pleasant for him. Stretched out at full length in his armchair, he +watched admiringly while she did her part as hostess, for she talked +for him. It was a pleasure, too, to him to try to see the point in her +remarks; and as it was often a good while before he succeeded, his +smiles appeared after a delay, like the explosion of a shell which has +entered the earth and worked up again. His respect for his wife, +moreover, almost amounted to adoration. And so long as we can adore, +is there not happiness enough in life? Anais' husband was as docile as +a child who asks nothing better than to be told what to do; and, +generous and clever woman as she was, she had taken no undue advantage +of his weaknesses. She had taken care of him as you take care of a +cloak; she kept him brushed, neat, and tidy, looked closely after him, +and humored him; and humored, looked after, brushed, kept tidy, and +cared for, M. de Bargeton had come to feel an almost dog-like +affection for his wife. It is so easy to give happiness that costs +nothing! Mme. de Bargeton, knowing that her husband had no pleasure +but in good cheer, saw that he had good dinners; she had pity upon +him, she had never uttered a word of complaint; indeed, there were +people who could not understand that a woman might keep silence +through pride, and argued that M. de Bargeton must possess good +qualities hidden from public view. Mme. de Bargeton had drilled him +into military subordination; he yielded a passive obedience to his +wife. "Go and call on Monsieur So-and-So or Madame Such-an-One," she +would say, and he went forthwith, like a soldier at the word of +command. He stood at attention in her presence, and waited motionless +for his orders. + +There was some talk about this time of nominating the mute gentleman +for a deputy. Lucien as yet had not lifted the veil which hid such an +unimaginable character; indeed, he had scarcely frequented the house +long enough. M. de Bargeton, spread at full length in his great chair, +appeared to see and understand all that was going on; his silence +added to his dignity, and his figure inspired Lucien with a prodigious +awe. It is the wont of imaginative natures to magnify everything, or +to find a soul to inhabit every shape; and Lucien took this gentleman, +not for a granite guard-post, but for a formidable sphinx, and thought +it necessary to conciliate him. + +"I am the first comer," he said, bowing with more respect than people +usually showed the worthy man. + +"That is natural enough," said M. de Bargeton. + +Lucien took the remark for an epigram; the lady's husband was jealous, +he thought; he reddened under it, looked in the glass and tried to +give himself a countenance. + +"You live in L'Houmeau," said M. de Bargeton, "and people who live a +long way off always come earlier than those who live near by." + +"What is the reason of that?" asked Lucien politely. + +"I don't know," answered M. de Bargeton, relapsing into immobility. + +"You have not cared to find out," Lucien began again; "any one who +could make an observation could discover the cause." + +"Ah!" said M. de Bargeton, "final causes! Eh! eh! . . ." + +The conversation came to a dead stop; Lucien racked his brains to +resuscitate it. + +"Mme. de Bargeton is dressing, no doubt," he began, shuddering at the +silliness of the question. + +"Yes, she is dressing," her husband naturally answered. + +Lucien looked up at the ceiling and vainly tried to think of something +else to say. As his eyes wandered over the gray painted joists and the +spaces of plaster between, he saw, not without qualms, that the little +chandelier with the old-fashioned cut-glass pendants had been stripped +of its gauze covering and filled with wax candles. All the covers had +been removed from the furniture, and the faded flowered silk damask +had come to light. These preparations meant something extraordinary. +The poet looked at his boots, and misgivings about his costume arose +in his mind. Grown stupid with dismay, he turned and fixed his eyes on +a Japanese jar standing on a begarlanded console table of the time of +Louis Quinze; then, recollecting that he must conciliate Mme. de +Bargeton's husband, he tried to find out if the good gentleman had a +hobby of any sort in which he might be humored. + +"You seldom leave the city, monsieur?" he began, returning to M. de +Bargeton. + +"Very seldom." + +Silence again. M. de Bargeton watched Lucien's slightest movements +like a suspicious cat; the young man's presence disturbed him. Each +was afraid of the other. + +"Can he feel suspicious of my attentions?" thought Lucien; "he seems +to be anything but friendly." + +Lucien was not a little embarrassed by the uneasy glances that the +other gave him as he went to and fro, when luckily for him, the old +man-servant (who wore livery for the occasion) announced "M. du +Chatelet." The Baron came in, very much at ease, greeted his friend +Bargeton, and favored Lucien with the little nod then in vogue, which +the poet in his mind called purse-proud impertinence. + +Sixte du Chatelet appeared in a pair of dazzling white trousers with +invisible straps that kept them in shape. He wore pumps and thread +stockings; the black ribbon of his eyeglass meandered over a white +waistcoat, and the fashion and elegance of Paris was strikingly +apparent in his black coat. He was indeed just the faded beau who +might be expected from his antecedents, though advancing years had +already endowed him with a certain waist-girth which somewhat exceeded +the limits of elegance. He had dyed the hair and whiskers grizzled by +his sufferings during his travels, and this gave a hard look to his +face. The skin which had once been so delicate had been tanned to the +copper-red color of Europeans from India; but in spite of his absurd +pretensions to youth, you could still discern traces of the Imperial +Highness' charming private secretary in du Chatelet's general +appearance. He put up his eyeglass and stared at his rival's nankeen +trousers, at his boots, at his waistcoat, at the blue coat made by the +Angouleme tailor, he looked him over from head to foot, in short, then +he coolly returned his eyeglass to his waistcoat pocket with a gesture +that said, "I am satisfied." And Lucien, eclipsed at this moment by +the elegance of the inland revenue department, thought that it would +be his turn by and by, when he should turn a face lighted up with +poetry upon the assembly; but this prospect did not prevent him from +feeling the sharp pang that succeeded to the uncomfortable sense of M. +de Bargeton's imagined hostility. The Baron seemed to bring all the +weight of his fortune to bear upon him, the better to humiliate him in +his poverty. M. de Bargeton had counted on having no more to say, and +his soul was dismayed by the pause spent by the rivals in mutual +survey; he had a question which he kept for desperate emergencies, +laid up in his mind, as it were, against a rainy day. Now was the +proper time to bring it out. + +"Well, monsieur," he said, looking at Chatelet with an important air, +"is there anything fresh? anything that people are talking about?" + +"Why, the latest thing is M. Chardon," Chatelet said maliciously. "Ask +him. Have you brought some charming poet for us?" inquired the +vivacious Baron, adjusting the side curl that had gone astray on his +temple. + +"I should have asked you whether I had succeeded," Lucien answered; +"you have been before me in the field of verse." + +"Pshaw!" said the other, "a few vaudevilles, well enough in their way, +written to oblige, a song now and again to suit some occasion, lines +for music, no good without the music, and my long Epistle to a Sister +of Bonaparte (ungrateful that he was), will not hand down my name to +posterity." + +At this moment Mme. de Bargeton appeared in all the glory of an +elaborate toilette. She wore a Jewess' turban, enriched with an +Eastern clasp. The cameos on her neck gleamed through the gauze scarf +gracefully wound about her shoulders; the sleeves of her printed +muslin dress were short so as to display a series of bracelets on her +shapely white arms. Lucien was charmed with this theatrical style of +dress. M. du Chatelet gallantly plied the queen with fulsome +compliments, that made her smile with pleasure; she was so glad to be +praised in Lucien's hearing. But she scarcely gave her dear poet a +glance, and met Chatelet with a mortifying civility that kept him at a +distance. + +By this time the guests began to arrive. First and foremost appeared +the Bishop and his Vicar-General, dignified and reverend figures both, +though no two men could well be more unlike, his lordship being tall +and attenuated, and his acolyte short and fat. Both churchmen's eyes +were bright; but while the Bishop was pallid, his Vicar-General's +countenance glowed with high health. Both were impassive, and +gesticulated but little; both appeared to be prudent men, and their +silence and reserve were supposed to hide great intellectual powers. + +Close upon the two ecclesiastics followed Mme. de Chandour and her +husband, a couple so extraordinary that those who are unfamiliar with +provincial life might be tempted to think that such persons are purely +imaginary. Amelie de Chandour posed as the rival queen of Angouleme; +her husband, M. de Chandour, known in the circle as Stanislas, was a +_ci-devant_ young man, slim still at five-and-forty, with a countenance +like a sieve. His cravat was always tied so as to present two menacing +points--one spike reached the height of his right ear, the other +pointed downwards to the red ribbon of his cross. His coat-tails were +violently at strife. A cut-away waistcoat displayed the ample, +swelling curves of a stiffly-starched shirt fastened by massive gold +studs. His dress, in fact, was exaggerated, till he looked almost like +a living caricature, which no one could behold for the first time with +gravity. + +Stanislas looked himself over from top to toe with a kind of +satisfaction; he verified the number of his waistcoat buttons, and +followed the curving outlines of his tight-fitting trousers with fond +glances that came to a standstill at last on the pointed tips of his +shoes. When he ceased to contemplate himself in this way, he looked +towards the nearest mirror to see if his hair still kept in curl; +then, sticking a finger in his waistcoat pocket, he looked about him +at the women with happy eyes, flinging his head back in three-quarters +profile with all the airs of a king of the poultry-yard, airs which +were prodigiously admired by the aristocratic circle of which he was +the beau. There was a strain of eighteenth century grossness, as a +rule, in his talk; a detestable kind of conversation which procured +him some success with women--he made them laugh. M. du Chatelet was +beginning to give this gentleman some uneasiness; and, as a matter of +fact, since Mme. de Bargeton had taken him up, the lively interest +taken by the women in the Byron of Angouleme was distinctly on the +increase. His coxcomb superciliousness tickled their curiosity; he +posed as the man whom nothing can arouse from his apathy, and his +jaded Sultan airs were like a challenge. + +Amelie de Chandour, short, plump, fair-complexioned, and dark-haired, +was a poor actress; her voice was loud, like everything else about +her; her head, with its load of feathers in winter and flowers in +summer, was never still for a moment. She had a fine flow of +conversation, though she could never bring a sentence to an end +without a wheezing accompaniment from an asthma, to which she would +not confess. + +M. de Saintot, otherwise Astolphe, President of the Agricultural +Society, a tall, stout, high-colored personage, usually appeared in +the wake of his wife, Elisa, a lady with a countenance like a withered +fern, called Lili by her friends--a baby name singularly at variance +with its owner's character and demeanor. Mme. de Saintot was a solemn +and extremely pious woman, and a very trying partner at a game of +cards. Astolphe was supposed to be a scientific man of the first rank. +He was as ignorant as a carp, but he had compiled the articles on +Sugar and Brandy for a Dictionary of Agriculture by wholesale plunder +of newspaper articles and pillage of previous writers. It was believed +all over the department that M. Saintot was engaged upon a treatise on +modern husbandry; but though he locked himself into his study every +morning, he had not written a couple of pages in a dozen years. If +anybody called to see him, he always contrived to be discovered +rummaging among his papers, hunting for a stray note or mending a pen; +but he spent the whole time in his study on puerilities, reading the +newspaper through from end to end, cutting figures out of corks with +his penknife, and drawing patterns on his blotting-paper. He would +turn over the leaves of his Cicero to see if anything applicable to +the events of the day might catch his eye, and drag his quotation by +the heels into the conversation that evening saying, "There is a +passage in Cicero which might have been written to suit modern times," +and out came his phrase, to the astonishment of his audience. +"Really," they said among themselves, "Astolphe is a well of +learning." The interesting fact circulated all over the town, and +sustained the general belief in M. de Saintot's abilities. + +After this pair came M. de Bartas, known as Adrien among the circle. +It was M. de Bartas who boomed out his song in a bass voice, and made +prodigious claims to musical knowledge. His self-conceit had taken a +stand upon solfeggi; he began by admiring his appearance while he +sang, passed thence to talking about music, and finally to talking of +nothing else. His musical tastes had become a monomania; he grew +animated only on the one subject of music; he was miserable all +evening until somebody begged him to sing. When he had bellowed one of +his airs, he revived again; strutted about, raised himself on his +heels, and received compliments with a deprecating air; but modesty +did not prevent him from going from group to group for his meed of +praise; and when there was no more to be said about the singer, he +returned to the subject of the song, discussing its difficulties or +extolling the composer. + +M. Alexandre de Brebian performed heroic exploits in sepia; he +disfigured the walls of his friends' rooms with a swarm of crude +productions, and spoiled all the albums in the department. M. +Alexandre de Brebian and M. de Bartas came together, each with his +friend's wife on his arm, a cross-cornered arrangement which gossip +declared to be carried out to the fullest extent. As for the two +women, Mesdames Charlotte de Brebian and Josephine de Bartas, or +Lolotte and Fifine, as they were called, both took an equal interest +in a scarf, or the trimming of a dress, or the reconciliation of +several irreconcilable colors; both were eaten up with a desire to +look like Parisiennes, and neglected their homes, where everything +went wrong. But if they dressed like dolls in tightly-fitting gowns of +home manufacture, and exhibited outrageous combinations of crude +colors upon their persons, their husbands availed themselves of the +artist's privilege and dressed as they pleased, and curious it was to +see the provincial dowdiness of the pair. In their threadbare clothes +they looked like the supernumeraries that represent rank and fashion +at stage weddings in third-rate theatres. + +One of the queerest figures in the rooms was M. le Comte de Senonches, +known by the aristocratic name of Jacques, a mighty hunter, lean and +sunburned, a haughty gentleman, about as amiable as a wild boar, as +suspicious as a Venetian, and jealous as a Moor, who lived on terms of +the friendliest and most perfect intimacy with M. du Hautoy, otherwise +Francis, the friend of the house. + +Madame de Senonches (Zephirine) was a tall, fine-looking woman, though +her complexion was spoiled already by pimples due to liver complaint, +on which grounds she was said to be exacting. With a slender figure +and delicate proportions, she could afford to indulge in languid +manners, savoring somewhat of affectation, but revealing passion and +the consciousness that every least caprice will be gratified by love. + +Francis, the house friend, was rather distinguished-looking. He had +given up his consulship in Valence, and sacrificed his diplomatic +prospects to live near Zephirine (also known as Zizine) in Angouleme. +He had taken the household in charge, he superintended the children's +education, taught them foreign languages, and looked after the +fortunes of M. and Mme. de Senonches with the most complete devotion. +Noble Angouleme, administrative Angouleme, and _bourgeois_ Angouleme +alike had looked askance for a long while at this phenomenon of the +perfect union of three persons; but finally the mysterious conjugal +trinity appeared to them so rare and pleasing a spectacle, that if M. +du Hautoy had shown any intention of marrying, he would have been +thought monstrously immoral. Mme. de Senonches, however, had a lady +companion, a goddaughter, and her excessive attachment to this Mlle. +de la Haye was beginning to raise surmises of disquieting mysteries; +it was thought, in spite of some impossible discrepancies in dates, +that Francoise de la Haye bore a striking likeness to Francis du +Hautoy. + +When "Jacques" was shooting in the neighborhood, people used to +inquire after Francis, and Jacques would discourse on his steward's +little ailments, and talk of his wife in the second place. So curious +did this blindness seem in a man of jealous temper, that his greatest +friends used to draw him out on the topic for the amusement of others +who did not know of the mystery. M. du Hautoy was a finical dandy +whose minute care of himself had degenerated into mincing affectation +and childishness. He took an interest in his cough, his appetite, his +digestion, his night's rest. Zephirine had succeeded in making a +valetudinarian of her factotum; she coddled him and doctored him; she +crammed him with delicate fare, as if he had been a fine lady's +lap-dog; she embroidered waistcoats for him, and pocket-handkerchiefs +and cravats until he became so used to wearing finery that she +transformed him into a kind of Japanese idol. Their understanding was +perfect. In season and out of season Zizine consulted Francis with a +look, and Francis seemed to take his ideas from Zizine's eyes. They +frowned and smiled together, and seemingly took counsel of each other +before making the simplest commonplace remark. + +The largest landowner in the neighborhood, a man whom every one +envied, was the Marquis de Pimentel; he and his wife, between them, +had an income of forty thousand livres, and spent their winters in +Paris. This evening they had driven into Angouleme in their caleche, +and had brought their neighbors, the Baron and Baroness de Rastignac +and their party, the Baroness' aunt and daughters, two charming young +ladies, penniless girls who had been carefully brought up, and were +dressed in the simple way that sets off natural loveliness. + +These personages, beyond question the first in the company, met with a +reception of chilling silence; the respect paid to them was full of +jealousy, especially as everybody saw that Mme. de Bargeton paid +marked attention to the guests. The two families belonged to the very +small minority who hold themselves aloof from provincial gossip, +belong to no clique, live quietly in retirement, and maintain a +dignified reserve. M. de Pimentel and M. de Rastignac, for instance, +were addressed by their names in full, and no length of acquaintance +had brought their wives and daughters into the select coterie of +Angouleme; both families were too nearly connected with the Court to +compromise themselves through provincial follies. + +The Prefect and the General in command of the garrison were the last +comers, and with them came the country gentleman who had brought the +treatise on silkworms to David that very morning. Evidently he was the +mayor of some canton or other, and a fine estate was his sufficient +title to gentility; but from his appearance, it was plain that he was +quite unused to polite society. He looked uneasy in his clothes, he +was at a loss to know what to do with his hands, he shifted about from +one foot to another as he spoke, and half rose and sat down again when +anybody spoke to him. He seemed ready to do some menial service; he +was obsequious, nervous, and grave by turns, laughing eagerly at every +joke, listening with servility; and occasionally, imagining that +people were laughing at him, he assumed a knowing air. His treatise +weighed upon his mind; again and again he tried to talk about +silkworms; but the luckless wight happened first upon M. de Bartas, +who talked music in reply, and next on M. de Saintot, who quoted +Cicero to him; and not until the evening was half over did the mayor +meet with sympathetic listeners in Mme. and Mlle. du Brossard, a +widowed gentlewoman and her daughter. + +Mme. and Mlle. du Brossard were not the least interesting persons in +the clique, but their story may be told in a single phrase--they were +as poor as they were noble. In their dress there was just that tinge +of pretension which betrayed carefully hidden penury. The daughter, a +big, heavy young woman of seven-and-twenty, was supposed to be a good +performer on the piano, and her mother praised her in season and out +of season in the clumsiest way. No eligible man had any taste which +Camille did not share on her mother's authoritative statement. Mme. du +Brossard, in her anxiety to establish her child, was capable of saying +that her dear Camille liked nothing so much as a roving life from one +garrison to another; and before the evening was out, that she was sure +her dear Camille liked a quiet country farmhouse existence of all +things. Mother and daughter had the pinched sub-acid dignity +characteristic of those who have learned by experience the exact value +of expressions of sympathy; they belonged to a class which the world +delights to pity; they had been the objects of the benevolent interest +of egoism; they had sounded the empty void beneath the consoling +formulas with which the world ministers to the necessities of the +unfortunate. + +M. de Severac was fifty-nine years old, and a childless widower. +Mother and daughter listened, therefore, with devout admiration to all +that he told them about his silkworm nurseries. + +"My daughter has always been fond of animals," said the mother. "And +as women are especially interested in the silk which the little +creatures produce, I shall ask permission to go over to Severac, so +that my Camille may see how the silk is spun. My Camille is so +intelligent, she will grasp anything that you tell her in a moment. +Did she not understand one day the inverse ratio of the squares of +distances!" + +This was the remark that brought the conversation between Mme. du +Brossard and M. de Severac to a glorious close after Lucien's reading +that night. + +A few habitues slipped in familiarly among the rest, so did one or two +eldest sons; shy, mute young men tricked out in gorgeous jewelry, and +highly honored by an invitation to this literary solemnity, the +boldest men among them so far shook off the weight of awe as to +chatter a good deal with Mlle. de la Haye. The women solemnly arranged +themselves in a circle, and the men stood behind them. It was a quaint +assemblage of wrinkled countenances and heterogeneous costumes, but +none the less it seemed very alarming to Lucien, and his heart beat +fast when he felt that every one was looking at him. His assurance +bore the ordeal with some difficulty in spite of the encouraging +example of Mme. de Bargeton, who welcomed the most illustrious +personages of Angouleme with ostentatious courtesy and elaborate +graciousness; and the uncomfortable feeling that oppressed him was +aggravated by a trifling matter which any one might have foreseen, +though it was bound to come as an unpleasant shock to a young man with +so little experience of the world. Lucien, all eyes and ears, noticed +that no one except Louise, M. de Bargeton, the Bishop, and some few +who wished to please the mistress of the house, spoke of him as M. de +Rubempre; for his formidable audience he was M. Chardon. Lucien's +courage sank under their inquisitive eyes. He could read his plebeian +name in the mere movements of their lips, and hear the anticipatory +criticisms made in the blunt, provincial fashion that too often +borders on rudeness. He had not expected this prolonged ordeal of +pin-pricks; it put him still more out of humor with himself. He grew +impatient to begin the reading, for then he could assume an attitude +which should put an end to his mental torments; but Jacques was giving +Mme. de Pimentel the history of his last day's sport; Adrien was +holding forth to Mlle. Laure de Rastignac on Rossini, the newly-risen +music star, and Astolphe, who had got by heart a newspaper paragraph +on a patent plow, was giving the Baron the benefit of the description. +Lucien, luckless poet that he was, did not know that there was scarce +a soul in the room besides Mme. de Bargeton who could understand +poetry. The whole matter-of-fact assembly was there by a +misapprehension, nor did they, for the most part, know what they had +come out for to see. There are some words that draw a public as +unfailingly as the clash of cymbals, the trumpet, or the mountebank's +big drum; "beauty," "glory," "poetry," are words that bewitch the +coarsest intellect. + +When every one had arrived; when the buzz of talk ceased after +repeated efforts on the part of M. de Bargeton, who, obedient to his +wife, went round the room much as the beadle makes the circle of the +church, tapping the pavement with his wand; when silence, in fact, was +at last secured, Lucien went to the round table near Mme. de Bargeton. +A fierce thrill of excitement ran through him as he did so. He +announced in an uncertain voice that, to prevent disappointment, he +was about to read the masterpieces of a great poet, discovered only +recently (for although Andre de Chenier's poems appeared in 1819, no +one in Angouleme had so much as heard of him). Everybody interpreted +this announcement in one way--it was a shift of Mme. de Bargeton's, +meant to save the poet's self-love and to put the audience at ease. + +Lucien began with _Le Malade_, and the poem was received with a murmur +of applause; but he followed it with _L'Aveugle_, which proved too great +a strain upon the average intellect. None but artists or those endowed +with the artistic temperament can understand and sympathize with him +in the diabolical torture of that reading. If poetry is to be rendered +by the voice, and if the listener is to grasp all that it means, the +most devout attention is essential; there should be an intimate +alliance between the reader and his audience, or swift and subtle +communication of the poet's thought and feeling becomes impossible. +Here this close sympathy was lacking, and Lucien in consequence was in +the position of an angel who should endeavor to sing of heaven amid +the chucklings of hell. An intelligent man in the sphere most +stimulating to his faculties can see in every direction, like a snail; +he has the keen scent of a dog, the ears of a mole; he can hear, and +feel, and see all that is going on around him. A musician or a poet +knows at once whether his audience is listening in admiration or fails +to follow him, and feels it as the plant that revives or droops under +favorable or unfavorable conditions. The men who had come with their +wives had fallen to discussing their own affairs; by the acoustic law +before mentioned, every murmur rang in Lucien's ear; he saw all the +gaps caused by the spasmodic workings of jaws sympathetically +affected, the teeth that seemed to grin defiance at him. + +When, like the dove in the deluge, he looked round for any spot on +which his eyes might rest, he saw nothing but rows of impatient faces. +Their owners clearly were waiting for him to make an end; they had +come together to discuss questions of practical interest. With the +exceptions of Laure de Rastignac, the Bishop, and two or three of the +young men, they one and all looked bored. As a matter of fact, those +who understand poetry strive to develop the germs of another poetry, +quickened within them by the poet's poetry; but this glacial audience, +so far from attaining to the spirit of the poet, did not even listen +to the letter. + +Lucien felt profoundly discouraged; he was damp with chilly +perspiration; a glowing glance from Louise, to whom he turned, gave +him courage to persevere to the end, but this poet's heart was +bleeding from countless wounds. + +"Do you find this very amusing, Fifine?" inquired the wizened Lili, +who perhaps had expected some kind of gymnastics. + +"Don't ask me what I think, dear; I cannot keep my eyes open when any +one begins to read aloud." + +"I hope that Nais will not give us poetry often in the evenings," said +Francis. "If I am obliged to attend while somebody reads aloud after +dinner, it upsets my digestion." + +"Poor dearie," whispered Zephirine, "take a glass of eau _sucree_." + +"It was very well declaimed," said Alexandre, "but I like whist better +myself." + +After this dictum, which passed muster as a joke from the play on the +word "whist," several card-players were of the opinion that the +reader's voice needed a rest, and on this pretext one or two couples +slipped away into the card-room. But Louise, and the Bishop, and +pretty Laure de Rastignac besought Lucien to continue, and this time +he caught the attention of his audience with Chenier's spirited +reactionary _Iambes_. Several persons, carried away by his impassioned +delivery, applauded the reading without understanding the sense. +People of this sort are impressed by vociferation, as a coarse palate +is ticked by strong spirits. + +During the interval, as they partook of ices, Zephirine despatched +Francis to examine the volume, and informed her neighbor Amelie that +the poetry was in print. + +Amelie brightened visibly. + +"Why, that is easily explained," said she. "M. de Rubempre works for a +printer. It is as if a pretty woman should make her own dresses," she +added, looking at Lolotte. + +"He printed his poetry himself!" said the women among themselves. + +"Then, why does he call himself M. de Rubempre?" inquired Jacques. "If +a noble takes a handicraft, he ought to lay his name aside." + +"So he did as a matter of fact," said Zizine, "but his name was +plebeian, and he took his mother's name, which is noble." + +"Well, if his verses are printed, we can read them for ourselves," +said Astolphe. + +This piece of stupidity complicated the question, until Sixte du +Chatelet condescended to inform these unlettered folk that the +prefatory announcement was no oratorical flourish, but a statement of +fact, and added that the poems had been written by a Royalist brother +of Marie-Joseph Chenier, the Revolutionary leader. All Angouleme, +except Mme. de Rastignac and her two daughters and the Bishop, who had +really felt the grandeur of the poetry, were mystified, and took +offence at the hoax. There was a smothered murmur, but Lucien did not +heed it. The intoxication of the poetry was upon him; he was far away +from the hateful world, striving to render in speech the music that +filled his soul, seeing the faces about him through a cloudy haze. He +read the sombre Elegy on the Suicide, lines in the taste of a by-gone +day, pervaded by sublime melancholy; then he turned to the page where +the line occurs, "Thy songs are sweet, I love to say them over," and +ended with the delicate idyll _Neere_. + +Mme. de Bargeton sat with one hand buried in her curls, heedless of +the havoc she wrought among them, gazing before her with unseeing +eyes, alone in her drawing-room, lost in delicious dreaming; for the +first time in her life she had been transported to the sphere which +was hers by right of nature. Judge, therefore, how unpleasantly she +was disturbed by Amelie, who took it upon herself to express the +general wish. + +"Nais," this voice broke in, "we came to hear M. Chardon's poetry, and +you are giving us poetry out of a book. The extracts are very nice, +but the ladies feel a patriotic preference for the wine of the +country; they would rather have it." + +"The French language does not lend itself very readily to poetry, does +it?" Astolphe remarked to Chatelet. "Cicero's prose is a thousand +times more poetical to my way of thinking." + +"The true poetry of France is song, lyric verse," Chatelet answered. + +"Which proves that our language is eminently adapted for music," said +Adrien. + +"I should like very much to hear the poetry that has cost Nais her +reputation," said Zephirine; "but after receiving Amelie's request in +such a way, it is not very likely that she will give us a specimen." + +"She ought to have them recited in justice to herself," said Francis. +"The little fellow's genius is his sole justification." + +"You have been in the diplomatic service," said Amelie to M. du +Chatelet, "go and manage it somehow." + +"Nothing easier," said the Baron. + +The Princess' private secretary, being accustomed to petty manoeuvres +of this kind, went to the Bishop and contrived to bring him to the +fore. At the Bishop's entreaty, Nais had no choice but to ask Lucien +to recite his own verses for them, and the Baron received a +languishing smile from Amelie as the reward of his prompt success. + +"Decidedly, the Baron is a very clever man," she observed to Lolotte. + +But Amelie's previous acidulous remark about women who made their own +dresses rankled in Lolotte's mind. + +"Since when have you begun to recognize the Emperor's barons?" she +asked, smiling. + +Lucien had essayed to deify his beloved in an ode, dedicated to her +under a title in favor with all lads who write verse after leaving +school. This ode, so fondly cherished, so beautiful--since it was the +outpouring of all the love in his heart, seemed to him to be the one +piece of his own work that could hold its own with Chenier's verse; +and with a tolerably fatuous glance at Mme. de Bargeton, he announced +"TO HER!" He struck an attitude proudly for the delivery of the +ambitious piece, for his author's self-love felt safe and at ease +behind Mme. de Bargeton's petticoat. And at the selfsame moment Mme. +de Bargeton betrayed her own secret to the women's curious eyes. +Although she had always looked down upon this audience from her own +loftier intellectual heights, she could not help trembling for Lucien. +Her face was troubled, there was a sort of mute appeal for indulgence +in her glances, and while the verses were recited she was obliged to +lower her eyes and dissemble her pleasure as stanza followed stanza. + + + TO HER. + +Out of the glowing heart of the torrent of glory and light, + At the foot of Jehovah's throne where the angels stand afar, +Each on a seistron of gold repeating the prayers of the night, + Put up for each by his star. + +Out from the cherubim choir a bright-haired Angel springs, + Veiling the glory of God that dwells on a dazzling brow, +Leaving the courts of heaven to sink upon silver wings + Down to our world below. + +God looked in pity on earth, and the Angel, reading His thought, + Came down to lull the pain of the mighty spirit at strife, +Reverent bent o'er the maid, and for age left desolate brought + Flowers of the springtime of life. + +Bringing a dream of hope to solace the mother's fears, + Hearkening unto the voice of the tardy repentant cry, +Glad as angels are glad, to reckon Earth's pitying tears, + Given with alms of a sigh. + +One there is, and but one, bright messenger sent from the skies + Whom earth like a lover fain would hold from the hea'nward flight; +But the angel, weeping, turns and gazes with sad, sweet eyes + Up to the heaven of light. + +Not by the radiant eyes, not by the kindling glow + Of virtue sent from God, did I know the secret sign, +Nor read the token sent on a white and dazzling brow + Of an origin divine. + +Nay, it was Love grown blind and dazed with excess of light, + Striving and striving in vain to mingle Earth and Heaven, +Helpless and powerless against the invincible armor bright + By the dread archangel given. + +Ah! be wary, take heed, lest aught should be seen or heard + Of the shining seraph band, as they take the heavenward way; +Too soon the Angel on Earth will learn the magical word + Sung at the close of the day. + +Then you shall see afar, rifting the darkness of night, + A gleam as of dawn that spread across the starry floor, +And the seaman that watch for a sign shall mark the track of their flight, + A luminous pathway in Heaven and a beacon for evermore. + +"Do you read the riddle?" said Amelie, giving M. du Chatelet a +coquettish glance. + +"It is the sort of stuff that we all of us wrote more or less after we +left school," said the Baron with a bored expression--he was acting +his part of arbiter of taste who has seen everything. "We used to deal +in Ossianic mists, Malvinas and Fingals and cloudy shapes, and +warriors who got out of their tombs with stars above their heads. +Nowadays this poetical frippery has been replaced by Jehovah, angels, +seistrons, the plumes of seraphim, and all the paraphernalia of +paradise freshened up with a few new words such as 'immense, infinite, +solitude, intelligence'; you have lakes, and the words of the +Almighty, a kind of Christianized Pantheism, enriched with the most +extraordinary and unheard-of rhymes. We are in quite another latitude, +in fact; we have left the North for the East, but the darkness is just +as thick as before." + +"If the ode is obscure, the declaration is very clear, it seems to +me," said Zephirine. + +"And the archangel's armor is a tolerably thin gauze robe," said +Francis. + +Politeness demanded that the audience should profess to be enchanted +with the poem; and the women, furious because they had no poets in +their train to extol them as angels, rose, looked bored by the +reading, murmuring, "Very nice!" "Charming!" "Perfect!" with frigid +coldness. + +"If you love me, do not congratulate the poet or his angel," Lolotte +laid her commands on her dear Adrien in imperious tones, and Adrien +was fain to obey. + +"Empty words, after all," Zephirine remarked to Francis, "and love is +a poem that we live." + +"You have just expressed the very thing that I was thinking, Zizine, +but I should not have put it so neatly," said Stanislas, scanning +himself from top to toe with loving attention. + +"I would give, I don't know how much, to see Nais' pride brought down +a bit," said Amelie, addressing Chatelet. "Nais sets up to be an +archangel, as if she were better than the rest of us, and mixes us up +with low people; his father was an apothecary, and his mother is a +nurse; his sister works in a laundry, and he himself is a printer's +foreman." + +"If his father sold biscuits for worms" (_vers_), said Jacques, "he +ought to have made his son take them." + +"He is continuing in his father's line of business, for the stuff that +he has just been reading to us is a drug in the market, it seems," +said Stanislas, striking one of his most killing attitudes. "Drug for +drug, I would rather have something else." + +Every one apparently combined to humiliate Lucien by various +aristocrats' sarcasms. Lili the religious thought it a charitable deed +to use any means of enlightening Nais, and Nais was on the brink of a +piece of folly. Francis the diplomatist undertook the direction of the +silly conspiracy; every one was interested in the progress of the +drama; it would be something to talk about to-morrow. The ex-consul, +being far from anxious to engage in a duel with a young poet who would +fly into a rage at the first hint of insult under his lady's eyes, was +wise enough to see that the only way of dealing Lucien his deathblow +was by the spiritual arm which was safe from vengeance. He therefore +followed the example set by Chatelet the astute, and went to the +Bishop. Him he proceeded to mystify. + +He told the Bishop that Lucien's mother was a woman of uncommon powers +and great modesty, and that it was she who found the subjects for her +son's verses. Nothing pleased Lucien so much, according to the +guileful Francis, as any recognition of her talents--he worshiped his +mother. Then, having inculcated these notions, he left the rest to +time. His lordship was sure to bring out the insulting allusion, for +which he had been so carefully prepared, in the course of +conversation. + +When Francis and the Bishop joined the little group where Lucien +stood, the circle who gave him the cup of hemlock to drain by little +sips watched him with redoubled interest. The poet, luckless young +man, being a total stranger, and unaware of the manners and customs of +the house, could only look at Mme. de Bargeton and give embarrassed +answers to embarrassing questions. He knew neither the names nor +condition of the people about him; the women's silly speeches made him +blush for them, and he was at his wits' end for a reply. He felt, +moreover, how very far removed he was from these divinities of +Angouleme when he heard himself addressed sometimes as M. Chardon, +sometimes as M. de Rubempre, while they addressed each other as +Lolotte, Adrien, Astolphe, Lili and Fifine. His confusion rose to a +height when, taking Lili for a man's surname, he addressed the coarse +M. de Senonches as M. Lili; that Nimrod broke in upon him with a +"_MONSIEUR LULU?_" and Mme. de Bargeton flushed red to the eyes. + +"A woman must be blind indeed to bring this little fellow among us!" +muttered Senonches. + +Zephirine turned to speak to the Marquise de Pimentel--"Do you not see +a strong likeness between M. Chardon and M. de Cante-Croix, madame?" +she asked in a low but quite audible voice. + +"The likeness is ideal," smiled Mme. de Pimentel. + +"Glory has a power of attraction to which we can confess," said Mme. +de Bargeton, addressing the Marquise. "Some women are as much +attracted by greatness as others by littleness," she added, looking at +Francis. + +The was beyond Zephirine's comprehension; she thought her consul a +very great man; but the Marquise laughed, and her laughter ranged her +on Nais' side. + +"You are very fortunate, monsieur," said the Marquis de Pimentel, +addressing Lucien for the purpose of calling him M. de Rubempre, and +not M. Chardon, as before; "you should never find time heavy on your +hands." + +"Do you work quickly?" asked Lolotte, much in the way that she would +have asked a joiner "if it took long to make a box." + +The bludgeon stroke stunned Lucien, but he raised his head at Mme. de +Bargeton's reply-- + +"My dear, poetry does not grow in M. de Rubempre's head like grass in +our courtyards." + +"Madame, we cannot feel too reverently towards the noble spirits in +whom God has set some ray of this light," said the Bishop, addressing +Lolotte. "Yes, poetry is something holy. Poetry implies suffering. How +many silent nights those verses that you admire have cost! We should +bow in love and reverence before the poet; his life here is almost +always a life of sorrow; but God doubtless reserves a place in heaven +for him among His prophets. This young man is a poet," he added laying +a hand on Lucien's head; "do you not see the sign of Fate set on that +high forehead of his?" + +Glad to be so generously championed, Lucien made his acknowledgments +in a grateful look, not knowing that the worthy prelate was to deal +his deathblow. + +Mme. de Bargeton's eyes traveled round the hostile circle. Her glances +went like arrows to the depths of her rivals' hearts, and left them +twice as furious as before. + +"Ah, monseigneur," cried Lucien, hoping to break thick heads with his +golden sceptre, "but ordinary people have neither your intellect nor +your charity. No one heeds our sorrows, our toil is unrecognized. The +gold-digger working in the mine does not labor as we to wrest +metaphors from the heart of the most ungrateful of all languages. If +this is poetry--to give ideas such definite and clear expressions that +all the world can see and understand--the poet must continually range +through the entire scale of human intellects, so that he can satisfy +the demands of all; he must conceal hard thinking and emotion, two +antagonistic powers, beneath the most vivid color; he must know how to +make one word cover a whole world of thought; he must give the results +of whole systems of philosophy in a few picturesque lines; indeed, his +songs are like seeds that must break into blossom in other hearts +wherever they find the soil prepared by personal experience. How can +you express unless you first have felt? And is not passion suffering. +Poetry is only brought forth after painful wanderings in the vast +regions of thought and life. There are men and women in books, who +seem more really alive to us than men and women who have lived and +died--Richardson's Clarissa, Chenier's Camille, the Delia of Tibullus, +Ariosto's Angelica, Dante's Francesca, Moliere's Alceste, +Beaumarchais' Figaro, Scott's Rebecca the Jewess, the Don Quixote of +Cervantes,--do we not owe these deathless creations to immortal +throes?" + +"And what are you going to create for us?" asked Chatelet. + +"If I were to announce such conceptions, I should give myself out for +a man of genius, should I not?" answered Lucien. "And besides, such +sublime creations demand a long experience of the world and a study of +human passion and interests which I could not possibly have made; but +I have made a beginning," he added, with bitterness in his tone, as he +took a vengeful glance round the circle; "the time of gestation is +long----" + +"Then it will be a case of difficult labor," interrupted M. du Hautoy. + +"Your excellent mother might assist you," suggested the Bishop. + +The epigram, innocently made by the good prelate, the long-looked-for +revenge, kindled a gleam of delight in all eyes. The smile of +satisfied caste that traveled from mouth to mouth was aggravated by M. +de Bargeton's imbecility; he burst into a laugh, as usual, some +moments later. + +"Monseigneur, you are talking a little above our heads; these ladies +do not understand your meaning," said Mme. de Bargeton, and the words +paralyzed the laughter, and drew astonished eyes upon her. "A poet who +looks to the Bible for his inspiration has a mother indeed in the +Church.--M. de Rubempre, will you recite _Saint John in Patmos_ for us, +or _Belshazzar's Feast_, so that his lordship may see that Rome is still +the _Magna Parens_ of Virgil?" + +The women exchanged smiles at the Latin words. + +The bravest and highest spirits know times of prostration at the +outset of life. Lucien had sunk to the depths at the blow, but he +struck the bottom with his feet, and rose to the surface again, vowing +to subjugate this little world. He rose like a bull, stung to fury by +a shower of darts, and prepared to obey Louise by declaiming _Saint +John in Patmos_; but by this time the card-tables had claimed their +complement of players, who returned to the accustomed groove to find +amusement there which poetry had not afforded them. They felt besides +that the revenge of so many outraged vanities would be incomplete +unless it were followed up by contemptuous indifference; so they +showed their tacit disdain for the native product by leaving Lucien +and Mme. de Bargeton to themselves. Every one appeared to be absorbed +in his own affairs; one chattered with the prefect about a new +crossroad, another proposed to vary the pleasures of the evening with +a little music. The great world of Angouleme, feeling that it was no +judge of poetry, was very anxious, in the first place, to hear the +verdict of the Pimentels and the Rastignacs, and formed a little group +about them. The great influence wielded in the department by these two +families was always felt on every important occasion; every one was +jealous of them, every one paid court to them, foreseeing that they +might some day need that influence. + +"What do you think of our poet and his poetry?" Jacques asked of the +Marquise. Jacques used to shoot over the lands belonging to the +Pimentel family. + +"Why, it is not bad for provincial poetry," she said, smiling; "and +besides, such a beautiful poet cannot do anything amiss." + +Every one thought the decision admirable; it traveled from lip to lip, +gaining malignance by the way. Then Chatelet was called upon to +accompany M. du Bartas on the piano while he mangled the great solo +from _Figaro_; and the way being opened to music, the audience, as in +duty bound listened while Chatelet in turn sang one of Chateaubriand's +ballads, a chivalrous ditty made in the time of the Empire. Duets +followed, of the kind usually left to boarding-school misses, and +rescued from the schoolroom by Mme. du Brossard, who meant to make a +brilliant display of her dear Camille's talents for M. de Severac's +benefit. + +Mme. du Bargeton, hurt by the contempt which every one showed her +poet, paid back scorn for scorn by going to her boudoir during these +performances. She was followed by the prelate. His Vicar-General had +just been explaining the profound irony of the epigram into which he +had been entrapped, and the Bishop wished to make amends. Mlle. de +Rastignac, fascinated by the poetry, also slipped into the boudoir +without her mother's knowledge. + +Louise drew Lucien to her mattress-cushioned sofa; and with no one to +see or hear, she murmured in his ear, "Dear angel, they did not +understand you; but, 'Thy songs are sweet, I love to say them over.'" + +And Lucien took comfort from the pretty speech, and forgot his woes +for a little. + +"Glory is not to be had cheaply," Mme. de Bargeton continued, taking +his hand and holding it tightly in her own. "Endure your woes, my +friend, you will be great one day; your pain is the price of your +immortality. If only I had a hard struggle before me! God preserve you +from the enervating life without battles, in which the eagle's wings +have no room to spread themselves. I envy you; for if you suffer, at +least you live. You will put out your strength, you will feel the hope +of victory; your strife will be glorious. And when you shall come to +your kingdom, and reach the imperial sphere where great minds are +enthroned, then remember the poor creatures disinherited by fate, +whose intellects pine in an oppressive moral atmosphere, who die and +have never lived, knowing all the while what life might be; think of +the piercing eyes that have seen nothing, the delicate senses that +have only known the scent of poison flowers. Then tell in your song of +plants that wither in the depths of the forest, choked by twining +growths and rank, greedy vegetation, plants that have never been +kissed by the sunlight, and die, never having put forth a blossom. It +would be a terribly gloomy poem, would it not, a fanciful subject? +What a sublime poem might be made of the story of some daughter of the +desert transported to some cold, western clime, calling for her +beloved sun, dying of a grief that none can understand, overcome with +cold and longing. It would be an allegory; many lives are like that." + +"You would picture the spirit which remembers Heaven," said the +Bishop; "some one surely must have written such a poem in the days of +old; I like to think that I see a fragment of it in the Song of +Songs." + +"Take that as your subject," said Laure de Rastignac, expressing her +artless belief in Lucien's powers. + +"The great sacred poem of France is still unwritten," remarked the +Bishop. "Believe me, glory and success await the man of talent who +shall work for religion." + +"That task will be his," said Mme. de Bargeton rhetorically. "Do you +not see the first beginnings of the vision of the poem, like the flame +of dawn, in his eyes?" + +"Nais is treating us very badly," said Fifine; "what can she be +doing?" + +"Don't you hear?" said Stanislas. "She is flourishing away, using big +words that you cannot make head or tail of." + +Amelie, Fifine, Adrien, and Francis appeared in the doorway with Mme. +de Rastignac, who came to look for her daughter. + +"Nais," cried the two ladies, both delighted to break in upon the +quiet chat in the boudoir, "it would be very nice of you to come and +play something for us." + +"My dear child, M. de Rubempre is just about to recite his _Saint John +in Patmos_, a magnificent biblical poem." + +"Biblical!" echoed Fifine in amazement. + +Amelie and Fifine went back to the drawing-room, taking the word back +with them as food for laughter. Lucien pleaded a defective memory and +excused himself. When he reappeared, nobody took the slightest notice +of him; every one was chatting or busy at the card-tables; the poet's +aureole had been plucked away, the landowners had no use for him, the +more pretentious sort looked upon him as an enemy to their ignorance, +while the women were jealous of Mme. de Bargeton, the Beatrice of this +modern Dante, to use the Vicar-General's phrase, and looked at him +with cold, scornful eyes. + +"So this is society!" Lucien said to himself as he went down to +L'Houmeau by the steps of Beaulieu; for there are times when we choose +to take the longest way, that the physical exercise of walking may +promote the flow of ideas. + +So far from being disheartened, the fury of repulsed ambition gave +Lucien new strength. Like all those whose instincts bring them to a +higher social sphere which they reach before they can hold their own +in it, Lucien vowed to make any sacrifice to the end that he might +remain on that higher social level. One by one he drew out the +poisoned shafts on his way home, talking aloud to himself, scoffing at +the fools with whom he had to do, inventing neat answers to their +idiotic questions, desperately vexed that the witty responses occurred +to him so late in the day. By the time that he reached the Bordeaux +road, between the river and the foot of the hill, he thought that he +could see Eve and David sitting on a baulk of timber by the river in +the moonlight, and went down the footpath towards them. + + + +While Lucien was hastening to the torture in Mme. de Bargeton's rooms, +his sister had changed her dress for a gown of pink cambric covered +with narrow stripes, a straw hat, and a little silk shawl. The simple +costume seemed like a rich toilette on Eve, for she was one of those +women whose great nature lends stateliness to the least personal +detail; and David felt prodigiously shy of her now that she had +changed her working dress. He had made up his mind that he would speak +of himself; but now as he gave his arm to this beautiful girl, and +they walked through L'Houmeau together, he could find nothing to say +to her. Love delights in such reverent awe as redeemed souls know on +beholding the glory of God. So, in silence, the two lovers went across +the Bridge of Saint Anne, and followed the left bank of the Charente. +Eve felt embarrassed by the pause, and stopped to look along the +river; a joyous shaft of sunset had turned the water between the +bridge and the new powder mills into a sheet of gold. + +"What a beautiful evening it is!" she said, for the sake of saying +something; "the air is warm and fresh, and full of the scent of +flowers, and there is a wonderful sky." + +"Everything speaks to our heart," said David, trying to proceed to +love by way of analogy. "Those who love find infinite delight in +discovering the poetry of their own inmost souls in every chance +effect of the landscape, in the thin, clear air, in the scent of the +earth. Nature speaks for them." + +"And loosens their tongues, too," Eve said merrily. "You were very +silent as we came through L'Houmeau. Do you know, I felt quite +uncomfortable----" + +"You looked so beautiful, that I could not say anything," David +answered candidly. + +"Then, just now I am not so beautiful?" inquired she. + +"It is not that," he said; "but I was so happy to have this walk alone +with you, that----" he stopped short in confusion, and looked at the +hillside and the road to Saintes. + +"If the walk is any pleasure to you, I am delighted; for I owe you an +evening, I think, when you have given up yours for me. When you +refused to go to Mme. de Bargeton's, you were quite as generous as +Lucien when he made the demand at the risk of vexing her." + +"No, not generous, only wise," said David. "And now that we are quite +alone under the sky, with no listeners except the bushes and the reeds +by the edge of the Charente, let me tell you about my anxiety as to +Lucien's present step, dear Eve. After all that I have just said, I +hope that you will look on my fears as a refinement of friendship. You +and your mother have done all that you could to put him above his +social position; but when you stimulated his ambition, did you not +unthinkingly condemn him to a hard struggle? How can he maintain +himself in the society to which his tastes incline him? I know Lucien; +he likes to reap, he does not like toil; it is his nature. Social +claims will take up the whole of his time, and for a man who has +nothing but his brains, time is capital. He likes to shine; society +will stimulate his desires until no money will satisfy them; instead +of earning money, he will spend it. You have accustomed him to believe +in his great powers, in fact, but the world at large declines to +believe in any man's superior intellect until he has achieved some +signal success. Now success in literature is only won in solitude and +by dogged work. What will Mme. de Bargeton give your brother in return +for so many days spent at her feet? Lucien has too much spirit to +accept help from her; and he cannot afford, as we know, to cultivate +her society, twice ruinous as it is for him. Sooner or later that +woman will throw over this dear brother of ours, but not before she +has spoiled him for hard work, and given him a taste for luxury and a +contempt for our humdrum life. She will develop his love of enjoyment, +his inclination for idleness, that debauches a poetic soul. Yes, it +makes me tremble to think that this great lady may make a plaything of +Lucien. If she cares for him sincerely, he will forget everything else +for her; or if she does not love him, she will make him unhappy, for +he is wild about her." + +"You have sent a chill of dread through my heart," said Eve, stopping +as they reached the weir. "But so long as mother is strong enough for +her tiring life, so long as I live, we shall earn enough, perhaps, +between us to keep Lucien until success comes. My courage will never +fail," said Eve, brightening. "There is no hardship in work when we +work for one we love; it is not drudgery. It makes me happy to think +that I toil so much, if indeed it is toil, for him. Oh, do not be in +the least afraid, we will earn money enough to send Lucien into the +great world. There lies his road to success." + +"And there lies his road to ruin," returned David. "Dear Eve, listen +to me. A man needs an independent fortune, or the sublime cynicism of +poverty, for the slow execution of great work. Believe me, Lucien's +horror of privation is so great, the savor of banquets, the incense of +success is so sweet in his nostrils, his self-love has grown so much +in Mme. de Bargeton's boudoir, that he will do anything desperate +sooner than fall back, and you will never earn enough for his +requirements. + +"Then you are only a false friend to him!" Eve cried in despair, "or +you would not discourage us in this way." + +"Eve! Eve!" cried David, "if only I could be a brother to Lucien! You +alone can give me that title; he could accept anything from me then; I +should claim the right of devoting my life to him with the love that +hallows your self-sacrifice, but with some worldly wisdom too. Eve, my +darling, give Lucien a store from which he need not blush to draw! His +brother's purse will be like his own, will it not? If you only knew +all my thoughts about Lucien's position! If he means to go to Mme. de +Bargeton's, he must not be my foreman any longer, poor fellow! He +ought not to live in L'Houmeau; you ought not to be a working girl; +and your mother must give up her employment as well. If you would +consent to be my wife, the difficulties will all be smoothed away. +Lucien might live on the second floor in the Place du Murier until I +can build rooms for him over the shed at the back of the yard (if my +father will allow it, that is.). And in that way we would arrange a +free and independent life for him. The wish to support Lucien will +give me a better will to work than I ever should have had for myself +alone; but it rests with you to give me the right to devote myself to +him. Some day, perhaps, he will go to Paris, the only place that can +bring out all that is in him, and where his talents will be +appreciated and rewarded. Living in Paris is expensive, and the +earnings of all three of us will be needed for his support. And +besides, will not you and your mother need some one to lean upon then? +Dear Eve, marry me for love of Lucien; perhaps afterwards you will +love me when you see how I shall strive to help him and to make you +happy. We are, both of us, equally simple in our tastes; we have few +wants; Lucien's welfare shall be the great object of our lives. His +heart shall be our treasure-house, we will lay up all our fortune, and +think and feel and hope in him." + +"Worldly considerations keep us apart," said Eve, moved by this love +that tried to explain away its greatness. "You are rich and I am poor. +One must love indeed to overcome such a difficulty." + +"Then you do not care enough for me?" cried the stricken David. + +"But perhaps your father would object----" + +"Never mind," said David; "if asking my father is all that is +necessary, you will be my wife. Eve, my dear Eve, how you have +lightened life for me in a moment; and my heart has been very heavy +with thoughts that I could not utter, I did not know how to speak of +them. Only tell me that you care for me a little, and I will take +courage to tell you the rest." + +"Indeed," she said, "you make me quite ashamed; but confidence for +confidence, I will tell you this, that I have never thought of any one +but you in my life. I looked upon you as one of those men to whom a +woman might be proud to belong, and I did not dare to hope so great a +thing for myself, a penniless working girl with no prospects." + +"That is enough, that is enough," he answered, sitting down on the bar +by the weir, for they had gone to and fro like mad creatures over the +same length of pathway. + +"What is the matter?" she asked, her voice expressing for the first +time a woman's sweet anxiety for one who belongs to her. + +"Nothing but good," he answered. "It is the sight of a whole lifetime +of happiness that dazzles me, as it were; it is overwhelming. Why am I +happier than you?" he asked, with a touch of sadness. "For I know that +I am happier." + +Eve looked at David with mischievous, doubtful eyes that asked an +explanation. + +"Dear Eve, I am taking more than I give. So I shall always love you +more than you love me, because I have more reason to love. You are an +angel; I am a man." + +"I am not so learned," Eve said, smiling. "I love you----" + +"As much as you love Lucien?" he broke in. + +"Enough to be your wife, enough to devote myself to you, to try not to +add anything to your burdens, for we shall have some struggles; it +will not be quite easy at first." + +"Dear Eve, have you known that I loved you since the first day I saw +you?" + +"Where is the woman who does not feel that she is loved?" + +"Now let me get rid of your scruples as to my imaginary riches. I am a +poor man, dear. Yes, it pleased my father to ruin me; he made a +speculation of me, as a good many so-called benefactors do. If I make +a fortune, it will be entirely through you. That is not a lover's +speech, but sober, serious earnest. I ought to tell you about my +faults, for they are exceedingly bad ones in a man who has his way to +make. My character and habits and favorite occupations all unfit me +for business and money-getting, and yet we can only make money by some +kind of industry; if I have some faculty for the discovery of +gold-mines, I am singularly ill-adapted for getting the gold out of +them. But you who, for your brother's sake, went into the smallest +details, with a talent for thrift, and the patient watchfulness of the +born man of business, you will reap the harvest that I shall sow. The +present state of things, for I have been like one of the family for a +long time, weighs so heavily upon me, that I have spent days and nights +in search of some way of making a fortune. I know something of chemistry, +and a knowledge of commercial requirements has put me on the scent of +a discovery that is likely to pay. I can say nothing as yet about it; +there will be a long while to wait; perhaps for some years we may have +a hard time of it; but I shall find out how to make a commercial +article at last. Others are busy making the same researches, and if I +am first in the field, we shall have a large fortune. I have said +nothing to Lucien, his enthusiastic nature would spoil everything; he +would convert my hopes into realities, and begin to live like a lord, +and perhaps get into debt. So keep my secret for me. Your sweet and +dear companionship will be consolation in itself during the long time +of experiment, and the desire to gain wealth for you and Lucien will +give me persistence and tenacity----" + +"I had guessed this too," Eve said, interrupting him; "I knew that you +were one of those inventors, like my poor father, who must have a +woman to take care of them." + +"Then you love me! Ah! say so without fear to me, who saw a symbol of +my love for you in your name. Eve was the one woman in the world; if +it was true in the outward world for Adam, it is true again in the +inner world of my heart for me. My God! do you love me?" + +"Yes," said she, lengthening out the word as if to make it cover the +extent of feeling expressed by a single syllable. + +"Well, let us sit here," he said, and taking Eve's hand, he went to a +great baulk of timber lying below the wheels of a paper-mill. "Let me +breathe the evening air, and hear the frogs croak, and watch the +moonlight quivering upon the river; let me take all this world about +us into my soul, for it seems to me that my happiness is written large +over it all; I am seeing it for the first time in all its splendor, +lighted up by love, grown fair through you. Eve, dearest, this is the +first moment of pure and unmixed joy that fate has given to me! I do +not think that Lucien can be as happy as I am." + +David felt Eve's hand, damp and quivering in his own, and a tear fell +upon it. + +"May I not know the secret?" she pleaded coaxingly. + +"You have a right to know it, for your father was interested in the +matter, and to-day it is a pressing question, and for this reason. +Since the downfall of the Empire, calico has come more and more into +use, because it is so much cheaper than linen. At the present moment, +paper is made of a mixture of hemp and linen rags, but the raw +material is dear, and the expense naturally retards the great advance +which the French press is bound to make. Now you cannot increase the +output of linen rags, a given population gives a pretty constant +result, and it only increases with the birth-rate. To make any +perceptible difference in the population for this purpose, it would +take a quarter of a century and a great revolution in habits of life, +trade, and agriculture. And if the supply of linen rags is not enough +to meet one-half nor one-third of the demand, some cheaper material +than linen rags must be found for cheap paper. This deduction is based +on facts that came under my knowledge here. The Angouleme +paper-makers, the last to use pure linen rags, say that the proportion +of cotton in the pulp has increased to a frightful extent of late +years." + +In answer to a question from Eve, who did not know what "pulp" meant, +David gave an account of paper-making, which will not be out of place +in a volume which owes its existence in book form to the paper +industry no less than to the printing-press; but the long digression, +doubtless, had best be condensed at first. + +Paper, an invention not less marvelous than the other dependent +invention of printing, was known in ancient times in China. Thence by +the unrecognized channels of commerce the art reached Asia Minor, +where paper was made of cotton reduced to pulp and boiled. Parchment +had become so extremely dear that a cheap substitute was discovered in +an imitation of the cotton paper known in the East as _charta +bombycina_. The imitation, made from rags, was first made at Basel, in +1170, by a colony of Greek refugees, according to some authorities; or +at Padua, in 1301, by an Italian named Pax, according to others. In +these ways the manufacture of paper was perfected slowly and in +obscurity; but this much is certain, that so early as the reign of +Charles VI., paper pulp for playing-cards was made in Paris. + +When those immortals, Faust, Coster, and Gutenberg, invented the Book, +craftsmen as obscure as many a great artist of those times +appropriated paper to the uses of typography. In the fifteenth +century, that naive and vigorous age, names were given to the various +formats as well as to the different sizes of type, names that bear the +impress of the naivete of the times; and the various sheets came to be +known by the different watermarks on their centres; the grapes, the +figure of our Saviour, the crown, the shield, or the flower-pot, just +as at a later day, the eagle of Napoleon's time gave the name to the +"double-eagle" size. And in the same way the types were called Cicero, +Saint-Augustine, and Canon type, because they were first used to print +the treatises of Cicero and theological and liturgical works. Italics +are so called because they were invented in Italy by Aldus of Venice. + +Before the invention of machine-made paper, which can be woven in any +length, the largest sized sheets were the _grand jesus_ and the double +columbier (this last being scarcely used now except for atlases or +engravings), and the size of paper for printers' use was determined by +the dimensions of the impression-stone. When David explained these +things to Eve, web-paper was almost undreamed of in France, although, +about 1799, Denis Robert d'Essonne had invented a machine for turning +out a ribbon of paper, and Didot-Saint-Leger had since tried to +perfect it. The vellum paper invented by Ambroise Didot only dates +back as far as 1780. + +This bird's eye view of the history of the invention shows +incontestably that great industrial and intellectual advances are made +exceedingly slowly, and little by little, even as Nature herself +proceeds. Perhaps articulate speech and the art of writing were +gradually developed in the same groping way as typography and +paper-making. + +"Rag-pickers collect all the rags and old linen of Europe," the +printer concluded, "and buy any kind of tissue. The rags are sorted +and warehoused by the wholesale rag merchants, who supply the +paper-mills. To give you some idea of the extent of the trade, you +must know, mademoiselle, that in 1814 Cardon the banker, owner of the +pulping troughs of Bruges and Langlee (where Leorier de l'Isle +endeavored in 1776 to solve the very problem that occupied your +father), Cardon brought an action against one Proust for an error in +weights of two millions in a total of ten million pounds' weight of +rags, worth about four million francs! The manufacturer washes the +rags and reduces them to a thin pulp, which is strained, exactly as a +cook strains sauce through a tamis, through an iron frame with a fine +wire bottom where the mark which give its name to the size of the +paper is woven. The size of this _mould_, as it is called, regulates the +size of the sheet. + +"When I was with the Messieurs Didot," David continued, "they were +very much interested in this question, and they are still interested; +for the improvement which your father endeavored to make is a great +commercial requirement, and one of the crying needs of the time. And +for this reason: although linen lasts so much longer than cotton, that +it is in reality cheaper in the end, the poor would rather make the +smaller outlay in the first instance, and, by virtue of the law of _Vae +victis!_ pay enormously more before they have done. The middle classes +do the same. So there is a scarcity of linen. In England, where +four-fifths of the population use cotton to the exclusion of linen, +they make nothing but cotton paper. The cotton paper is very soft and +easily creased to begin with, and it has a further defect: it is so +soluble that if you seep a book made of cotton paper in water for +fifteen minutes, it turns to a pulp, while an old book left in water +for a couple of hours is not spoilt. You could dry the old book, and +the pages, though yellow and faded, would still be legible, the work +would not be destroyed. + +"There is a time coming when legislation will equalize our fortunes, +and we shall all be poor together; we shall want our linen and our +books to be cheap, just as people are beginning to prefer small +pictures because they have not wall space enough for large ones. Well, +the shirts and the books will not last, that is all; it is the same on +all sides, solidity is drying out. So this problem is one of the first +importance for literature, science, and politics. + +"One day, in my office, there was a hot discussion going on about the +material that the Chinese use for making paper. Their paper is far +better than ours, because the raw material is better; and a good deal +was said about this thin, light Chinese paper, for if it is light and +thin, the texture is close, there are no transparent spots in it. In +Paris there are learned men among the printers' readers; Fourier and +Pierre Leroux are Lachevardiere's readers at this moment; and the +Comte de Saint-Simon, who happened to be correcting proofs for us, +came in in the middle of the discussion. He told us at once that, +according to Kempfer and du Halde, the _Broussonetia_ furnishes the +substance of the Chinese paper; it is a vegetable substance (like +linen or cotton for that matter). Another reader maintained that +Chinese paper was principally made of an animal substance, to wit, the +silk that is abundant there. They made a bet about it in my presence. +The Messieurs Didot are printers to the Institute, so naturally they +referred the question to that learned body. M. Marcel, who used to be +superintendent of the Royal Printing Establishment, was umpire, and he +sent the two readers to M. l'Abbe Grozier, Librarian at the Arsenal. +By the Abbe's decision they both lost their wages. The paper was not +made of silk nor yet from the _Broussonetia_; the pulp proved to be the +triturated fibre of some kind of bamboo. The Abbe Grozier had a +Chinese book, an iconographical and technological work, with a great +many pictures in it, illustrating all the different processes of +paper-making, and he showed us a picture of the workshop with the +bamboo stalks lying in a heap in the corner; it was extremely well +drawn. + +"Lucien told me that your father, with the intuition of a man of +talent, had a glimmering of a notion of some way of replacing linen +rags with an exceedingly common vegetable product, not previously +manufactured, but taken direct from the soil, as the Chinese use +vegetable fibre at first hand. I have classified the guesses made by +those who came before me, and have begun to study the question. The +bamboo is a kind of reed; naturally I began to think of the reeds that +grow here in France. + +"Labor is very cheap in China, where a workman earns three halfpence a +day, and this cheapness of labor enables the Chinese to manipulate +each sheet of paper separately. They take it out of the mould, and +press it between heated tablets of white porcelain, that is the secret +of the surface and consistence, the lightness and satin smoothness of +the best paper in the world. Well, here in Europe the work must be +done by machinery; machinery must take the place of cheap Chinese +labor. If we could but succeed in making a cheap paper of as good a +quality, the weight and thickness of printed books would be reduced by +more than one-half. A set of Voltaire, printed on our woven paper and +bound, weighs about two hundred and fifty pounds; it would only weigh +fifty if we used Chinese paper. That surely would be a triumph, for +the housing of many books has come to be a difficulty; everything has +grown smaller of late; this is not an age of giants; men have shrunk, +everything about them shrinks, and house-room into the bargain. Great +mansions and great suites of rooms will be abolished sooner or later +in Paris, for no one will afford to live in the great houses built by +our forefathers. What a disgrace for our age if none of its books +should last! Dutch paper--that is, paper made from flax--will be quite +unobtainable in ten years' time. Well, your brother told me of this +idea of your father's, this plan for using vegetable fibre in +paper-making, so you see that if I succeed, you have a right to----" + +Lucien came up at that moment and interrupted David's generous +assertion. + +"I do not know whether you have found the evening pleasant," said he; +"it has been a cruel time for me." + +"Poor Lucien! what can have happened?" cried Eve, as she saw her +brother's excited face. + +The poet told the history of his agony, pouring out a flood of +clamorous thoughts into those friendly hearts, Eve and David listening +in pained silence to a torrent of woes that exhibited such greatness +and such pettiness. + +"M. de Bargeton is an old dotard. The indigestion will carry him off +before long, no doubt," Lucien said, as he made an end, "and then I +will look down on these proud people; I will marry Mme. de Bargeton. I +read to-night in her eyes a love as great as mine for her. Yes, she +felt all that I felt; she comforted me; she is as great and noble as +she is gracious and beautiful. She will never give me up." + +"It is time that life was made smooth for him, is it not?" murmured +David, and for answer Eve pressed his arm without speaking. David +guessed her thoughts, and began at once to tell Lucien about his own +plans. + +If Lucien was full of his troubles, the lovers were quite as full of +themselves. So absorbed were they, so eager that Lucien should approve +their happiness, that neither Eve nor David so much as noticed his +start of surprise at the news. Mme. de Bargeton's lover had been +dreaming of a great match for his sister; he would reach a high +position first, and then secure himself by an alliance with some +family of influence, and here was one more obstacle in his way to +success! His hopes were dashed to the ground. "If Mme. de Bargeton +consents to be Mme. de Rubempre, she would never care to have David +Sechard for a brother-in-law!" + +This stated clearly and precisely was the thought that tortured +Lucien's inmost mind. "Louise is right!" he thought bitterly. "A man +with a career before him is never understood by his family." + +If the marriage had not been announced immediately after Lucien's +fancy had put M. de Bargeton to death, he would have been radiant with +heartfelt delight at the news. If he had thought soberly over the +probable future of a beautiful and penniless girl like Eve Chardon, he +would have seen that this marriage was a piece of unhoped-for good +fortune. But he was living just now in a golden dream; he had soared +above all barriers on the wings of an _if_; he had seen a vision of +himself, rising above society; and it was painful to drop so suddenly +down to hard fact. + +Eve and David both thought that their brother was overcome with the +sense of such generosity; to them, with their noble natures, the +silent consent was a sign of true friendship. David began to describe +with kindly and cordial eloquence the happy fortunes in store for them +all. Unchecked by protests put in by Eve, he furnished his first floor +with a lover's lavishness, built a second floor with boyish good faith +for Lucien, and rooms above the shed for Mme. Chardon--he meant to be +a son to her. In short, he made the whole family so happy and his +brother-in-law so independent, that Lucien fell under the spell of +David's voice and Eve's caresses; and as they went through the shadows +beside the still Charente, a gleam in the warm, star-lit night, he +forgot the sharp crown of thorns that had been pressed upon his head. +"M. de Rubempre" discovered David's real nature, in fact. His facile +character returned almost at once to the innocent, hard-working +burgher life that he knew; he saw it transfigured and free from care. +The buzz of the aristocratic world grew more and more remote; and when +at length they came upon the paved road of L'Houmeau, the ambitious +poet grasped his brother's hand, and made a third in the joy of the +happy lovers. + +"If only your father makes no objection to the marriage," he said. + +"You know how much he troubles himself about me; the old man lives for +himself," said David. "But I will go over to Marsac to-morrow and see +him, if it is only to ask leave to build." + +David went back to the house with the brother and sister, and asked +Mme. Chardon's consent to his marriage with the eagerness of a man who +would fain have no delay. Eve's mother took her daughter's hand, and +gladly laid it in David's; and the lover, grown bolder on this, kissed +his fair betrothed on the forehead, and she flushed red, and smiled at +him. + +"The betrothal of the poor," the mother said, raising her eyes as if +to pray for heaven's blessing upon them.--"You are brave, my boy," she +added, looking at David, "but we have fallen on evil fortune, and I am +afraid lest our bad luck should be infectious." + +"We shall be rich and happy," David said earnestly. "To begin with, +you must not go out nursing any more, and you must come and live with +your daughter and Lucien in Angouleme." + +The three began at once to tell the astonished mother all their +charming plans, and the family party gave themselves up to the +pleasure of chatting and weaving a romance, in which it is so pleasant +to enjoy future happiness, and to store the unsown harvest. They had +to put David out at the door; he could have wished the evening to last +for ever, and it was one o'clock in the morning when Lucien and his +future brother-in-law reached the Palet Gate. The unwonted movement +made honest Postel uneasy; he opened the window, and looking through +the Venetian shutters, he saw a light in Eve's room. + +"What can be happening at the Chardons'?" thought he, and seeing +Lucien come in, he called out to him-- + +"What is the matter, sonny? Do you want me to do anything?" + +"No, sir," returned the poet; "but as you are our friend, I can tell +you about it; my mother has just given her consent to my sister's +engagement to David Sechard." + +For all answer, Postel shut the window with a bang, in despair that he +had not asked for Mlle. Chardon earlier. + +David, however, did not go back into Angouleme; he took the road to +Marsac instead, and walked through the night the whole way to his +father's house. He went along by the side of the croft just as the sun +rose, and caught sight of the old "bear's" face under an almond-tree +that grew out of the hedge. + +"Good day, father," called David. + +"Why, is it you, my boy? How come you to be out on the road at this +time of day? There is your way in," he added, pointing to a little +wicket gate. "My vines have flowered and not a shoot has been frosted. +There will be twenty puncheons or more to the acre this year; but then +look at all the dung that has been put on the land!" + +"Father, I have come on important business." + +"Very well; how are your presses doing? You must be making heaps of +money as big as yourself." + +"I shall some day, father, but I am not very well off just now." + +"They all tell me that I ought not to put on so much manure," replied +his father. "The gentry, that is M. le Marquis, M. le Comte, and +Monsieur What-do-you-call-'em, say that I am letting down the quality +of the wine. What is the good of book-learning except to muddle your +wits? Just you listen: these gentlemen get seven, or sometimes eight +puncheons of wine to the acre, and they sell them for sixty francs +apiece, that means four hundred francs per acre at most in a good +year. Now, I make twenty puncheons, and get thirty francs apiece for +them--that is six hundred francs! And where are they, the fools? +Quality, quality, what is quality to me? They can keep their quality +for themselves, these Lord Marquises. Quality means hard cash for me, +that is what it means, You were saying?----" + +"I am going to be married, father, and I have come to ask for----" + +"Ask me for what? Nothing of the sort, my boy. Marry; I give you my +consent, but as for giving you anything else, I haven't a penny to +bless myself with. Dressing the soil is the ruin of me. These two +years I have been paying money out of pocket for top-dressing, and +taxes, and expenses of all kinds; Government eats up everything, +nearly all the profit goes to the Government. The poor growers have +made nothing these last two seasons. This year things don't look so +bad; and, of course, the beggarly puncheons have gone up to eleven +francs already. We work to put money into the coopers' pockets. Why, +are you going to marry before the vintage?----" + +"I only came to ask for your consent, father." + +"Oh! that is another thing. And who is the victim, if one may ask?" + +"I am going to marry Mlle. Eve Chardon." + +"Who may she be? What kind of victual does she eat?" + +"She is the daughter of the late M. Chardon, the druggist in +L'Houmeau." + +"You are going to marry a girl out of L'Houmeau! _you_! a burgess of +Angouleme, and printer to His Majesty! This is what comes of +book-learning! Send a boy to school, forsooth! Oh! well, then she is +very rich, is she, my boy?" and the old vinegrower came up closer with +a cajoling manner; "if you are marrying a girl out of L'Houmeau, it +must be because she has lots of cash, eh? Good! you will pay me my rent +now. There are two years and one-quarter owing, you know, my boy; that +is two thousand seven hundred francs altogether; the money will come +just in the nick of time to pay the cooper. If it was anybody else, I +should have a right to ask for interest; for, after all, business is +business, but I will let you off the interest. Well, how much has +she?" + +"Just as much as my mother had." + +The old vinegrower very nearly said, "Then she has only ten thousand +francs!" but he recollected just in time that he had declined to give +an account of her fortune to her son, and exclaimed, "She has +nothing!" + +"My mother's fortune was her beauty and intelligence," said David. + +"You just go into the market and see what you can get for it! Bless my +buttons! what bad luck parents have with their children. David, when I +married, I had a paper cap on my head for my whole fortune, and a pair +of arms; I was a poor pressman; but with the fine printing-house that +I gave you, with your industry, and your education, you might marry a +burgess' daughter, a woman with thirty or forty thousand francs. Give +up your fancy, and I will find you a wife myself. There is some one +about three miles away, a miller's widow, thirty-two years old, with a +hundred thousand francs in land. There is your chance! You can add her +property to Marsac, for they touch. Ah! what a fine property we should +have, and how I would look after it! They say she is going to marry +her foreman Courtois, but you are the better man of the two. I would +look after the mill, and she should live like a lady up in Angouleme." + +"I am engaged, father." + +"David, you know nothing of business; you will ruin yourself, I see. +Yes, if you marry this girl out of L'Houmeau, I shall square accounts +and summons you for the rent, for I see that no good will come of +this. Oh! my presses, my poor presses! it took some money to grease +you and keep you going. Nothing but a good year can comfort me after +this." + +"It seems to me, father, that until now I have given you very little +trouble----" + +"And paid mighty little rent," put in his parent. + +"I came to ask you something else besides. Will you build a second +floor to your house, and some rooms above the shed?" + +"Deuce a bit of it; I have not the cash, and that you know right well. +Besides, it would be money thrown clean away, for what would it bring +in? Oh! you get up early of a morning to come and ask me to build you +a place that would ruin a king, do you? Your name may be David, but I +have not got Solomon's treasury. Why, you are mad! or they changed my +child at nurse. There is one for you that will have grapes on it," he +said, interrupting himself to point out a shoot. "Offspring of this +sort don't disappoint their parents; you dung the vines, and they +repay you for it. I sent you to school; I spent any amount of money to +make a scholar of you; I sent you to the Didots to learn your +business; and all this fancy education ends in a daughter-in-law out +of L'Houmeau without a penny to her name. If you had not studied +books, if I had kept you under my eye, you would have done as I +pleased, and you would be marrying a miller's widow this day with a +hundred thousand francs in hand, to say nothing of the mill. Oh! your +cleverness leads you to imagine that I am going to reward this fine +sentiment by building palaces for you, does it? . . . Really, anybody +might think that the house that has been a house these two hundred +years was nothing but a pigsty, not fit for the girl out of L'Houmeau +to sleep in! What next! She is the Queen of France, I suppose." + +"Very well, father, I will build the second floor myself; the son will +improve his father's property. It is not the usual way, but it happens +so sometimes." + +"What, my lad! you can find money for building, can you, though you +can't find money to pay the rent, eh! You sly dog, to come round your +father." + +The question thus raised was hard to lay, for the old man was only too +delighted to seize an opportunity of posing as a good father without +disbursing a penny; and all that David could obtain was his bare +consent to the marriage and free leave to do what he liked in the +house--at his own expense; the old "bear," that pattern of a thrifty +parent, kindly consenting not to demand the rent and drain the savings +to which David imprudently owned. David went back again in low +spirits. He saw that he could not reckon on his father's help in +misfortune. + + + +In Angouleme that day people talked of nothing but the Bishop's +epigram and Mme. de Bargeton's reply. Every least thing that happened +that evening was so much exaggerated and embellished and twisted out +of all knowledge, that the poet became the hero of the hour. While +this storm in a teacup raged on high, a few drops fell among the +_bourgeoisie_; young men looked enviously after Lucien as he passed on +his way through Beaulieu, and he overheard chance phrases that filled +him with conceit. + +"There is a lucky young fellow!" said an attorney's clerk, named +Petit-Claud, a plain-featured youth who had been at school with +Lucien, and treated him with small, patronizing airs. + +"Yes, he certainly is," answered one of the young men who had been +present on the occasion of the reading; "he is a good-looking fellow, +he has some brains, and Mme. de Bargeton is quite wild about him." + +Lucien had waited impatiently until he could be sure of finding Louise +alone. He had to break the tidings of his sister's marriage to the +arbitress of his destinies. Perhaps after yesterday's soiree, Louise +would be kinder than usual, and her kindness might lead to a moment of +happiness. So he thought, and he was not mistaken; Mme. de Bargeton +met him with a vehemence of sentiment that seemed like a touching +progress of passion to the novice in love. She abandoned her hands, +her beautiful golden hair, to the burning kisses of the poet who had +passed through such an ordeal. + +"If only you could have seen your face whilst you were reading," cried +Louise, using the familiar _tu_, the caress of speech, since yesterday, +while her white hands wiped the pearls of sweat from the brows on +which she set a poet's crown. "There were sparks of fire in those +beautiful eyes! From your lips, as I watched them, there fell the +golden chains that suspend the hearts of men upon the poet's mouth. +You shall read Chenier through to me from beginning to end; he is the +lover's poet. You shall not be unhappy any longer; I will not have it. +Yes, dear angel, I will make an oasis for you, there you shall live +your poet's life, sometimes busy, sometimes languid; indolent, full of +work, and musing by turns; but never forget that you owe your laurels +to me, let that thought be my noble guerdon for the sufferings which I +must endure. Poor love! the world will not spare me any more than it +has spared you; the world is avenged on all happiness in which it has +no share. Yes, I shall always be a mark for envy--did you not see that +last night? The bloodthirsty insects are quick enough to drain every +wound that they pierce. But I was happy; I lived. It is so long since +all my heartstrings vibrated." + +The tears flowed fast, and for all answer Lucien took Louise's hand +and gave it a lingering kiss. Every one about him soothed and caressed +the poet's vanity; his mother and his sister and David and Louise now +did the same. Every one helped to raise the imaginary pedestal on +which he had set himself. His friends's kindness and the fury of his +enemies combined to establish him more firmly in an ureal world. A +young imagination readily falls in with the flattering estimates of +others, a handsome young fellow so full of promise finds others eager +to help him on every side, and only after one or two sharp and bitter +lessons does he begin to see himself as an ordinary mortal. + +"My beautiful Louise, do you mean in very truth to be my Beatrice, a +Beatrice who condescends to be loved?" + +Louise raised the fine eyes, hitherto down-dropped. + +"If you show yourself worthy--some day!" she said, with an angelic +smile which belied her words. "Are you not happy? To be the sole +possessor of a heart, to speak freely at all times, with the certainty +of being understood, is not this happiness?" + +"Yes," he answered, with a lover's pout of vexation. + +"Child!" she exclaimed, laughing at him. "Come, you have something to +tell me, have you not? You came in absorbed in thought, my Lucien." + +Lucien, in fear and trembling, confided to his beloved that David was +in love with his sister Eve, and that his sister Eve was in love with +David, and that the two were to be married shortly. + +"Poor Lucien!" said Louise, "he was afraid he should be beaten and +scolded, as if it was he himself that was going to be married! Why, +where is the harm?" she continued, her fingers toying with Lucien's +hair. "What is your family to me when you are an exception? Suppose +that my father were to marry his cook, would that trouble you much? +Dear boy, lovers are for each other their whole family. Have I a +greater interest than my Lucien in the world? Be great, find the way +to win fame, that is our affair!" + +This selfish answer made Lucien the happiest of mortals. But in the +middle of the fantastic reasonings, with which Louise convinced him +that they two were alone in the world, in came M. de Bargeton. Lucien +frowned and seemed to be taken aback, but Louise made him a sign, and +asked him to stay to dinner and to read Andre de Chenier aloud to them +until people arrived for their evening game at cards. + +"You will give her pleasure," said M. de Bargeton, "and me also. +Nothing suits me better than listening to reading aloud after dinner." + +Cajoled by M. de Bargeton, cajoled by Louise, waited upon with the +respect which servants show to a favored guest of the house, Lucien +remained in the Hotel de Bargeton, and began to think of the luxuries +which he enjoyed for the time being as the rightful accessories of +Lucien de Rubempre. He felt his position so strong through Louise's +love and M. de Bargeton's weakness, that as the rooms filled, he +assumed a lordly air, which that fair lady encouraged. He tasted the +delights of despotic sway which Nais had acquired by right of +conquest, and liked to share with him; and, in short, that evening he +tried to act up to the part of the lion of the little town. A few of +those who marked these airs drew their own conclusions from them, and +thought that, according to the old expression, he had come to the last +term with the lady. Amelie, who had come with M. du Chatelet, was sure +of the deplorable fact, in a corner of the drawing-room, where the +jealous and envious gathered together. + +"Do not think of calling Nais to account for the vanity of a +youngster, who is as proud as he can be because he has got into +society, where he never expected to set foot," said Chatelet. "Don't +you see that this Chardon takes the civility of a woman of the world +for an advance? He does not know the difference between the silence of +real passion and the patronizing graciousness due to his good looks +and youth and talent. It would be too bad if women were blamed for all +the desires which they inspire. _He_ certainly is in love with her, but +as for Nais----" + +"Oh! Nais," echoed the perfidious Amelie, "Nais is well enough +pleased. A young man's love has so many attractions--at her age. A +woman grows young again in his company; she is a girl, and acts a +girl's hesitation and manners, and does not dream that she is +ridiculous. Just look! Think of a druggist's son giving himself a +conqueror's airs with Mme. de Bargeton." + +"Love knows nought of high or low degree," hummed Adrien. + +There was not a single house in Angouleme next day where the degree of +intimacy between M. Chardon (alias de Rubempre) and Mme. de Bargeton +was not discussed; and though the utmost extent of their guilt +amounted to two or three kisses, the world already chose to believe +the worst of both. Mme. de Bargeton paid the penalty of her +sovereignty. Among the various eccentricities of society, have you +never noticed its erratic judgments and the unaccountable differences +in the standard it requires of this or that man or woman? There are +some persons who may do anything; they may behave totally +irrationally, anything becomes them, and it is who shall be first to +justify their conduct; then, on the other hand, there are those on +whom the world is unaccountably severe, they must do everything well, +they are not allowed to fail nor to make mistakes, at their peril they +do anything foolish; you might compare these last to the much-admired +statues which must come down at once from their pedestal if the frost +chips off a nose or a finger. They are not permitted to be human; they +are required to be for ever divine and for ever impeccable. So one +glance exchanged between Mme. de Bargeton and Lucien outweighed twelve +years of Zizine's connection with Francis in the social balance; and a +squeeze of the hand drew down all the thunders of the Charente upon +the lovers. + +David had brought a little secret hoard back with him from Paris, and +it was this sum that he set aside for the expenses of his marriage and +for the building of the second floor in his father's house. His +father's house it was; but, after all, was he not working for himself? +It would all be his again some day, and his father was sixty-eight +years old. So David build a timbered second story for Lucien, so as +not to put too great a strain on the old rifted house-walls. He took +pleasure in making the rooms where the fair Eve was to spend her life +as brave as might be. + +It was a time of blithe and unmixed happiness for the friends. Lucien +was tired of the shabbiness of provincial life, and weary of the +sordid frugality that looked on a five-franc piece as a fortune, but +he bore the hardships and the pinching thrift without grumbling. His +moody looks had been succeeded by an expression of radiant hope. He +saw the star shining above his head, he had dreams of a great time to +come, and built the fabric of his good fortune on M. de Bargeton's +tomb. M. de Bargeton, troubled with indigestion from time to time, +cherished the happy delusion that indigestion after dinner was a +complaint to be cured by a hearty supper. + +By the beginning of September, Lucien had ceased to be a printer's +foreman; he was M. de Rubempre, housed sumptuously in comparison with +his late quarters in the tumbledown attic with the dormer-window, +where "young Chardon" had lived in L'Houmeau; he was not even a "man +of L'Houmeau"; he lived in the heights of Angouleme, and dined four +times a week with Mme. de Bargeton. A friendship had grown up between +M. de Rubempre and the Bishop, and he went to the palace. His +occupations put him upon a level with the highest rank; his name would +be one day among the great names of France; and, in truth, as he went +to and fro in his apartments, the pretty sitting-room, the charming +bedroom, and the tastefully furnished study, he might console himself +for the thought that he drew thirty francs every month out of his +mother's and sister's hard earnings; for he saw the day approaching +when _An Archer of Charles IX._, the historical romance on which he had +been at work for two years, and a volume of verse entitled +_Marguerites_, should spread his fame through the world of literature, +and bring in money enough to repay them all, his mother and sister and +David. So, grown great in his own eyes, and giving ear to the echoes +of his name in the future, he could accept present sacrifices with +noble assurance; he smiled at his poverty, he relished the sense of +these last days of penury. + +Eve and David had set Lucien's happiness before their own. They had +put off their wedding, for it took some time to paper and paint their +rooms, and to buy the furniture, and Lucien's affairs had been settled +first. No one who knew Lucien could wonder at their devotion. Lucien +was so engaging, he had such winning ways, his impatience and his +desires were so graciously expressed, that his cause was always won +before he opened his mouth to speak. This unlucky gift of fortune, if +it is the salvation of some, is the ruin of many more. Lucien and his +like find a world predisposed in favor of youth and good looks, and +ready to protect those who give it pleasure with the selfish +good-nature that flings alms to a beggar, if he appeals to the feelings +and awakens emotion; and in this favor many a grown child is content to +bask instead of putting it to a profitable use. With mistaken notions +as to the significance and the motive of social relations they imagine +that they shall always meet with deceptive smiles; and so at last the +moment comes for them when the world leaves them bald, stripped bare, +without fortune or worth, like an elderly coquette by the door of a +salon, or a stray rag in the gutter. + +Eve herself had wished for the delay. She meant to establish the +little household on the most economical footing, and to buy only +strict necessaries; but what could two lovers refuse to a brother who +watched his sister at her work, and said in tones that came from the +heart, "How I wish I could sew!" The sober, observant David had shared +in the devotion; and yet, since Lucien's triumph, David had watched +him with misgivings; he was afraid that Lucien would change towards +them, afraid that he would look down upon their homely ways. Once or +twice, to try his brother, David had made him choose between home +pleasures and the great world, and saw that Lucien gave up the +delights of vanity for them, and exclaimed to himself, "They will not +spoil him for us!" Now and again the three friends and Mme. Chardon +arranged picnic parties in provincial fashion--a walk in the woods +along the Charente, not far from Angouleme, and dinner out on the +grass, David's apprentice bringing the basket of provisions to some +place appointed before-hand; and at night they would come back, tired +somewhat, but the whole excursion had not cost three francs. On great +occasion, when they dined at a _restaurat_, as it is called, a sort of a +country inn, a compromise between a provincial wineshop and a Parisian +_guinguette_, they would spend as much as five francs, divided between +David and the Chardons. David gave his brother infinite credit for +forsaking Mme. de Bargeton and grand dinners for these days in the +country, and the whole party made much of the great man of Angouleme. + +Matters had gone so far, that the new home was very nearly ready, and +David had gone over to Marsac to persuade his father to come to the +wedding, not without a hope that the old man might relent at the sight +of his daughter-in-law, and give something towards the heavy expenses +of the alterations, when there befell one of those events which +entirely change the face of things in a small town. + +Lucien and Louise had a spy in Chatelet, a spy who watched, with the +persistence of a hate in which avarice and passion are blended, for an +opportunity of making a scandal. Sixte meant that Mme. de Bargeton +should compromise herself with Lucien in such a way that she should be +"lost," as the saying goes; so he posed as Mme. de Bargeton's humble +confidant, admired Lucien in the Rue du Minage, and pulled him to +pieces everywhere else. Nais had gradually given him _les petites +entrees_, in the language of the court, for the lady no longer +mistrusted her elderly admirer; but Chatelet had taken too much for +granted--love was still in the Platonic stage, to the great despair of +Louise and Lucien. + +There are, for that matter, love affairs which start with a good or a +bad beginning, as you prefer to take it. Two creatures launch into the +tactics of sentiment; they talk when they should be acting, and +skirmish in the open instead of settling down to a siege. And so they +grow tired of one another, expend their longings in empty space; and, +having time for reflection, come to their own conclusions about each +other. Many a passion that has taken the field in gorgeous array, with +colors flying and an ardor fit to turn the world upside down, has +turned home again without a victory, inglorious and crestfallen, +cutting but a foolish figure after these vain alarums and excursions. +Such mishaps are sometimes due to the diffidence of youth, sometimes +to the demurs of an inexperienced woman, for old players at this game +seldom end in a fiasco of this kind. + +Provincial life, moreover, is singularly well calculated to keep +desire unsatisfied and maintain a lover's arguments on the +intellectual plane, while, at the same time, the very obstacles placed +in the way of the sweet intercourse which binds lovers so closely each +to each, hurry ardent souls on towards extreme measures. A system of +espionage of the most minute and intricate kind underlies provincial +life; every house is transparent, the solace of close friendships +which break no moral law is scarcely allowed; and such outrageously +scandalous constructions are put upon the most innocent human +intercourse, that many a woman's character is taken away without +cause. One here and there, weighed down by her unmerited punishment, +will regret that she has never known to the full the forbidden +felicity for which she is suffering. The world, which blames and +criticises with a superficial knowledge of the patent facts in which a +long inward struggle ends, is in reality a prime agent in bringing +such scandals about; and those whose voices are loudest in +condemnation of the alleged misconduct of some slandered woman never +give a thought to the immediate provocation of the overt step. That +step many a woman only takes after she has been unjustly accused and +condemned, and Mme. de Bargeton was now on the verge of this anomalous +position. + +The obstacles at the outset of a passion of this kind are alarming to +inexperience, and those in the way of the two lovers were very like +the bonds by which the population of Lilliput throttled Gulliver, a +multiplicity of nothings, which made all movement impossible, and +baffle the most vehement desires. Mme. de Bargeton, for instance, must +always be visible. If she had denied herself to visitors when Lucien +was with her, it would have been all over with her; she might as well +have run away with him at once. It is true that they sat in the +boudoir, now grown so familiar to Lucien that he felt as if he had a +right to be there; but the doors stood scrupulously open, and +everything was arranged with the utmost propriety. M. de Bargeton +pervaded the house like a cockchafer; it never entered his head that +his wife could wish to be alone with Lucien. If he had been the only +person in the way, Nais could have got rid of him, sent him out of the +house, or given him something to do; but he was not the only one; +visitors flocked in upon her, and so much the more as curiosity +increased, for your provincial has a natural bent for teasing, and +delights to thwart a growing passion. The servants came and went about +the house promiscuously and without a summons; they had formed the +habits with a mistress who had nothing to conceal; any change now made +in her household ways was tantamount to a confession, and Angouleme +still hung in doubt. + +Mme. de Bargeton could not set foot outside her house but the whole +town knew whither she was going. To take a walk alone with Lucien out +of Angouleme would have been a decided measure, indeed; it would have +been less dangerous to shut herself up with him in the house. There +would have been comments the next day if Lucien had stayed on till +midnight after the rooms were emptied. Within as without her house, +Mme. de Bargeton lived in public. + +These details describe life in the provinces; an intrigue is either +openly avoided or impossible anywhere. + +Like all women carried away for the first time by passion, Louise +discovered the difficulties of her position one by one. They +frightened her, and her terror reacted upon the fond talk that fills +the fairest hours which lovers spend alone together. Mme. de Bargeton +had no country house whither she could take her beloved poet, after +the manner of some women who will forge ingenious pretexts for burying +themselves in the wilderness; but, weary of living in public, and +pushed to extremities by a tyranny which afforded no pleasures sweet +enough to compensate for the heaviness of the yoke, she even thought +of Escarbas, and of going to see her aged father--so much irritated +was she by these paltry obstacles. + +Chatelet did not believe in such innocence. He lay in wait, and +watched Lucien into the house, and followed a few minutes later, +always taking M. de Chandour, the most indiscreet person in the +clique, along with him; and, putting that gentleman first, hoped to +find a surprise by such perseverance in pursuit of the chance. His own +part was a very difficult one to play, and its success was the more +doubtful because he was bound to appear neutral if he was to prompt +the other actors who were to play in his drama. So, to give himself a +countenance, he had attached himself to the jealous Amelie, the better +to lull suspicion in Lucien and in Mme. de Bargeton, who was not +without perspicacity. In order to spy upon the pair, he had contrived +of late to open up a stock controversy on the point with M. de +Chandour. Chatelet said that Mme. de Bargeton was simply amusing +herself with Lucien; she was too proud, too high-born, to stoop to the +apothecary's son. The role of incredulity was in accordance with the +plan which he had laid down, for he wished to appear as Mme. de +Bargeton's champion. Stanislas de Chandour held that Mme. de Bargeton +had not been cruel to her lover, and Amelie goaded them to argument, +for she longed to know the truth. Each stated his case, and (as not +unfrequently happens in small country towns) some intimate friends of +the house dropped in in the middle of the argument. Stanislas and +Chatelet vied with each other in backing up their opinions by +observations extremely pertinent. It was hardly to be expected that +the champions should not seek to enlist partisans. "What do you +yourself think?" they asked, each of his neighbor. These polemics kept +Mme. de Bargeton and Lucien well in sight. + +At length one day Chatelet called attention to the fact that whenever +he went with M. de Chandour to Mme. de Bargeton's and found Lucien +there, there was not a sign nor a trace of anything suspicious; the +boudoir door stood open, the servants came and went, there was nothing +mysterious to betray the sweet crime of love, and so forth and so +forth. Stanislas, who did not lack a certain spice of stupidity in his +composition, vowed that he would cross the room on tiptoe the next +day, and the perfidious Amelie held him to his bargain. + +For Lucien that morrow was the day on which a young man tugs out some +of the hairs of his head, and inwardly vows that he will give up the +foolish business of sighing. He was accustomed to his situation. The +poet, who had seated himself so bashfully in the boudoir-sanctuary of +the queen of Angouleme, had been transformed into an urgent lover. Six +months had been enough to bring him on a level with Louise, and now he +would fain be her lord and master. He left home with a settled +determination to be extravagant in his behavior; he would say that it +was a matter of life or death to him; he would bring all the resources +of torrid eloquence into play; he would cry that he had lost his head, +that he could not think, could not write a line. The horror that some +women feel for premeditation does honor to their delicacy; they would +rather surrender upon the impulse of passion, than in fulfilment of a +contract. In general, prescribed happiness is not the kind that any of +us desire. + +Mme. de Bargeton read fixed purpose in Lucien's eyes and forehead, and +in the agitation in his face and manner, and proposed to herself to +baffle him, urged thereto partly by a spirit of contradiction, partly +also by an exalted conception of love. Being given to exaggeration, +she set an exaggerated value upon her person. She looked upon herself +as a sovereign lady, a Beatrice, a Laura. She enthroned herself, like +some dame of the Middle Ages, upon a dais, looking down upon the +tourney of literature, and meant that Lucien, as in duty bound, should +win her by his prowess in the field; he must eclipse "the sublime +child," and Lamartine, and Sir Walter Scott, and Byron. The noble +creature regarded her love as a stimulating power; the desire which +she had kindled in Lucien should give him the energy to win glory for +himself. This feminine Quixotry is a sentiment which hallows love and +turns it to worthy uses; it exalts and reverences love. Mme. de +Bargeton having made up her mind to play the part of Dulcinea in +Lucien's life for seven or eight years to come, desired, like many +other provincials, to give herself as the reward of prolonged service, +a trial of constancy which should give her time to judge her lover. + +Lucien began the strife by a piece of vehement petulence, at which a +woman laughs so long as she is heart-free, and saddens only when she +loves; whereupon Louise took a lofty tone, and began one of her long +orations, interlarded with high-sounding words. + +"Was that your promise to me, Lucien?" she said, as she made an end. +"Do not sow regrets in the present time, so sweet as it is, to poison +my after life. Do not spoil the future, and, I say it with pride, do +not spoil the present! Is not my whole heart yours? What more must you +have? Can it be that your love is influenced by the clamor of the +senses, when it is the noblest privilege of the beloved to silence +them? For whom do you take me? Am I not your Beatrice? If I am not +something more than a woman for you, I am less than a woman." + +"That is just what you might say to a man if you cared nothing at all +for him," cried Lucien, frantic with passion. + +"If you cannot feel all the sincere love underlying my ideas, you will +never be worthy of me." + +"You are throwing doubts on my love to dispense yourself from +responding to it," cried Lucien, and he flung himself weeping at her +feet. + +The poor boy cried in earnest at the prospect of remaining so long at +the gate of paradise. The tears of the poet, who feels that he is +humbled through his strength, were mingled with childish crying for a +plaything. + +"You have never loved me!" he cried. + +"You do not believe what you say," she answered, flattered by his +violence. + +"Then give me proof that you are mine," said the disheveled poet. + +Just at that moment Stanislas came up unheard by either of the pair. +He beheld Lucien in tears, half reclining on the floor, with his head +on Louise's knee. The attitude was suspicious enough to satisfy +Stanislas; he turned sharply round upon Chatelet, who stood at the +door of the salon. Mme. de Bargeton sprang up in a moment, but the +spies beat a precipate retreat like intruders, and she was not quick +enough for them. + +"Who came just now?" she asked the servants. + +"M. de Chandour and M. du Chatelet," said Gentil, her old footman. + +Mme. de Bargeton went back, pale and trembling, to her boudoir. + +"If they saw you just now, I am lost," she told Lucien. + +"So much the better!" exclaimed the poet, and she smiled to hear the +cry, so full of selfish love. + +A story of this kind is aggravated in the provinces by the way in +which it is told. Everybody knew in a moment that Lucien had been +detected at Nais feet. M. de Chandour, elated by the important part he +played in the affair, went first to tell the great news at the club, +and thence from house to house, Chatelet hastening to say that _he_ had +seen nothing; but by putting himself out of court, he egged Stanislas +on to talk, he drew him on to add fresh details; and Stanislas, +thinking himself very witty, added a little to the tale every time +that he told it. Every one flocked to Amelie's house that evening, for +by that time the most exaggerated versions of the story were in +circulation among the Angouleme nobility, every narrator having +followed Stanislas' example. Women and men were alike impatient to +know the truth; and the women who put their hands before their faces +and shrieked the loudest were none other than Mesdames Amelie, +Zephirine, Fifine, and Lolotte, all with more or less heavy +indictments of illicit love laid to their charge. There were +variations in every key upon the painful theme. + +"Well, well," said one of the ladies, "poor Nais! have you heard about +it? I do not believe it myself; she has a whole blameless record +behind her; she is far too proud to be anything but a patroness to M. +Chardon. Still, if it is true, I pity her with all my heart." + +"She is all the more to be pitied because she is making herself +frightfully ridiculous; she is old enough to be M. Lulu's mother, as +Jacques called him. The little poet it twenty-two at most; and Nais, +between ourselves, is quite forty." + +"For my own part," said M. du Chatelet, "I think that M. de Rubempre's +position in itself proves Nais' innocence. A man does not go down on +his knees to ask for what he has had already." + +"That is as may be!" said Francis, with levity that brought +Zephirine's disapproving glance down on him. + +"Do just tell us how it really was," they besought Stanislas, and +formed a small, secret committee in a corner of the salon. + +Stanislas, in the long length, had put together a little story full of +facetious suggestions, and accompanied it with pantomime, which made +the thing prodigiously worse. + +"It is incredible!" + +"At midday?" + +"Nais was the last person whom I should have suspected!" + +"What will she do now?" + +Then followed more comments, and suppositions without end. Chatelet +took Mme. de Bargeton's part; but he defended her so ill, that he +stirred the fire of gossip instead of putting it out. + +Lili, disconsolate over the fall of the fairest angel in the +Angoumoisin hierarchy, went, dissolved in tears, to carry the news to +the palace. When the delighted Chatelet was convinced that the whole +town was agog, he went off to Mme. de Bargeton's, where, alas! there +was but one game of whist that night, and diplomatically asked Nais +for a little talk in the boudoir. They sat down on the sofa, and +Chatelet began in an undertone-- + +"You know what Angouleme is talking about, of course?" + +"No." + +"Very well, I am too much your friend to leave you in ignorance. I am +bound to put you in a position to silence slanders, invented, no +doubt, by Amelie, who has the overweening audacity to regard herself +as your rival. I came to call on you this morning with that monkey of +a Stanislas; he was a few paces ahead of me, and he came so far" +(pointing to the door of the boudoir); "he says that he _saw_ you and +M. de Rubempre in such a position that he could not enter; he turned +round upon me, quite bewildered as I was, and hurried me away before I +had time to think; we were out in Beaulieu before he told me why he +had beaten a retreat. If I had known, I would not have stirred out of +the house till I had cleared up the matter and exonerated you, but it +would have proved nothing to go back again then. + +"Now, whether Stanislas' eyes deceived him, or whether he is right, _he +must have made a mistake_. Dear Nais, do not let that dolt trifle with +your life, your honor, your future; stop his mouth at once. You know +my position here. I have need of all these people, but still I am +entirely yours. Dispose of a life that belongs to you. You have +rejected my prayers, but my heart is always yours; I am ready to prove +my love for you at any time and in any way. Yes, I will watch over you +like a faithful servant, for no reward, but simply for the sake of the +pleasure that it is to me to do anything for you, even if you do not +know of it. This morning I have said everywhere that I was at the door +of the salon, and had seen nothing. If you are asked to give the name +of the person who told you about this gossip, pray make use of me. I +should be very proud to be your acknowledged champion; but, between +ourselves, M. de Bargeton is the proper person to ask Stanislas for an +explanation. . . . Suppose that young Rubempre had behaved foolishly, +a woman's character ought not to be at the mercy of the first +hare-brained boy who flings himself at her feet. That is what I have +been saying." + +Nais bowed in acknowledgment, and looked thoughtful. She was weary to +disgust of provincial life. Chatelet had scarcely begun before her +mind turned to Paris. Meanwhile Mme. de Bargeton's adorer found the +silence somewhat awkward. + +"Dispose of me, I repeat," he added. + +"Thank you," answered the lady. + +"What do you think of doing?" + +"I shall see." + +A prolonged pause. + +"Are you so fond of that young Rubempre?" + +A proud smile stole over her lips, she folded her arms, and fixed her +gaze on the curtains. Chatelet went out; he could not read that high +heart. + +Later in the evening, when Lucien had taken his leave, and likewise +the four old gentlemen who came for their whist, without troubling +themselves about ill-founded tittle-tattle, M. de Bargeton was +preparing to go to bed, and had opened his mouth to bid his wife +good-night, when she stopped him. + +"Come here, dear, I have something to say to you," she said, with a +certain solemnity. + +M. de Bargeton followed her into the boudoir. + +"Perhaps I have done wrongly," she said, "to show a warm interest in +M. de Rubempre, which he, as well as the stupid people here in the +town, has misinterpreted. This morning Lucien threw himself here at my +feet with a declaration, and Stanislas happened to come in just as I +told the boy to get up again. A woman, under any circumstances, has +claims which courtesy prescribes to a gentleman; but in contempt of +these, Stanislas has been saying that he came unexpectedly and found +us in an equivocal position. I was treating the boy as he deserved. If +the young scatterbrain knew of the scandal caused by his folly, he +would go, I am convinced, to insult Stanislas, and compel him to +fight. That would simply be a public proclamation of his love. I need +not tell you that your wife is pure; but if you think, you will see +that it is something dishonoring for both you and me if M. de Rubempre +defends her. Go at once to Stanislas and ask him to give you +satisfaction for his insulting language; and mind, you must not accept +any explanation short of a full and public retraction in the presence +of witnesses of credit. In this way you will win back the respect of +all right-minded people; you will behave like a man of spirit and a +gentleman, and you will have a right to my esteem. I shall send Gentil +on horseback to the Escarbas; my father must be your second; old as he +is, I know that he is the man to trample this puppet under foot that +has smirched the reputation of a Negrepelisse. You have the choice of +weapons, choose pistols; you are an admirable shot." + +"I am going," said M. de Bargeton, and he took his hat and his walking +cane. + +"Good, that is how I like a man to behave, dear; you are a gentleman," +said his wife. She felt touched by his conduct, and made the old man +very happy and proud by putting up her forehead for a kiss. She felt +something like a maternal affection for the great child; and when the +carriage gateway had shut with a clang behind him, the tears came into +her eyes in spite of herself. + +"How he loves me!" she thought. "He clings to life, poor, dear man, +and yet he would give his life for me." + +It did not trouble M. de Bargeton that he must stand up and face his +man on the morrow, and look coolly into the muzzle of a pistol pointed +straight at him; no, only one thing in the business made him feel +uncomfortable, and on the way to M. de Chandour's house he quaked +inwardly. + +"What shall I say?" he thought within himself; "Nais really ought to +have told me what to say," and the good gentleman racked his brains to +compose a speech that should not be ridiculous. + +But people of M. de Bargeton's stamp, who live perforce in silence +because their capacity is limited and their outlook circumscribed, +often behave at great crises with a ready-made solemnity. If they say +little, it naturally follows that they say little that is foolish; +their extreme lack of confidence leads them to think a good deal over +the remarks that they are obliged to make; and, like Balaam's ass, +they speak marvelously to the point if a miracle loosens their +tongues. So M. de Bargeton bore himself like a man of uncommon sense +and spirit, and justified the opinion of those who held that he was a +philosopher of the school of Pythagoras. + +He reached Stanislas' house at nine o'clock, bowed silently to Amelie +before a whole room full of people, and greeted others in turn with +that simple smile of his, which under the present circumstances seemed +profoundly ironical. There followed a great silence, like the pause +before a storm. Chatelet had made his way back again, and now looked +in a very significant fashion from M. de Bargeton to Stanislas, whom +the injured gentleman accosted politely. + +Chatelet knew what a visit meant at this time of night, when old M. de +Bargeton was invariably in his bed. It was evidently Nais who had set +the feeble arm in motion. Chatelet was on such a footing in that house +that he had some right to interfere in family concerns. He rose to his +feet and took M. de Bargeton aside, saying, "Do you wish to speak to +Stanislas?" + +"Yes," said the old gentleman, well pleased to find a go-between who +perhaps might say his say for him. + +"Very well; go into Amelie's bedroom," said the controller of excise, +likewise well pleased at the prospect of a duel which possibly might +make Mme. de Bargeton a widow, while it put a bar between her and +Lucien, the cause of the quarrel. Then Chatelet went to M. de +Chandour. + +"Stanislas," he said, "here comes Bargeton to call you to account, no +doubt, for the things you have been saying about Nais. Go into your +wife's room, and behave, both of you, like gentlemen. Keep the thing +quiet, and make a great show of politeness, behave with phlegmatic +British dignity, in short." + +In another minute Stanislas and Chatelet went to Bargeton. + +"Sir," said the injured husband, "do you say that you discovered Mme. +de Bargeton and M. de Rubempre in an equivocal position?" + +"M. Chardon," corrected Stanislas, with ironical stress; he did not +take Bargeton seriously. + +"So be it," answered the other. "If you do not withdraw your +assertions at once before the company now in your house, I must ask +you to look for a second. My father-in-law, M. de Negrepelisse, will +wait upon you at four o'clock to-morrow morning. Both of us may as +well make our final arrangements, for the only way out of the affair +is the one that I have indicated. I choose pistols, as the insulted +party." + +This was the speech that M. de Bargeton had ruminated on the way; it +was the longest that he had ever made in life. He brought it out +without excitement or vehemence, in the simplest way in the world. +Stanislas turned pale. "After all, what did I see?" said he to +himself. + +Put between the shame of eating his words before the whole town, and +fear, that caught him by the throat with burning fingers; confronted +by this mute personage, who seemed in no humor to stand nonsense, +Stanislas chose the more remote peril. + +"All right. To-morrow morning," he said, thinking that the matter +might be arranged somehow or other. + +The three went back to the room. Everybody scanned their faces as they +came in; Chatelet was smiling, M. de Bargeton looked exactly as if he +were in his own house, but Stanislas looked ghastly pale. At the sight +of his face, some of the women here and there guessed the nature of +the conference, and the whisper, "They are going to fight!" circulated +from ear to ear. One-half of the room was of the opinion that +Stanislas was in the wrong, his white face and his demeanor convicted +him of a lie; the other half admired M. de Bargeton's attitude. +Chatelet was solemn and mysterious. M. de Bargeton stayed a few +minutes, scrutinized people's faces, and retired. + +"Have you pistols?" Chatelet asked in a whisper of Stanislas, who +shook from head to foot. + +Amelie knew what it all meant. She felt ill, and the women flocked +about her to take her into her bedroom. There was a terrific +sensation; everybody talked at once. The men stopped in the +drawing-room, and declared, with one voice, that M. de Bargeton was +within his right. + +"Would you have thought the old fogy capable of acting like this?" +asked M. de Saintot. + +"But he was a crack shot when he was young," said the pitiless +Jacques. "My father often used to tell me of Bargeton's exploits." + +"Pooh! Put them at twenty paces, and they will miss each other if you +give them cavalry pistols," said Francis, addressing Chatelet. + +Chatelet stayed after the rest had gone to reassure Stanislas and his +wife, and to explain that all would go off well. In a duel between a +man of sixty and a man of thirty-five, all the advantage lay with the +latter. + +Early next morning, as Lucien sat at breakfast with David, who had +come back alone from Marsac, in came Mme. Chardon with a scared face. + +"Well, Lucien," she said, "have you heard the news? Everyone is +talking of it, even the people in the market. M. de Bargeton all but +killed M. de Chandour this morning in M. Tulloy's meadow; people are +making puns on the name. (Tue Poie.) It seems that M. de Chandour said +that he found you with Mme. de Bargeton yesterday." + +"It is a lie! Mme. de Bargeton is innocent," cried Lucien. + +"I heard about the duel from a countryman, who saw it all from his +cart. M. de Negrepelisse came over at three o'clock in the morning to +be M. de Bargeton's second; he told M. de Chandour that if anything +happened to his son-in-law, he should avenge him. A cavalry officer +lent the pistols. M. de Negrepelisse tried them over and over again. +M. du Chatelet tried to prevent them from practising with the pistols, +but they referred the question to the officer; and he said that, +unless they meant to behave like children, they ought to have pistols +in working order. The seconds put them at twenty-five paces. M. de +Bargeton looked as if he had just come out for a walk. He was the +first to fire; the ball lodged in M. de Chandour's neck, and he +dropped before he could return the shot. The house-surgeon at the +hospital has just said that M. de Chandour will have a wry neck for +the rest of his days. I came to tell you how it ended, lest you should +go to Mme. de Bargeton's or show yourself in Angouleme, for some of M. +de Chandour's friends might call you out." + +As she spoke, the apprentice brought in Gentil, M. de Bargeton's +footman. The man had come with a note for Lucien; it was from Louise. + +"You have doubtless heard the news," she wrote, "of the duel between +Chandour and my husband. We shall not be at home to any one to-day. Be +careful; do not show yourself. I ask this in the name of the affection +you bear me. Do you not think that it would be best to spend this +melancholy day in listening to your Beatrice, whose whole life has +been changed by this event, who has a thousand things to say to you?" + +"Luckily, my marriage is fixed for the day after to-morrow," said +David, "and you will have an excuse for not going to see Mme. de +Bargeton quite so often." + +"Dear David," returned Lucien, "she asks me to go to her to-day; and I +ought to do as she wishes, I think; she knows better than we do how I +should act in the present state of things." + +"Then is everything ready here?" asked Mme. Chardon. + +"Come and see," cried David, delighted to exhibit the transformation +of the first floor. Everything there was new and fresh; everything was +pervaded by the sweet influences of early married days, still crowned +by the wreath of orange blossoms and the bridal veil; days when the +springtide of love finds its reflection in material things, and +everything is white and spotless and has not lost its bloom. + +"Eve's home will be fit for a princess," said the mother, "but you +have spent too much, you have been reckless." + +David smiled by way of answer. But Mme. Chardon had touched the sore +spot in a hidden wound which caused the poor lover cruel pangs. The +cost of carrying out his ideas had far exceeded his estimates; he +could not afford to build above the shed. His mother-in-law must wait +awhile for the home he had meant to make for her. There is nothing +more keenly painful to a generous nature than a failure to keep such +promises as these; it is like mortification to the little vanities of +affection, as they may be styled. David sedulously hid his +embarrassment to spare Lucien; he was afraid that Lucien might be +overwhelmed by the sacrifices made for his sake. + +"Eve and her girl friends have been working very hard, too," said Mme. +Chardon. "The wedding clothes and the house linen are all ready. The +girls are so fond of her, that, without letting her know about it, +they have covered the mattresses with white twill and a rose-colored +piping at the edges. So pretty! It makes one wish one were going to be +married." + +Mother and daughter had spent all their little savings to furnish +David's home with the things of which a young bachelor never thinks. +They knew that he was furnishing with great splendor, for something +had been said about ordering a dinner-service from Limoges, and the +two women had striven to make Eve's contributions to the housekeeping +worthy of David's. This little emulation in love and generosity could +but bring the husband and wife into difficulties at the very outset of +their married life, with every sign of homely comfort about them, +comfort that might be regarded as positive luxury in a place so behind +the times as the Angouleme of those days. + +As soon as Lucien saw his mother and David enter the bedroom with the +blue-and-white draperies and neat furniture that he knew, he slipped +away to Mme. de Bargeton. He found Nais at table with her husband; M. +de Bargeton's early morning walk had sharpened his appetite, and he +was breakfasting quite unconcernedly after all that had passed. Lucien +saw the dignified face of M. de Negrepelisse, the old provincial +noble, a relic of the old French _noblesse_, sitting beside Nais. + +When Gentil announced M. de Rubempre, the white-headed old man gave +him a keen, curious glance; the father was anxious to form his own +opinions of this man whom his daughter had singled out for notice. +Lucien's extreme beauty made such a vivid impression upon him, that he +could not repress an approving glance; but at the same time he seemed +to regard the affair as a flirtation, a mere passing fancy on his +daughter's part. Breakfast over, Louise could leave her father and M. +de Bargeton together; she beckoned Lucien to follow her as she +withdrew. + +"Dear," she said, and the tones of her voice were half glad, half +melancholy, "I am going to Paris, and my father is taking Bargeton +back with him to the Escarbas, where he will stay during my absence. +Mme. d'Espard (she was a Blamont-Chauvry before her marriage) has +great influence herself, and influential relations. The d'Espards are +connections of ours; they are the older branch of the Negrepelisses; +and if she vouchsafes to acknowledge the relationship, I intend to +cultivate her a good deal; she may perhaps procure a place for +Bargeton. At my solicitation, it might be desired at Court that he +should represent the Charente, and that would be a step towards his +election here. If he were a deputy, it would further other steps that +I wish to take in Paris. You, my darling, have brought about this +change in my life. After this morning's duel, I am obliged to shut up +my house for some time; for there will be people who will side with +the Chandours against us. In our position, and in a small town, +absence is the only way of softening down bad feeling. But I shall +either succeed, and never see Angouleme again, or I shall not succeed, +and then I mean to wait in Paris until the time comes when I can spend +my summers at the Escarbas and the winters in Paris. It is the only +life for a woman of quality, and I have waited too long before +entering upon it. The one day will be enough for our preparations; +to-morrow night I shall set out, and you are coming with me, are you +not? You shall start first. I will overtake you between Mansle and +Ruffec, and we shall soon be in Paris. There, beloved, is the life for +a man who has anything in him. We are only at our ease among our +equals; we are uncomfortable in any other society. Paris, besides, is +the capital of the intellectual world, the stage on which you will +succeed; overleap the gulf that separates us quickly. You must not +allow your ideas to grow rancid in the provinces; put yourself into +communication at once with the great men who represent the nineteenth +century. Try to stand well with the Court and with those in power. No +honor, no distinction, comes to seek out the talent that perishes for +lack of light in a little town; tell me, if you can, the name of any +great work of art executed in the provinces! On the contrary, see how +Jean-Jacques, himself sublime in his poverty, felt the irresistible +attraction of that sun of the intellectual world, which produces +ever-new glories and stimulates the intellect--Paris, where men rub +against one another. What is it but your duty to hasten to take your +place in the succession of pleiades that rise from generation to +generation? You have no idea how it contributes to the success of a +clever young man to be brought into a high light, socially speaking. +I will introduce you to Mme. d'Espard; it is not easy to get into her +set; but you meet all the greatest people at her house, Cabinet +ministers and ambassadors, and great orators from the Chamber of +Deputies, and peers and men of influence, and wealthy or famous people. +A young man with good looks and more than sufficient genius could fail +to excite interest only by very bad management. + +"There is no pettiness about those who are truly great; they will lend +you their support; and when you yourself have a high position, your +work will rise immensely in public opinion. The great problem for the +artist is the problem of putting himself in evidence. In these ways +there will be hundreds of chances of making your way, of sinecures, of +a pension from the civil list. The Bourbons are so fond of encouraging +letters and the arts, and you therefore must be a religious poet and a +Royalist poet at the same time. Not only is it the right course, but +it is the way to get on in life. Do the Liberals and the Opposition +give places and rewards, and make the fortunes of men of letters? Take +the right road and reach the goal of genius. You have my secret, do +not breathe a syllable of it, and prepare to follow me.--Would you +rather not go?" she added, surprised that her lover made no answer. + +To Lucien, listening to the alluring words, and bewildered by the +rapid bird's-eye view of Paris which they brought before him, it +seemed as if hitherto he had been using only half his brain and +suddenly had found the other half, so swiftly his ideas widened. He +saw himself stagnating in Angouleme like a frog under a stone in a +marsh. Paris and her splendors rose before him; Paris, the Eldorado of +provincial imaginings, with golden robes and the royal diadem about +her brows, and arms outstretched to talent of every kind. Great men +would greet him there as one of their order. Everything smiled upon +genius. There, there were no jealous booby-squires to invent stinging +gibes and humiliate a man of letters; there was no stupid indifference +to poetry in Paris. Paris was the fountain-head of poetry; there the +poet was brought into the light and paid for his work. Publishers +should no sooner read the opening pages of _An Archer of Charles IX._ +than they should open their cash-boxes with "How much do you want?" +And besides all this, he understood that this journey with Mme. de +Bargeton would virtually give her to him; that they should live +together. + +So at the words, "Would you rather not go?" tears came into his eyes, +he flung his arms about Louise, held her tightly to his heart, and +marbled her throat with impassioned kisses. Suddenly he checked +himself, as if memory had dealt him a blow. + +"Great heavens!" he cried, "my sister is to be married on the day +after to-morrow!" + + + +That exclamation was the last expiring cry of noble and single-hearted +boyhood. The so-powerful ties that bind young hearts to home, and a +first friendship, and all early affections, were to be severed at one +ruthless blow. + +"Well," cried the haughty Negrepelisse, "and what has your sister's +marriage to do with the progress of our love? Have you set your mind +so much on being best man at a wedding party of tradespeople and +workingmen, that you cannot give up these exalted joys for my sake? A +great sacrifice, indeed!" she went on, scornfully. "This morning I +sent my husband out to fight in your quarrel. There, sir, go; I am +mistaken in you." + +She sank fainting upon the sofa. Lucien went to her, entreating her +pardon, calling execrations upon his family, his sister, and David. + +"I had such faith in you!" she said. "M. de Cante-Croix had an adored +mother; but to win a letter from me, and the words, 'I am satisfied,' +he fell in the thick of the fight. And now, when I ask you to take a +journey with me, you cannot think of giving up a wedding dinner for my +sake." + +Lucien was ready to kill himself; his desperation was so unfeigned, +that Louise forgave him, though at the same time she made him feel +that he must redeem his mistake. + +"Come, come," she said, "be discreet, and to-morrow at midnight be +upon the road, a hundred paces out of Mansle." + +Lucien felt the globe shrink under his feet; he went back to David's +house, hopes pursuing him as the Furies followed Orestes, for he had +glimmerings of endless difficulties, all summed up in the appalling +words, "Where is the money to come from?" + +He stood in such terror of David's perspicacity, that he locked +himself into his pretty new study until he could recover himself, his +head was swimming in this new position. So he must leave the rooms +just furnished for him at such a cost, and all the sacrifices that had +been made for him had been made in vain. Then it occurred to Lucien +that his mother might take the rooms and save David the heavy expense +of building at the end of the yard, as he had meant to do; his +departure would be, in fact, a convenience to the family. He +discovered any quantity of urgent reasons for his sudden flight; for +there is no such Jesuit as the desire of your heart. He hurried down +at once to tell the news to his sister in L'Houmeau and to take +counsel with her. As he reached Postel's shop, he bethought himself +that if all other means failed, he could borrow enough to live upon +for a year from his father's successor. + +"Three francs per day will be abundance for me if I live with Louise," +he thought; "it is only a thousand francs for a whole year. And in six +months' time I shall have plenty of money." + +Then, under seal and promise of secrecy, Eve and her mother heard +Lucien's confidences. Both the women began to cry as they heard of the +ambitious plans; and when he asked the reason of their trouble, they +told him that every penny they possessed had been spent on +table-linen, house-linen, Eve's wedding clothes, and on a host of +things that David had overlooked. They had been so glad to do this, for +David had made a marriage-settlement of ten thousand francs on Eve. +Lucien then spoke of his idea of a loan, and Mme. Chardon undertook to +ask M. Postel to lend them a thousand francs for a twelve-month. + +"But, Lucien," said Eve, as a thought clutched at her heart, "you will +not be here at my wedding! Oh! come back, I will put it off for a few +days. Surely she will give you leave to come back in a fortnight, if +only you go with her now? Surely, she would spare you to us for a +week, Lucien, when we brought you up for her? We shall have no luck if +you are not at the wedding. . . . But will a thousand francs be enough +for you?" she asked, suddenly interrupting herself. "Your coat suits +you divinely, but you have only that one! You have only two fine +shirts, the other six are coarse linen; and three of your white ties +are just common muslin, there are only two lawn cravats, and your +pocket-handkerchiefs are not good ones. Where will you find a sister +in Paris who will get up your linen in one day as you want it? You +will want ever so much more. Then you have just the one pair of new +nankeen trousers, last year's trousers are tight for you; you will be +obliged to have clothes made in Paris, and Paris prices are not like +Angouleme prices. You have only two presentable white waistcoats; I +have mended the others already. Come, I advise you to take two +thousand francs." + +David came in as she spoke, and apparently heard the last two words, +for he looked at the brother and sister and said nothing. + +"Do not keep anything from me," he said at last. + +"Well," exclaimed Eve, "he is going away with _her_." + +Mme. Chardon came in again, and, not seeing David, began at once: + +"Postel is willing to lend you the thousand francs, Lucien," she said, +"but only for six months; and even then he wants you to let him have a +bill endorsed by your brother-in-law, for he says that you are giving +him no security." + +She turned and saw David, and there was a deep silence in the room. +The Chardons thought how they had abused David's goodness, and felt +ashamed. Tears stood in the young printer's eyes. + +"Then you will not be here at our wedding," he began. "You are not +going to live with us! And here have I been squandering all that I +had! Oh! Lucien, as I came along, bringing Eve her little bits of +wedding jewelry, I did not think that I should be sorry I spent the +money on them." He brushed his hand over his eyes as he drew the +little cases from his pocket. + +He set down the tiny morocco-covered boxes on the table in front of +his mother-in-law. + +"Oh! why do you think so much for me?" protested Eve, giving him a +divinely sweet smile that belied her words. + +"Mamma, dear," said David, "just tell M. Postel that I will put my +name to the bill, for I can tell from your face, Lucien, that you have +quite made up your mind to go." + +Lucien's head sank dejectedly; there was a little pause, then he said, +"Do not think hardly of me, my dear, good angels." + +He put his arms about Eve and David, and drew them close, and held +them tightly to him as he added, "Wait and see what comes of it, and +you shall know how much I love you. What is the good of our high +thinking, David, if it does not enable us to disregard the petty +ceremonial in which the law entangles our affections? Shall I not be +with you in spirit, in spite of the distance between us? Shall we not +be united in thought? Have I not a destiny to fulfil? Will publishers +come here to seek my _Archer of Charles IX._ and the _Marguerites_? A +little sooner or a little later I shall be obliged in any case to do +as I am doing to-day, should I not? And shall I ever find a better +opportunity than this? Does not my success entirely depend upon my +entrance on life in Paris through the Marquise d'Espard's salon?" + +"He is right," said Eve; "you yourself were saying, were you not, that +he ought to go to Paris at once?" + +David took Eve's hand in his, and drew her into the narrow little room +where she had slept for seven years. + +"Love, you were saying just now that he would want two thousand +francs?" he said in her ear. "Postel is only lending one thousand." + +Eve gave her betrothed a look, and he read all her anguish in her +eyes. + +"Listen, my adored Eve, we are making a bad start in life. Yes, my +expenses have taken all my capital; I have just two thousand francs +left, and half of it will be wanted to carry on the business. If we +give your brother the thousand francs, it will mean that we are giving +away our bread, that we shall live in anxiety. If I were alone, I know +what I should do; but we are two. Decide for us." + +Eve, distracted, sprang to her lover's arms, and kissed him tenderly, +as she answered through her tears: + +"Do as you would do if you were alone; I will work to earn the money." + +In spite of the most impassioned kiss ever given and taken by +betrothed lovers, David left Eve overcome with trouble, and went out +to Lucien. + +"Do not worry yourself," he said; "you shall have your two thousand +francs." + +"Go in to see Postel," said Mme. Chardon, "for you must both give your +signatures to the bill." + +When Lucien and David came back again unexpectedly, they found Eve and +her mother on their knees in prayer. The women felt sure that Lucien's +return would bring the realization of many hopes; but at the moment +they could only feel how much they were losing in the parting, and the +happiness to come seemed too dearly bought by an absence that broke up +their life together, and would fill the coming days with innumerable +fears for Lucien. + +"If you could ever forget this sight," David said in Lucien's ear, +"you would be the basest of men." + +David, no doubt, thought that these brave words were needed; Mme. de +Bargeton's influence seemed to him less to be feared than his friend's +unlucky instability of character, Lucien was so easily led for good or +evil. Eve soon packed Lucien's clothes; the Fernando Cortez of +literature carried but little baggage. He was wearing his best +overcoat, his best waistcoat, and one of the two fine shirts. The +whole of his linen, the celebrated coat, and his manuscript made up so +small a package that to hide it from Mme. de Bargeton, David proposed +to send it by coach to a paper merchant with whom he had dealings, and +wrote and advised him to that effect, and asked him to keep the parcel +until Lucien sent for it. + +In spite of Mme. de Bargeton's precautions, Chatelet found out that +she was leaving Angouleme; and with a view to discovering whether she +was traveling alone or with Lucien, he sent his man to Ruffec with +instructions to watch every carriage that changed horses at that +stage. + +"If she is taking her poet with her," thought he, "I have her now." + +Lucien set out before daybreak the next morning. David went with him. +David had hired a cabriolet, pretending that he was going to Marsac on +business, a little piece of deception which seemed probable under the +circumstances. The two friends went to Marsac, and spent part of the +day with the old "bear." As evening came on they set out again, and in +the beginning of the dawn they waited in the road, on the further side +of Mansle, for Mme. de Bargeton. When the seventy-year old traveling +carriage, which he had many a time seen in the coach-house, appeared +in sight, Lucien felt more deeply moved than he had ever been in his +life before; he sprang into David's arms. + +"God grant that this may be for your good!" said David, and he climbed +into the shabby cabriolet and drove away with a feeling of dread +clutching at his heart; he had terrible presentiments of the fate +awaiting Lucien in Paris. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bargeton, Madame de (see Chatelet, Baronne du) + +Cerizet + Eve and David + A Man of Business + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Chardon, Madame (nee Rubempre) + Eve and David + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Chatelet, Sixte, Baron du + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Thirteen + +Chatelet, Marie-Louise-Anais de Negrepelisse, Baronne du + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + +Cointet, Boniface + Eve and David + The Firm of Nucingen + The Member for Arcis + +Cointet, Jean + Eve and David + +Courtois + Eve and David + +Courtois, Madame + Eve and David + +Desplein + The Atheist's Mass + Cousin Pons + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + +Gentil + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Grozier, Abbe + The Commission in Lunacy + +Hautoy, Francis du + Eve and David + +Maucombe, Comte de + + Letters of Two Brides + +Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Another Study of Woman + Pierrette + The Member for Arcis + +Negrepelisse, De + The Commission in Lunacy + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + +Petit-Claud + Eve and David + +Pimentel, Marquis and Marquise de + Eve and David + +Postel + Eve and David + +Prieur, Madame + Eve and David + +Rastignac, Baron and Baronne de (Eugene's parents) + Father Goriot + +Rastignac, Laure-Rose and Agathe de + Father Goriot + The Member for Arcis + +Rubempre, Lucien-Chardon de + Eve and David + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Ursule Mirouet + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Sechard, Jerome-Nicolas + Eve and David + +Sechard, David + Eve and David + A Distinguished Provincial At Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Sechard, Madame David + Eve and David + A Distinguished Provincial At Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Senonches, Jacques de + Eve and David + +Senonches, Madame Jacques de + Eve and David + +Stanhope, Lady Esther + The Lily of the Valley + + + + II + + + + A DISTINGUISHED PROVINCIAL AT PARIS + (Lost Illusions Part II) + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated By + Ellen Marriage + + + + PART I + +Mme. de Bargeton and Lucien de Rubempre had left Angouleme behind, and +were traveling together upon the road to Paris. Not one of the party +who made that journey alluded to it afterwards; but it may be believed +that an infatuated youth who had looked forward to the delights of an +elopement, must have found the continual presence of Gentil, the +man-servant, and Albertine, the maid, not a little irksome on the way. +Lucien, traveling post for the first time in his life, was horrified +to see pretty nearly the whole sum on which he meant to live in Paris +for a twelvemonth dropped along the road. Like other men who combine +great intellectual powers with the charming simplicity of childhood, +he openly expressed his surprise at the new and wonderful things which +he saw, and thereby made a mistake. A man should study a woman very +carefully before he allows her to see his thoughts and emotions as +they arise in him. A woman, whose nature is large as her heart is +tender, can smile upon childishness, and make allowances; but let her +have ever so small a spice of vanity herself, and she cannot forgive +childishness, or littleness, or vanity in her lover. Many a woman is +so extravagant a worshiper that she must always see the god in her +idol; but there are yet others who love a man for his sake and not for +their own, and adore his failings with his greater qualities. + +Lucien had not guessed as yet that Mme. de Bargeton's love was grafted +on pride. He made another mistake when he failed to discern the +meaning of certain smiles which flitted over Louise's lips from time +to time; and instead of keeping himself to himself, he indulged in the +playfulness of the young rat emerging from his hole for the first +time. + +The travelers were set down before daybreak at the sign of the +Gaillard-Bois in the Rue de l'Echelle, both so tired out with the +journey that Louise went straight to bed and slept, first bidding +Lucien to engage the room immediately overhead. Lucien slept on till +four o'clock in the afternoon, when he was awakened by Mme. de +Bargeton's servant, and learning the hour, made a hasty toilet and +hurried downstairs. + +Louise was sitting in the shabby inn sitting-room. Hotel accommodation +is a blot on the civilization of Paris; for with all its pretensions +to elegance, the city as yet does not boast a single inn where a +well-to-do traveler can find the surroundings to which he is accustomed +at home. To Lucien's just-awakened, sleep-dimmed eyes, Louise was +hardly recognizable in this cheerless, sunless room, with the shabby +window-curtains, the comfortless polished floor, the hideous furniture +bought second-hand, or much the worse for wear. + +Some people no longer look the same when detached from the background +of faces, objects, and surroundings which serve as a setting, without +which, indeed, they seem to lose something of their intrinsic worth. +Personality demands its appropriate atmosphere to bring out its +values, just as the figures in Flemish interiors need the arrangement +of light and shade in which they are placed by the painter's genius if +they are to live for us. This is especially true of provincials. Mme. +de Bargeton, moreover, looked more thoughtful and dignified than was +necessary now, when no barriers stood between her and happiness. + +Gentil and Albertine waited upon them, and while they were present +Lucien could not complain. The dinner, sent in from a neighboring +restaurant, fell far below the provincial average, both in quantity +and quality; the essential goodness of country fare was wanting, and +in point of quantity the portions were cut with so strict an eye to +business that they savored of short commons. In such small matters +Paris does not show its best side to travelers of moderate fortune. +Lucien waited till the meal was over. Some change had come over +Louise, he thought, but he could not explain it. + +And a change had, in fact, taken place. Events had occurred while he +slept; for reflection is an event in our inner history, and Mme. de +Bargeton had been reflecting. + +About two o'clock that afternoon, Sixte du Chatelet made his +appearance in the Rue de l'Echelle and asked for Albertine. The +sleeping damsel was roused, and to her he expressed his wish to speak +with her mistress. Mme. de Bargeton had scarcely time to dress before +he came back again. The unaccountable apparition of M. du Chatelet +roused the lady's curiosity, for she had kept her journey a profound +secret, as she thought. At three o'clock the visitor was admitted. + +"I have risked a reprimand from headquarters to follow you," he said, +as he greeted her; "I foresaw coming events. But if I lose my post for +it, YOU, at any rate, shall not be lost." + +"What do you mean?" exclaimed Mme. de Bargeton. + +"I can see plainly that you love Lucien," he continued, with an air of +tender resignation. "You must love indeed if _you_ can act thus +recklessly, and disregard the conventions which you know so well. Dear +adored Nais, can you really imagine that Mme. d'Espard's salon, or any +other salon in Paris, will not be closed to you as soon as it is known +that you have fled from Angouleme, as it were, with a young man, +especially after the duel between M. de Bargeton and M. de Chandour? +The fact that your husband has gone to the Escarbas looks like a +separation. Under such circumstances a gentleman fights first and +afterwards leaves his wife at liberty. By all means, give M. de +Rubempre your love and your countenance; do just as you please; but +you must not live in the same house. If anybody here in Paris knew +that you had traveled together, the whole world that you have a mind +to see would point the finger at you. + +"And, Nais, do not make these sacrifices for a young man whom you have +as yet compared with no one else; he, on his side, has been put to no +proof; he may forsake you for some Parisienne, better able, as he may +fancy, to further his ambitions. I mean no harm to the man you love, +but you will permit me to put your own interests before his, and to +beg you to study him, to be fully aware of the serious nature of this +step that you are taking. And, then, if you find all doors closed +against you, and that none of the women call upon you, make sure at +least that you will feel no regret for all that you have renounced for +him. Be very certain first that he for whom you will have given up so +much will always be worthy of your sacrifices and appreciate them. + +"Just now," continued Chatelet, "Mme. d'Espard is the more prudish and +particular because she herself is separated from her husband, nobody +knows why. The Navarreins, the Lenoncourts, the Blamont-Chauvrys, and +the rest of the relations have all rallied round her; the most +strait-laced women are seen at her house, and receive her with respect, +and the Marquis d'Espard has been put in the wrong. The first call that +you pay will make it clear to you that I am right; indeed, knowing +Paris as I do, I can tell you beforehand that you will no sooner enter +the Marquise's salon than you will be in despair lest she should find +out that you are staying at the Gaillard-Bois with an apothecary's +son, though he may wish to be called M. de Rubempre. + +"You will have rivals here, women far more astute and shrewd than +Amelie; they will not fail to discover who you are, where you are, +where you come from, and all that you are doing. You have counted upon +your incognito, I see, but you are one of those women for whom an +incognito is out of the question. You will meet Angouleme at every +turn. There are the deputies from the Charente coming up for the +opening of the session; there is the Commandant in Paris on leave. +Why, the first man or woman from Angouleme who happens to see you +would cut your career short in a strange fashion. You would simply be +Lucien's mistress. + +"If you need me at any time, I am staying with the Receiver-General in +the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, two steps away from Mme. d'Espard's. +I am sufficiently acquainted with the Marechale de Carigliano, Mme. de +Serizy, and the President of the Council to introduce you to those +houses; but you will meet so many people at Mme. d'Espard's, that you +are not likely to require me. So far from wishing to gain admittance +to this set or that, every one will be longing to make your +acquaintance." + +Chatelet talked on; Mme. de Bargeton made no interruption. She was +struck with his perspicacity. The queen of Angouleme had, in fact, +counted upon preserving her incognito. + +"You are right, my dear friend," she said at length; "but what am I to +do?" + +"Allow me to find suitable furnished lodgings for you," suggested +Chatelet; "that way of living is less expensive than an inn. You will +have a home of your own; and, if you will take my advice, you will +sleep in your new rooms this very night." + +"But how did you know my address?" queried she. + +"Your traveling carriage is easily recognized; and, besides, I was +following you. At Sevres your postilion told mine that he had brought +you here. Will you permit me to act as your harbinger? I will write as +soon as I have found lodgings." + +"Very well, do so," said she. And in those seemingly insignificant +words, all was said. The Baron du Chatelet had spoken the language of +worldly wisdom to a woman of the world. He had made his appearance +before her in faultless dress, a neat cab was waiting for him at the +door; and Mme. de Bargeton, standing by the window thinking over the +position, chanced to see the elderly dandy drive away. + +A few moments later Lucien appeared, half awake and hastily dressed. +He was handsome, it is true; but his clothes, his last year's nankeen +trousers, and his shabby tight jacket were ridiculous. Put Antinous or +the Apollo Belvedere himself into a water-carrier's blouse, and how +shall you recognize the godlike creature of the Greek or Roman chisel? +The eyes note and compare before the heart has time to revise the +swift involuntary judgment; and the contrast between Lucien and +Chatelet was so abrupt that it could not fail to strike Louise. + +Towards six o'clock that evening, when dinner was over, Mme. de +Bargeton beckoned Lucien to sit beside her on the shabby sofa, covered +with a flowered chintz--a yellow pattern on a red ground. + +"Lucien mine," she said, "don't you think that if we have both of us +done a foolish thing, suicidal for both our interests, it would only +be common sense to set matters right? We ought not to live together in +Paris, dear boy, and we must not allow anyone to suspect that we +traveled together. Your career depends so much upon my position that I +ought to do nothing to spoil it. So, to-night, I am going to remove +into lodgings near by. But you will stay on here, we can see each +other every day, and nobody can say a word against us." + +And Louise explained conventions to Lucien, who opened wide eyes. He +had still to learn that when a woman thinks better of her folly, she +thinks better of her love; but one thing he understood--he saw that he +was no longer the Lucien of Angouleme. Louise talked of herself, of +_her_ interests, _her_ reputation, and of the world; and, to veil her +egoism, she tried to make him believe that this was all on his +account. He had no claim upon Louise thus suddenly transformed into +Mme. de Bargeton, and, more serious still, he had no power over her. +He could not keep back the tears that filled his eyes. + +"If I am your glory," cried the poet, "you are yet more to me--you are +my one hope, my whole future rests with you. I thought that if you +meant to make my successes yours, you would surely make my adversity +yours also, and here we are going to part already." + +"You are judging my conduct," said she; "you do not love me." + +Lucien looked at her with such a dolorous expression, that in spite of +herself, she said: + +"Darling, I will stay if you like. We shall both be ruined, we shall +have no one to come to our aid. But when we are both equally wretched, +and every one shuts their door upon us both, when failure (for we must +look all possibilities in the face), when failure drives us back to +the Escarbas, then remember, love, that I foresaw the end, and that at +the first I proposed that we should make your way by conforming to +established rules." + +"Louise," he cried, with his arms around her, "you are wise; you +frighten me! Remember that I am a child, that I have given myself up +entirely to your dear will. I myself should have preferred to overcome +obstacles and win my way among men by the power that is in me; but if +I can reach the goal sooner through your aid, I shall be very glad to +owe all my success to you. Forgive me! You mean so much to me that I +cannot help fearing all kinds of things; and, for me, parting means +that desertion is at hand, and desertion is death." + +"But, my dear boy, the world's demands are soon satisfied," returned +she. "You must sleep here; that is all. All day long you will be with +me, and no one can say a word." + +A few kisses set Lucien's mind completely at rest. An hour later +Gentil brought in a note from Chatelet. He told Mme. de Bargeton that +he had found lodgings for her in the Rue Nueve-de-Luxembourg. Mme. de +Bargeton informed herself of the exact place, and found that it was +not very far from the Rue de l'Echelle. "We shall be neighbors," she +told Lucien. + +Two hours afterwards Louise stepped into the hired carriage sent by +Chatelet for the removal to the new rooms. The apartments were of the +class that upholsterers furnish and let to wealthy deputies and +persons of consideration on a short visit to Paris--showy and +uncomfortable. It was eleven o'clock when Lucien returned to his inn, +having seen nothing as yet of Paris except the part of the Rue +Saint-Honore which lies between the Rue Neuve-de-Luxembourg and the Rue +de l'Echelle. He lay down in his miserable little room, and could not +help comparing it in his own mind with Louise's sumptuous apartments. + +Just as he came away the Baron du Chatelet came in, gorgeously arrayed +in evening dress, fresh from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to +inquire whether Mme. de Bargeton was satisfied with all that he had +done on her behalf. Nais was uneasy. The splendor was alarming to her +mind. Provincial life had reacted upon her; she was painfully +conscientious over her accounts, and economical to a degree that is +looked upon as miserly in Paris. She had brought with her twenty +thousand francs in the shape of a draft on the Receiver-General, +considering that the sum would more than cover the expenses of four +years in Paris; she was afraid already lest she should not have +enough, and should run into debt; and now Chatelet told her that her +rooms would only cost six hundred francs per month. + +"A mere trifle," added he, seeing that Nais was startled. "For five +hundred francs a month you can have a carriage from a livery stable; +fifty louis in all. You need only think of your dress. A woman moving +in good society could not well do less; and if you mean to obtain a +Receiver-General's appointment for M. de Bargeton, or a post in the +Household, you ought not to look poverty-stricken. Here, in Paris, +they only give to the rich. It is most fortunate that you brought +Gentil to go out with you, and Albertine for your own woman, for +servants are enough to ruin you here. But with your introductions you +will seldom be home to a meal." + +Mme. de Bargeton and the Baron de Chatelet chatted about Paris. +Chatelet gave her all the news of the day, the myriad nothings that +you are bound to know, under penalty of being a nobody. Before very +long the Baron also gave advice as to shopping, recommending Herbault +for toques and Juliette for hats and bonnets; he added the address of +a fashionable dressmaker to supersede Victorine. In short, he made the +lady see the necessity of rubbing off Angouleme. Then he took his +leave after a final flash of happy inspiration. + +"I expect I shall have a box at one of the theatres to-morrow," he +remarked carelessly; "I will call for you and M. de Rubempre, for you +must allow me to do the honors of Paris." + +"There is more generosity in his character than I thought," said Mme. +de Bargeton to herself when Lucien was included in the invitation. + +In the month of June ministers are often puzzled to know what to do +with boxes at the theatre; ministerialist deputies and their +constituents are busy in their vineyards or harvest fields, and their +more exacting acquaintances are in the country or traveling about; so +it comes to pass that the best seats are filled at this season with +heterogeneous theatre-goers, never seen at any other time of year, and +the house is apt to look as if it were tapestried with very shabby +material. Chatelet had thought already that this was his opportunity +of giving Nais the amusements which provincials crave most eagerly, +and that with very little expense. + +The next morning, the very first morning in Paris, Lucien went to the +Rue Nueve-de-Luxembourg and found that Louise had gone out. She had +gone to make some indispensable purchases, to take counsel of the +mighty and illustrious authorities in the matter of the feminine +toilette, pointed out to her by Chatelet, for she had written to tell +the Marquise d'Espard of her arrival. Mme. de Bargeton possessed the +self-confidence born of a long habit of rule, but she was exceedingly +afraid of appearing to be provincial. She had tact enough to know how +greatly the relations of women among themselves depend upon first +impressions; and though she felt that she was equal to taking her +place at once in such a distinguished set as Mme. de d'Espard's, she +felt also that she stood in need of goodwill at her first entrance +into society, and was resolved, in the first place, that she would +leave nothing undone to secure success. So she felt boundlessly +thankful to Chatelet for pointing out these ways of putting herself in +harmony with the fashionable world. + +A singular chance so ordered it that the Marquise was delighted to +find an opportunity of being useful to a connection of her husband's +family. The Marquis d'Espard had withdrawn himself without apparent +reason from society, and ceased to take any active interest in +affairs, political or domestic. His wife, thus left mistress of her +actions, felt the need of the support of public opinion, and was glad +to take the Marquis' place and give her countenance to one of her +husband's relations. She meant to be ostentatiously gracious, so as to +put her husband more evidently in the wrong; and that very day she +wrote, "Mme. de Bargeton _nee_ Negrepelisse" a charming billet, one of +the prettily worded compositions of which time alone can discover the +emptiness. + + +"She was delighted that circumstances had brought a relative, of whom +she had heard, whose acquaintance she had desired to make, into closer +connection with her family. Friendships in Paris were not so solid but +that she longed to find one more to love on earth; and if this might +not be, there would only be one more illusion to bury with the rest. +She put herself entirely at her cousin's disposal. She would have +called upon her if indisposition had not kept her to the house, and +she felt that she lay already under obligations to the cousin who had +thought of her." + + +Lucien, meanwhile, taking his first ramble along the Rue de la Paix +and through the Boulevards, like all newcomers, was much more +interested in the things that he saw than in the people he met. The +general effect of Paris is wholly engrossing at first. The wealth in +the shop windows, the high houses, the streams of traffic, the +contrast everywhere between the last extremes of luxury and want +struck him more than anything else. In his astonishment at the crowds +of strange faces, the man of imaginative temper felt as if he himself +had shrunk, as it were, immensely. A man of any consequence in his +native place, where he cannot go out but he meets with some +recognition of his importance at every step, does not readily accustom +himself to the sudden and total extinction of his consequence. You are +somebody in your own country, in Paris you are nobody. The transition +between the first state and the last should be made gradually, for the +too abrupt fall is something like annihilation. Paris could not fail +to be an appalling wilderness for a young poet, who looked for an echo +for all his sentiments, a confidant for all his thoughts, a soul to +share his least sensations. + +Lucien had not gone in search of his luggage and his best blue coat; +and painfully conscious of the shabbiness, to say no worse, of his +clothes, he went to Mme. de Bargeton, feeling that she must have +returned. He found the Baron du Chatelet, who carried them both off to +dinner at the _Rocher de Cancale_. Lucien's head was dizzy with the +whirl of Paris, the Baron was in the carriage, he could say nothing to +Louise, but he squeezed her hand, and she gave a warm response to the +mute confidence. + +After dinner Chatelet took his guests to the Vaudeville. Lucien, in +his heart, was not over well pleased to see Chatelet again, and cursed +the chance that had brought the Baron to Paris. The Baron said that +ambition had brought him to town; he had hopes of an appointment as +secretary-general to a government department, and meant to take a seat +in the Council of State as Master of Requests. He had come to Paris to +ask for fulfilment of the promises that had been given him, for a man +of his stamp could not be expected to remain a comptroller all his +life; he would rather be nothing at all, and offer himself for +election as deputy, or re-enter diplomacy. Chatelet grew visibly +taller; Lucien dimly began to recognize in this elderly beau the +superiority of the man of the world who knows Paris; and, most of all, +he felt ashamed to owe his evening's amusement to his rival. And while +the poet looked ill at ease and awkward Her Royal Highness' +ex-secretary was quite in his element. He smiled at his rival's +hesitations, at his astonishment, at the questions he put, at the +little mistakes which the latter ignorantly made, much as an old salt +laughs at an apprentice who has not found his sea legs; but Lucien's +pleasure at seeing a play for the first time in Paris outweighed the +annoyance of these small humiliations. + +That evening marked an epoch in Lucien's career; he put away a good +many of his ideas as to provincial life in the course of it. His +horizon widened; society assumed different proportions. There were +fair Parisiennes in fresh and elegant toilettes all about him; Mme. de +Bargeton's costume, tolerably ambitious though it was, looked dowdy by +comparison; the material, like the fashion and the color, was out of +date. That way of arranging her hair, so bewitching in Angouleme, +looked frightfully ugly here among the daintily devised coiffures +which he saw in every direction. + +"Will she always look like that?" said he to himself, ignorant that +the morning had been spent in preparing a transformation. + +In the provinces comparison and choice are out of the question; when a +face has grown familiar it comes to possess a certain beauty that is +taken for granted. But transport the pretty woman of the provinces to +Paris, and no one takes the slightest notice of her; her prettiness is +of the comparative degree illustrated by the saying that among the +blind the one-eyed are kings. Lucien's eyes were now busy comparing +Mme. de Bargeton with other women, just as she herself had contrasted +him with Chatelet on the previous day. And Mme. de Bargeton, on her +part, permitted herself some strange reflections upon her lover. The +poet cut a poor figure notwithstanding his singular beauty. The +sleeves of his jacket were too short; with his ill-cut country gloves +and a waistcoat too scanty for him, he looked prodigiously ridiculous, +compared with the young men in the balcony--"positively pitiable," +thought Mme. de Bargeton. Chatelet, interested in her without +presumption, taking care of her in a manner that revealed a profound +passion; Chatelet, elegant, and as much at home as an actor treading +the familiar boards of his theatre, in two days had recovered all the +ground lost in the past six months. + +Ordinary people will not admit that our sentiments towards each other +can totally change in a moment, and yet certain it is, that two lovers +not seldom fly apart even more quickly than they drew together. In +Mme. de Bargeton and in Lucien a process of disenchantment was at +work; Paris was the cause. Life had widened out before the poet's +eyes, as society came to wear a new aspect for Louise. Nothing but an +accident now was needed to sever finally the bond that united them; +nor was that blow, so terrible for Lucien, very long delayed. + +Mme. de Bargeton set Lucien down at his inn, and drove home with +Chatelet, to the intense vexation of the luckless lover. + +"What will they say about me?" he wondered, as he climbed the stairs +to his dismal room. + +"That poor fellow is uncommonly dull," said Chatelet, with a smile, +when the door was closed. + +"That is the way with those who have a world of thoughts in their +heart and brain. Men who have so much in them to give out in great +works long dreamed of, profess a certain contempt for conversation, a +commerce in which the intellect spends itself in small change," +returned the haughty Negrepelisse. She still had courage to defend +Lucien, but less for Lucien's sake than for her own. + +"I grant it you willingly," replied the Baron, "but we live with human +beings and not with books. There, dear Nais! I see how it is, there is +nothing between you yet, and I am delighted that it is so. If you +decide to bring an interest of a kind hitherto lacking into your life, +let it not be this so-called genius, I implore you. How if you have +made a mistake? Suppose that in a few days' time, when you have +compared him with men whom you will meet, men of real ability, men who +have distinguished themselves in good earnest; suppose that you should +discover, dear and fair siren, that it is no lyre-bearer that you have +borne into port on your dazzling shoulders, but a little ape, with no +manners and no capacity; a presumptuous fool who may be a wit in +L'Houmeau, but turns out a very ordinary specimen of a young man in +Paris? And, after all, volumes of verse come out every week here, the +worst of them better than all M. Chardon's poetry put together. For +pity's sake, wait and compare! To-morrow, Friday, is Opera night," he +continued as the carriage turned into the Rue Nueve-de-Luxembourg; +"Mme. d'Espard has the box of the First Gentlemen of the Chamber, and +will take you, no doubt. I shall go to Mme. de Serizy's box to behold +you in your glory. They are giving _Les Danaides_." + +"Good-bye," said she. + +Next morning Mme. de Bargeton tried to arrange a suitable toilette in +which to call on her cousin, Mme. d'Espard. The weather was rather +chilly. Looking through the dowdy wardrobe from Angouleme, she found +nothing better than a certain green velvet gown, trimmed fantastically +enough. Lucien, for his part, felt that he must go at once for his +celebrated blue best coat; he felt aghast at the thought of his tight +jacket, and determined to be well dressed, lest he should meet the +Marquise d'Espard or receive a sudden summons to her house. He must +have his luggage at once, so he took a cab, and in two hours' time +spent three or four francs, matter for much subsequent reflection on +the scale of the cost of living in Paris. Having dressed himself in +his best, such as it was, he went to the Rue Nueve-de-Luxembourg, and +on the doorstep encountered Gentil in company with a gorgeously +be-feathered chasseur. + +"I was just going round to you, sir, madame gave me a line for you," +said Gentil, ignorant of Parisian forms of respect, and accustomed to +homely provincial ways. The chasseur took the poet for a servant. + +Lucien tore open the note, and learned that Mme. de Bargeton had gone +to spend the day with the Marquise d'Espard. She was going to the +Opera in the evening, but she told Lucien to be there to meet her. Her +cousin permitted her to give him a seat in her box. The Marquise +d'Espard was delighted to procure the young poet that pleasure. + +"Then she loves me! my fears were all nonsense!" said Lucien to +himself. "She is going to present me to her cousin this very evening." + +He jumped for joy. He would spend the day that separated him from the +happy evening as joyously as might be. He dashed out in the direction +of the Tuileries, dreaming of walking there until it was time to dine +at Very's. And now, behold Lucien frisking and skipping, light of foot +because light of heart, on his way to the Terrasse des Feuillants to +take a look at the people of quality on promenade there. Pretty women +walk arm-in-arm with men of fashion, their adorers, couples greet each +other with a glance as they pass; how different it is from the terrace +at Beaulieu! How far finer the birds on this perch than the Angouleme +species! It is as if you beheld all the colors that glow in the +plumage of the feathered tribes of India and America, instead of the +sober European families. + +Those were two wretched hours that Lucien spent in the Garden of the +Tuileries. A violent revulsion swept through him, and he sat in +judgment upon himself. + +In the first place, not a single one of these gilded youths wore a +swallow-tail coat. The few exceptions, one or two poor wretches, a +clerk here and there, an annuitant from the Marais, could be ruled out +on the score of age; and hard upon the discovery of a distinction +between morning and evening dress, the poet's quick sensibility and +keen eyes saw likewise that his shabby old clothes were not fit to be +seen; the defects in his coat branded that garment as ridiculous; the +cut was old-fashioned, the color was the wrong shade of blue, the +collar outrageously ungainly, the coat tails, by dint of long wear, +overlapped each other, the buttons were reddened, and there were fatal +white lines along the seams. Then his waistcoat was too short, and so +grotesquely provincial, that he hastily buttoned his coat over it; +and, finally, no man of any pretension to fashion wore nankeen +trousers. Well-dressed men wore charming fancy materials or immaculate +white, and every one had straps to his trousers, while the shrunken +hems of Lucien's nether garments manifested a violent antipathy for +the heels of boots which they wedded with obvious reluctance. Lucien +wore a white cravat with embroidered ends; his sister had seen that M. +du Hautoy and M. de Chandour wore such things, and hastened to make +similar ones for her brother. Here, no one appeared to wear white +cravats of a morning except a few grave seniors, elderly capitalists, +and austere public functionaries, until, in the street on the other +side of the railings, Lucien noticed a grocer's boy walking along the +Rue de Rivoli with a basket on his head; him the man of Angouleme +detected in the act of sporting a cravat, with both ends adorned by +the handiwork of some adored shop-girl. The sight was a stab to +Lucien's breast; penetrating straight to that organ as yet undefined, +the seat of our sensibility, the region whither, since sentiment has +had any existence, the sons of men carry their hands in any excess of +joy or anguish. Do not accuse this chronicle of puerility. The rich, +to be sure, never having experienced sufferings of this kind, may +think them incredibly petty and small; but the agonies of less +fortunate mortals are as well worth our attention as crises and +vicissitudes in the lives of the mighty and privileged ones of earth. +Is not the pain equally great for either? Suffering exalts all things. +And, after all, suppose that we change the terms and for a suit of +clothes, more or less fine, put instead a ribbon, or a star, or a +title; have not brilliant careers been tormented by reason of such +apparent trifles as these? Add, moreover, that for those people who +must seem to have that which they have not, the question of clothes is +of enormous importance, and not unfrequently the appearance of +possession is the shortest road to possession at a later day. + +A cold sweat broke out over Lucien as he bethought himself that +to-night he must make his first appearance before the Marquise in this +dress--the Marquise d'Espard, relative of a First Gentleman of the +Bedchamber, a woman whose house was frequented by the most illustrious +among illustrious men in every field. + +"I look like an apothecary's son, a regular shop-drudge," he raged +inwardly, watching the youth of the Faubourg Saint-Germain pass under +his eyes; graceful, spruce, fashionably dressed, with a certain +uniformity of air, a sameness due to a fineness of contour, and a +certain dignity of carriage and expression; though, at the same time, +each one differed from the rest in the setting by which he had chosen +to bring his personal characteristics into prominence. Each one made +the most of his personal advantages. Young men in Paris understand the +art of presenting themselves quite as well as women. Lucien had +inherited from his mother the invaluable physical distinction of race, +but the metal was still in the ore, and not set free by the +craftsman's hand. + +His hair was badly cut. Instead of holding himself upright with an +elastic corset, he felt that he was cooped up inside a hideous +shirt-collar; he hung his dejected head without resistance on the part +of a limp cravat. What woman could guess that a handsome foot was +hidden by the clumsy boots which he had brought from Angouleme? What +young man could envy him his graceful figure, disguised by the +shapeless blue sack which hitherto he had mistakenly believed to be a +coat? What bewitching studs he saw on those dazzling white shirt +fronts, his own looked dingy by comparison; and how marvelously all +these elegant persons were gloved, his own gloves were only fit for a +policeman! Yonder was a youth toying with a cane exquisitely mounted; +there, another with dainty gold studs in his wristbands. Yet another +was twisting a charming riding-whip while he talked with a woman; +there were specks of mud on the ample folds of his white trousers, he +wore clanking spurs and a tight-fitting jacket, evidently he was about +to mount one of the two horses held by a hop-o'-my-thumb of a tiger. A +young man who went past drew a watch no thicker than a five-franc +piece from his pocket, and looked at it with the air of a person who +is either too early or too late for an appointment. + +Lucien, seeing these petty trifles, hitherto unimagined, became aware +of a whole world of indispensable superfluities, and shuddered to +think of the enormous capital needed by a professional pretty fellow! +The more he admired these gay and careless beings, the more conscious +he grew of his own outlandishness; he knew that he looked like a man +who has no idea of the direction of the streets, who stands close to +the Palais Royal and cannot find it, and asks his way to the Louvre of +a passer-by, who tells him, "Here you are." Lucien saw a great gulf +fixed between him and this new world, and asked himself how he might +cross over, for he meant to be one of these delicate, slim youths of +Paris, these young patricians who bowed before women divinely dressed +and divinely fair. For one kiss from one of these, Lucien was ready to +be cut in pieces like Count Philip of Konigsmark. Louise's face rose +up somewhere in the shadowy background of memory--compared with these +queens, she looked like an old woman. He saw women whose names will +appear in the history of the nineteenth century, women no less famous +than the queens of past times for their wit, their beauty, or their +lovers; one who passed was the heroine Mlle. des Touches, so well +known as Camille Maupin, the great woman of letters, great by her +intellect, great no less by her beauty. He overheard the name +pronounced by those who went by. + +"Ah!" he thought to himself, "she is Poetry." + +What was Mme. de Bargeton in comparison with this angel in all the +glory of youth, and hope, and promise of the future, with that sweet +smile of hers, and the great dark eyes with all heaven in them, and +the glowing light of the sun? She was laughing and chatting with Mme. +Firmiani, one of the most charming women in Paris. A voice indeed +cried, "Intellect is the lever by which to move the world," but +another voice cried no less loudly that money was the fulcrum. + +He would not stay any longer on the scene of his collapse and defeat, +and went towards the Palais Royal. He did not know the topography of +his quarter yet, and was obliged to ask his way. Then he went to +Very's and ordered dinner by way of an initiation into the pleasures +of Paris, and a solace for his discouragement. A bottle of Bordeaux, +oysters from Ostend, a dish of fish, a partridge, a dish of macaroni +and dessert,--this was the _ne plus ultra_ of his desire. He enjoyed +this little debauch, studying the while how to give the Marquise +d'Espard proof of his wit, and redeem the shabbiness of his grotesque +accoutrements by the display of intellectual riches. The total of the +bill drew him down from these dreams, and left him the poorer by fifty +of the francs which were to have gone such a long way in Paris. He +could have lived in Angouleme for a month on the price of that dinner. +Wherefore he closed the door of the palace with awe, thinking as he +did so that he should never set foot in it again. + +"Eve was right," he said to himself, as he went back under the stone +arcading for some more money. "There is a difference between Paris +prices and prices in L'Houmeau." + +He gazed in at the tailors' windows on the way, and thought of the +costumes in the Garden of the Tuileries. + +"No," he exclaimed, "I will _not_ appear before Mme. d'Espard dressed +out as I am." + +He fled to his inn, fleet as a stag, rushed up to his room, took out a +hundred crowns, and went down again to the Palais Royal, where his +future elegance lay scattered over half a score of shops. The first +tailor whose door he entered tried as many coats upon him as he would +consent to put on, and persuaded his customer that all were in the +very latest fashion. Lucien came out the owner of a green coat, a pair +of white trousers, and a "fancy waistcoat," for which outfit he gave +two hundred francs. Ere long he found a very elegant pair of +ready-made shoes that fitted his foot; and, finally, when he had made +all necessary purchases, he ordered the tradespeople to send them to his +address, and inquired for a hairdresser. At seven o'clock that evening +he called a cab and drove away to the Opera, curled like a Saint John +of a Procession Day, elegantly waistcoated and gloved, but feeling a +little awkward in this kind of sheath in which he found himself for +the first time. + +In obedience to Mme. de Bargeton's instructions, he asked for the box +reserved for the First Gentleman of the Bedchamber. The man at the box +office looked at him, and beholding Lucien in all the grandeur assumed +for the occasion, in which he looked like a best man at a wedding, +asked Lucien for his order. + +"I have no order." + +"Then you cannot go in," said the man at the box office drily. + +"But I belong to Mme. d'Espard's party." + +"It is not our business to know that," said the man, who could not +help exchanging a barely perceptible smile with his colleague. + +A carriage stopped under the peristyle as he spoke. A chasseur, in a +livery which Lucien did not recognize, let down the step, and two +women in evening dress came out of the brougham. Lucien had no mind to +lay himself open to an insolent order to get out of the way from the +official. He stepped aside to let the two ladies pass. + +"Why, that lady is the Marquise d'Espard, whom you say you know, sir," +said the man ironically. + +Lucien was so much the more confounded because Mme. de Bargeton did +not seem to recognize him in his new plumage; but when he stepped up +to her, she smiled at him and said: + +"This has fallen out wonderfully--come!" + +The functionaries at the box office grew serious again as Lucien +followed Mme. de Bargeton. On their way up the great staircase the +lady introduced M. de Rubempre to her cousin. The box belonging to the +First Gentleman of the Bedchamber is situated in one of the angles at +the back of the house, so that its occupants see and are seen all over +the theatre. Lucien took his seat on a chair behind Mme. de Bargeton, +thankful to be in the shadow. + +"M. de Rubempre," said the Marquise with flattering graciousness, +"this is your first visit to the Opera, is it not? You must have a +view of the house; take this seat, sit in front of the box; we give +you permission." + +Lucien obeyed as the first act came to an end. + +"You have made good use of your time," Louise said in his ear, in her +first surprise at the change in his appearance. + +Louise was still the same. The near presence of the Marquise d'Espard, +a Parisian Mme. de Bargeton, was so damaging to her; the brilliancy of +the Parisienne brought out all the defects in her country cousin so +clearly by contrast; that Lucien, looking out over the fashionable +audience in the superb building, and then at the great lady, was twice +enlightened, and saw poor Anais de Negrepelisse as she really was, as +Parisians saw her--a tall, lean, withered woman, with a pimpled face +and faded complexion; angular, stiff, affected in her manner; pompous +and provincial in her speech; and, and above all these things, dowdily +dressed. As a matter of fact, the creases in an old dress from Paris +still bear witness to good taste, you can tell what the gown was meant +for; but an old dress made in the country is inexplicable, it is a +thing to provoke laughter. There was neither charm nor freshness about +the dress or its wearer; the velvet, like the complexion had seen +wear. Lucien felt ashamed to have fallen in love with this cuttle-fish +bone, and vowed that he would profit by Louise's next fit of virtue to +leave her for good. Having an excellent view of the house, he could +see the opera-glasses pointed at the aristocratic box par excellence. +The best-dressed women must certainly be scrutinizing Mme. de +Bargeton, for they smiled and talked among themselves. + +If Mme. d'Espard knew the object of their sarcasms from those feminine +smiles and gestures, she was perfectly insensible to them. In the +first place, anybody must see that her companion was a poor relation +from the country, an affliction with which any Parisian family may be +visited. And, in the second, when her cousin had spoken to her of her +dress with manifest misgivings, she had reassured Anais, seeing that, +when once properly dressed, her relative would very easily acquire the +tone of Parisian society. If Mme. de Bargeton needed polish, on the +other hand she possessed the native haughtiness of good birth, and +that indescribable something which may be called "pedigree." So, on +Monday her turn would come. And, moreover, the Marquise knew that as +soon as people learned that the stranger was her cousin, they would +suspend their banter and look twice before they condemned her. + +Lucien did not foresee the change in Louise's appearance shortly to be +worked by a scarf about her throat, a pretty dress, an elegant +coiffure, and Mme. d'Espard's advice. As they came up the staircase +even now, the Marquise told her cousin not to hold her handkerchief +unfolded in her hand. Good or bad taste turns upon hundreds of such +almost imperceptible shades, which a quick-witted woman discerns at +once, while others will never grasp them. Mme. de Bargeton, +plentifully apt, was more than clever enough to discover her +shortcomings. Mme. d'Espard, sure that her pupil would do her credit, +did not decline to form her. In short, the compact between the two +women had been confirmed by self-interest on either side. + +Mme. de Bargeton, enthralled, dazzled, and fascinated by her cousin's +manner, wit, and acquaintances, had suddenly declared herself a votary +of the idol of the day. She had discerned the signs of the occult +power exerted by the ambitious great lady, and told herself that she +could gain her end as the satellite of this star, so she had been +outspoken in her admiration. The Marquise was not insensible to the +artlessly admitted conquest. She took an interest in her cousin, +seeing that she was weak and poor; she was, besides, not indisposed to +take a pupil with whom to found a school, and asked nothing better +than to have a sort of lady-in-waiting in Mme. de Bargeton, a +dependent who would sing her praises, a treasure even more scarce +among Parisian women than a staunch and loyal critic among the +literary tribe. The flutter of curiosity in the house was too marked +to be ignored, however, and Mme. d'Espard politely endeavored to turn +her cousin's mind from the truth. + +"If any one comes to our box," she said, "perhaps we may discover the +cause to which we owe the honor of the interest that these ladies are +taking----" + +"I have a strong suspicion that it is my old velvet gown and +Angoumoisin air which Parisian ladies find amusing," Mme. de Bargeton +answered, laughing. + +"No, it is not you; it is something that I cannot explain," she added, +turning to the poet, and, as she looked at him for the first time, it +seemed to strike her that he was singularly dressed. + +"There is M. du Chatelet," exclaimed Lucien at that moment, and he +pointed a finger towards Mme. de Serizy's box, which the renovated +beau had just entered. + +Mme. de Bargeton bit her lips with chagrin as she saw that gesture, +and saw besides the Marquise's ill-suppressed smile of contemptuous +astonishment. "Where does the young man come from?" her look said, and +Louise felt humbled through her love, one of the sharpest of all pangs +for a Frenchwoman, a mortification for which she cannot forgive her +lover. + +In these circles where trifles are of such importance, a gesture or a +word at the outset is enough to ruin a newcomer. It is the principal +merit of fine manners and the highest breeding that they produce the +effect of a harmonious whole, in which every element is so blended +that nothing is startling or obtrusive. Even those who break the laws +of this science, either through ignorance or carried away by some +impulse, must comprehend that it is with social intercourse as with +music, a single discordant note is a complete negation of the art +itself, for the harmony exists only when all its conditions are +observed down to the least particular. + +"Who is that gentleman?" asked Mme. d'Espard, looking towards +Chatelet. "And have you made Mme. de Serizy's acquaintance already?" + +"Oh! is that the famous Mme. de Serizy who has had so many adventures +and yet goes everywhere?" + +"An unheard-of-thing, my dear, explicable but unexplained. The most +formidable men are her friends, and why? Nobody dares to fathom the +mystery. Then is this person the lion of Angouleme?" + +"Well, M. le Baron du Chatelet has been a good deal talked about," +answered Mme. de Bargeton, moved by vanity to give her adorer the +title which she herself had called in question. "He was M. de +Montriveau's traveling companion." + +"Ah!" said the Marquise d'Espard, "I never hear that name without +thinking of the Duchesse de Langeais, poor thing. She vanished like a +falling star.--That is M. de Rastignac with Mme. de Nucingen," she +continued, indicating another box; "she is the wife of a contractor, a +banker, a city man, a broker on a large scale; he forced his way into +society with his money, and they say that he is not very scrupulous as +to his methods of making it. He is at endless pains to establish his +credit as a staunch upholder of the Bourbons, and has tried already to +gain admittance into my set. When his wife took Mme. de Langeais' box, +she thought that she could take her charm, her wit, and her success as +well. It is the old fable of the jay in the peacock's feathers!" + +"How do M. and Mme. de Rastignac manage to keep their son in Paris, +when, as we know, their income is under a thousand crowns?" asked +Lucien, in his astonishment at Rastignac's elegant and expensive +dress. + +"It is easy to see that you come from Angouleme," said Mme. d'Espard, +ironically enough, as she continued to gaze through her opera-glass. + +Her remark was lost upon Lucien; the all-absorbing spectacle of the +boxes prevented him from thinking of anything else. He guessed that he +himself was an object of no small curiosity. Louise, on the other +hand, was exceedingly mortified by the evident slight esteem in which +the Marquise held Lucien's beauty. + +"He cannot be so handsome as I thought him," she said to herself; and +between "not so handsome" and "not so clever as I thought him" there +was but one step. + +The curtain fell. Chatelet was now paying a visit to the Duchesse de +Carigliano in an adjourning box; Mme. de Bargeton acknowledged his bow +by a slight inclination of the head. Nothing escapes a woman of the +world; Chatelet's air of distinction was not lost upon Mme. d'Espard. +Just at that moment four personages, four Parisian celebrities, came +into the box, one after another. + +The most striking feature of the first comer, M. de Marsay, famous for +the passions which he had inspired, was his girlish beauty; but its +softness and effeminacy were counteracted by the expression of his +eyes, unflinching, steady, untamed, and hard as a tiger's. He was +loved and he was feared. Lucien was no less handsome; but Lucien's +expression was so gentle, his blue eyes so limpid, that he scarcely +seemed to possess the strength and the power which attract women so +strongly. Nothing, moreover, so far had brought out the poet's merits; +while de Marsay, with his flow of spirits, his confidence in his power +to please, and appropriate style of dress, eclipsed every rival by his +presence. Judge, therefore, the kind of figure that Lucien, stiff, +starched, unbending in clothes as new and unfamiliar as his +surroundings, was likely to cut in de Marsay's vicinity. De Marsay +with his wit and charm of manner was privileged to be insolent. From +Mme. d'Espard's reception of this personage his importance was at once +evident to Mme. de Bargeton. + +The second comer was a Vandenesse, the cause of the scandal in which +Lady Dudley was concerned. Felix de Vandenesse, amiable, intellectual, +and modest, had none of the characteristics on which de Marsay prided +himself, and owed his success to diametrically opposed qualities. He +had been warmly recommended to Mme. d'Espard by her cousin Mme. de +Mortsauf. + +The third was General de Montriveau, the author of the Duchesse de +Langeais' ruin. + +The fourth, M. de Canalis, one of the most famous poets of the day, +and as yet a newly risen celebrity, was prouder of his birth than of +his genius, and dangled in Mme. d'Espard's train by way of concealing +his love for the Duchesse de Chaulieu. In spite of his graces and the +affectation that spoiled them, it was easy to discern the vast, +lurking ambitions that plunged him at a later day into the storms of +political life. A face that might be called insignificantly pretty and +caressing manners thinly disguised the man's deeply-rooted egoism and +habit of continually calculating the chances of a career which at that +time looked problematical enough; though his choice of Mme. de +Chaulieu (a woman past forty) made interest for him at Court, and +brought him the applause of the Faubourg Saint-Germain and the gibes +of the Liberal party, who dubbed him "the poet of the sacristy." + +Mme. de Bargeton, with these remarkable figures before her, no longer +wondered at the slight esteem in which the Marquise held Lucien's good +looks. And when conversation began, when intellects so keen, so +subtle, were revealed in two-edged words with more meaning and depth +in them than Anais de Bargeton heard in a month of talk at Angouleme; +and, most of all, when Canalis uttered a sonorous phrase, summing up a +materialistic epoch, and gilding it with poetry--then Anais felt all +the truth of Chatelet's dictum of the previous evening. Lucien was +nothing to her now. Every one cruelly ignored the unlucky stranger; he +was so much like a foreigner listening to an unknown language, that +the Marquise d'Espard took pity upon him. She turned to Canalis. + +"Permit me to introduce M. de Rubempre," she said. "You rank too high +in the world of letters not to welcome a _debutant_. M. de Rubempre is +from Angouleme, and will need your influence, no doubt, with the +powers that bring genius to light. So far, he has no enemies to help +him to success by their attacks upon him. Is there enough originality +in the idea of obtaining for him by friendship all that hatred has +done for you to tempt you to make the experiment?" + +The four newcomers all looked at Lucien while the Marquise was +speaking. De Marsay, only a couple of paces away, put up an eyeglass +and looked from Lucien to Mme. de Bargeton, and then again at Lucien, +coupling them with some mocking thought, cruelly mortifying to both. +He scrutinized them as if they had been a pair of strange animals, and +then he smiled. The smile was like a stab to the distinguished +provincial. Felix de Vandenesse assumed a charitable air. Montriveau +looked Lucien through and through. + +"Madame," M. de Canalis answered with a bow, "I will obey you, in +spite of the selfish instinct which prompts us to show a rival no +favor; but you have accustomed us to miracles." + +"Very well, do me the pleasure of dining with me on Monday with M. de +Rubempre, and you can talk of matters literary at your ease. I will +try to enlist some of the tyrants of the world of letters and the +great people who protect them, the author of _Ourika_, and one or two +young poets with sound views." + +"Mme. la Marquise," said de Marsay, "if you give your support to this +gentleman for his intellect, I will support him for his good looks. I +will give him advice which will put him in a fair way to be the +luckiest dandy in Paris. After that, he may be a poet--if he has a +mind." + +Mme. de Bargeton thanked her cousin by a grateful glance. + +"I did not know that you were jealous of intellect," Montriveau said, +turning to de Marsay; "good fortune is the death of a poet." + +"Is that why your lordship is thinking of marriage?" inquired the +dandy, addressing Canalis, and watching Mme. d'Espard to see if the +words went home. + +Canalis shrugged his shoulders, and Mme. d'Espard, Mme. de Chaulieu's +niece, began to laugh. Lucien in his new clothes felt as if he were an +Egyptian statue in its narrow sheath; he was ashamed that he had +nothing to say for himself all this while. At length he turned to the +Marquise. + +"After all your kindness, madame, I am pledged to make no failures," +he said in those soft tones of his. + +Chatelet came in as he spoke; he had seen Montriveau, and by hook or +crook snatched at the chance of a good introduction to the Marquise +d'Espard through one of the kings of Paris. He bowed to Mme. de +Bargeton, and begged Mme. d'Espard to pardon him for the liberty he +took in invading her box; he had been separated so long from his +traveling companion! Montriveau and Chatelet met for the first time +since they parted in the desert. + +"To part in the desert, and meet again in the opera-house!" said +Lucien. + +"Quite a theatrical meeting!" said Canalis. + +Montriveau introduced the Baron du Chatelet to the Marquise, and the +Marquise received Her Royal Highness' ex-secretary the more graciously +because she had seen that he had been very well received in three +boxes already. Mme. de Serizy knew none but unexceptionable people, +and moreover he was Montriveau's traveling companion. So potent was +this last credential, that Mme. de Bargeton saw from the manner of the +group that they accepted Chatelet as one of themselves without demur. +Chatelet's sultan's airs in Angouleme were suddenly explained. + +At length the Baron saw Lucien, and favored him with a cool, +disparaging little nod, indicative to men of the world of the +recipient's inferior station. A sardonic expression accompanied the +greeting, "How does _he_ come here?" he seemed to say. This was not lost +on those who saw it; for de Marsay leaned towards Montriveau, and said +in tones audible to Chatelet: + +"Do ask him who the queer-looking young fellow is that looks like a +dummy at a tailor's shop-door." + +Chatelet spoke a few words in his traveling companion's ear, and while +apparently renewing his acquaintance, no doubt cut his rival to +pieces. + +If Lucien was surprised at the apt wit and the subtlety with which +these gentlemen formulated their replies, he felt bewildered with +epigram and repartee, and, most of all, by their offhand way of +talking and their ease of manner. The material luxury of Paris had +alarmed him that morning; at night he saw the same lavish expenditure +of intellect. By what mysterious means, he asked himself, did these +people make such piquant reflections on the spur of the moment, those +repartees which he could only have made after much pondering? And not +only were they at ease in their speech, they were at ease in their +dress, nothing looked new, nothing looked old, nothing about them was +conspicuous, everything attracted the eyes. The fine gentleman of +to-day was the same yesterday, and would be the same to-morrow. Lucien +guessed that he himself looked as if he were dressed for the first +time in his life. + +"My dear fellow," said de Marsay, addressing Felix de Vandenesse, +"that young Rastignac is soaring away like a paper-kite. Look at him +in the Marquise de Listomere's box; he is making progress, he is +putting up his eyeglass at us! He knows this gentleman, no doubt," +added the dandy, speaking to Lucien, and looking elsewhere. + +"He can scarcely fail to have heard the name of a great man of whom we +are proud," said Mme. de Bargeton. "Quite lately his sister was +present when M. de Rubempre read us some very fine poetry." + +Felix de Vandenesse and de Marsay took leave of the Marquise d'Espard, +and went off to Mme. de Listomere, Vandenesse's sister. The second act +began, and the three were left to themselves again. The curious women +learned how Mme. de Bargeton came to be there from some of the party, +while the others announced the arrival of a poet, and made fun of his +costume. Canalis went back to the Duchesse de Chaulieu, and no more +was seen of him. + +Lucien was glad when the rising of the curtain produced a diversion. +All Mme. de Bargeton's misgivings with regard to Lucien were increased +by the marked attention which the Marquise d'Espard had shown to +Chatelet; her manner towards the Baron was very different from the +patronizing affability with which she treated Lucien. Mme. de +Listomere's box was full during the second act, and, to all +appearance, the talk turned upon Mme. de Bargeton and Lucien. Young +Rastignac evidently was entertaining the party; he had raised the +laughter that needs fresh fuel every day in Paris, the laughter that +seizes upon a topic and exhausts it, and leaves it stale and +threadbare in a moment. Mme. d'Espard grew uneasy. She knew that an +ill-natured speech is not long in coming to the ears of those whom it +will wound, and waited till the end of the act. + +After a revulsion of feeling such as had taken place in Mme. de +Bargeton and Lucien, strange things come to pass in a brief space of +time, and any revolution within us is controlled by laws that work +with great swiftness. Chatelet's sage and politic words as to Lucien, +spoken on the way home from the Vaudeville, were fresh in Louise's +memory. Every phrase was a prophecy, it seemed as if Lucien had set +himself to fulfil the predictions one by one. When Lucien and Mme. de +Bargeton had parted with their illusions concerning each other, the +luckless youth, with a destiny not unlike Rousseau's, went so far in +his predecessor's footsteps that he was captivated by the great lady +and smitten with Mme. d'Espard at first sight. Young men and men who +remember their young emotions can see that this was only what might +have been looked for. Mme. d'Espard with her dainty ways, her delicate +enunciation, and the refined tones of her voice; the fragile woman so +envied, of such high place and high degree, appeared before the poet +as Mme. de Bargeton had appeared to him in Angouleme. His fickle +nature prompted him to desire influence in that lofty sphere at once, +and the surest way to secure such influence was to possess the woman +who exerted it, and then everything would be his. He had succeeded at +Angouleme, why should he not succeed in Paris? + +Involuntarily, and despite the novel counter fascination of the stage, +his eyes turned to the Celimene in her splendor; he glanced furtively +at her every moment; the longer he looked, the more he desired to look +at her. Mme. de Bargeton caught the gleam in Lucien's eyes, and saw +that he found the Marquise more interesting than the opera. If Lucien +had forsaken her for the fifty daughters of Danaus, she could have +borne his desertion with equanimity; but another glance--bolder, more +ardent and unmistakable than any before--revealed the state of +Lucien's feelings. She grew jealous, but not so much for the future as +for the past. + +"He never gave me such a look," she thought. "Dear me! Chatelet was +right!" + +Then she saw that she had made a mistake; and when a woman once begins +to repent of her weaknesses, she sponges out the whole past. Every one +of Lucien's glances roused her indignation, but to all outward +appearance she was calm. De Marsay came back in the interval, bringing +M. de Listomere with him; and that serious person and the young +coxcomb soon informed the Marquise that the wedding guest in his +holiday suit, whom she had the bad luck to have in her box, had as +much right to the appellation of Rubempre as a Jew to a baptismal +name. Lucien's father was an apothecary named Chardon. M. de +Rastignac, who knew all about Angouleme, had set several boxes +laughing already at the mummy whom the Marquise styled her cousin, and +at the Marquise's forethought in having an apothecary at hand to +sustain an artificial life with drugs. In short, de Marsay brought a +selection from the thousand-and-one jokes made by Parisians on the +spur of the moment, and no sooner uttered than forgotten. Chatelet was +at the back of it all, and the real author of this Punic faith. + +Mme. d'Espard turned to Mme. de Bargeton, put up her fan, and said, +"My dear, tell me if your protege's name is really M. de Rubempre?" + +"He has assumed his mother's name," said Anais, uneasily. + +"But who was his father?" + +"His father's name was Chardon." + +"And what was this Chardon?" + +"A druggist." + +"My dear friend, I felt quite sure that all Paris could not be +laughing at any one whom I took up. I do not care to stay here when +wags come in in high glee because there is an apothecary's son in my +box. If you will follow my advice, we will leave it, and at once." + +Mme. d'Espard's expression was insolent enough; Lucien was at a loss +to account for her change of countenance. He thought that his +waistcoat was in bad taste, which was true; and that his coat looked +like a caricature of the fashion, which was likewise true. He +discerned, in bitterness of soul, that he must put himself in the +hands of an expert tailor, and vowed that he would go the very next +morning to the most celebrated artist in Paris. On Monday he would +hold his own with the men in the Marquise's house. + +Yet, lost in thought though he was, he saw the third act to an end, +and, with his eyes fixed on the gorgeous scene upon the stage, dreamed +out his dream of Mme. d'Espard. He was in despair over her sudden +coldness; it gave a strange check to the ardent reasoning through +which he advanced upon this new love, undismayed by the immense +difficulties in the way, difficulties which he saw and resolved to +conquer. He roused himself from these deep musings to look once more +at his new idol, turned his head, and saw that he was alone; he had +heard a faint rustling sound, the door closed--Madame d'Espard had +taken her cousin with her. Lucien was surprised to the last degree by +the sudden desertion; he did not think long about it, however, simply +because it was inexplicable. + +When the carriage was rolling along the Rue de Richelieu on the way to +the Faubourg Saint-Honore, the Marquise spoke to her cousin in a tone +of suppressed irritation. + +"My dear child, what are you thinking about? Pray wait till an +apothecary's son has made a name for himself before you trouble +yourself about him. The Duchesse de Chaulieu does not acknowledge +Canalis even now, and he is famous and a man of good family. This +young fellow is neither your son nor your lover, I suppose?" added the +haughty dame, with a keen, inquisitive glance at her cousin. + +"How fortunate for me that I kept the little scapegrace at a +distance!" thought Madame de Bargeton. + +"Very well," continued the Marquise, taking the expression in her +cousin's eyes for an answer, "drop him, I beg of you. Taking an +illustrious name in that way!--Why, it is a piece of impudence that +will meet with its desserts in society. It is his mother's name, I +dare say; but just remember, dear, that the King alone can confer, by +a special ordinance, the title of de Rubempre on the son of a daughter +of the house. If she made a _mesalliance_, the favor would be enormous, +only to be granted to vast wealth, or conspicuous services, or very +powerful influence. The young man looks like a shopman in his Sunday +suit; evidently he is neither wealthy nor noble; he has a fine head, +but he seems to me to be very silly; he has no idea what to do, and +has nothing to say for himself; in fact, he has no breeding. How came +you to take him up?" + +Mme. de Bargeton renounced Lucien as Lucien himself had renounced her; +a ghastly fear lest her cousin should learn the manner of her journey +shot through her mind. + +"Dear cousin, I am in despair that I have compromised you." + +"People do not compromise me," Mme. d'Espard said, smiling; "I am only +thinking of you." + +"But you have asked him to dine with you on Monday." + +"I shall be ill," the Marquise said quickly; "you can tell him so, and +I shall leave orders that he is not to be admitted under either name." + +During the interval Lucien noticed that every one was walking up and +down the lobby. He would do the same. In the first place, not one of +Mme. d'Espard's visitors recognized him nor paid any attention to him, +their conduct seemed nothing less than extraordinary to the provincial +poet; and, secondly, Chatelet, on whom he tried to hang, watched him +out of the corner of his eye and fought shy of him. Lucien walked to +and fro, watching the eddying crowd of men, till he felt convinced +that his costume was absurd, and he went back to his box, ensconced +himself in a corner, and stayed there till the end. At times he +thought of nothing but the magnificent spectacle of the ballet in the +great Inferno scene in the fifth act; sometimes the sight of the house +absorbed him, sometimes his own thoughts; he had seen society in +Paris, and the sight had stirred him to the depths. + +"So this is my kingdom," he said to himself; "this is the world that I +must conquer." + +As he walked home through the streets he thought over all that had +been said by Mme. d'Espard's courtiers; memory reproducing with +strange faithfulness their demeanor, their gestures, their manner of +coming and going. + +Next day, towards noon, Lucien betook himself to Staub, the great +tailor of that day. Partly by dint of entreaties, and partly by virtue +of cash, Lucien succeeded in obtaining a promise that his clothes +should be ready in time for the great day. Staub went so far as to +give his word that a perfectly elegant coat, a waistcoat, and a pair +of trousers should be forthcoming. Lucien then ordered linen and +pocket-handkerchiefs, a little outfit, in short, of a linen-draper, +and a celebrated bootmaker measured him for shoes and boots. He bought +a neat walking cane at Verdier's; he went to Mme. Irlande for gloves +and shirt studs; in short, he did his best to reach the climax of +dandyism. When he had satisfied all his fancies, he went to the Rue +Neuve-de-Luxembourg, and found that Louise had gone out. + +"She was dining with Mme. la Marquise d'Espard," her maid said, "and +would not be back till late." + +Lucien dined for two francs at a restaurant in the Palais Royal, and +went to bed early. The next day was Sunday. He went to Louise's +lodging at eleven o'clock. Louise had not yet risen. At two o'clock he +returned once more. + +"Madame cannot see anybody yet," reported Albertine, "but she gave me +a line for you." + +"Cannot see anybody yet?" repeated Lucien. "But I am not anybody----" + +"I do not know," Albertine answered very impertinently; and Lucien, +less surprised by Albertine's answer than by a note from Mme. de +Bargeton, took the billet, and read the following discouraging +lines:-- + + +"Mme. d'Espard is not well; she will not be able to see you on Monday. +I am not feeling very well myself, but I am about to dress and go to +keep her company. I am in despair over this little disappointment; but +your talents reassure me, you will make your way without +charlatanism." + + +"And no signature!" Lucien said to himself. He found himself in the +Tuileries before he knew whither he was walking. + +With the gift of second-sight which accompanies genius, he began to +suspect that the chilly note was but a warning of the catastrophe to +come. Lost in thought, he walked on and on, gazing at the monuments in +the Place Louis Quinze. + +It was a sunny day; a stream of fine carriages went past him on the +way to the Champs Elysees. Following the direction of the crowd of +strollers, he saw the three or four thousand carriages that turn the +Champs Elysees into an improvised Longchamp on Sunday afternoons in +summer. The splendid horses, the toilettes, and liveries bewildered +him; he went further and further, until he reached the Arc de +Triomphe, then unfinished. What were his feelings when, as he +returned, he saw Mme. de Bargeton and Mme. d'Espard coming towards him +in a wonderfully appointed caleche, with a chasseur behind it in +waving plumes and that gold-embroidered green uniform which he knew +only too well. There was a block somewhere in the row, and the +carriages waited. Lucien beheld Louise transformed beyond recognition. +All the colors of her toilette had been carefully subordinated to her +complexion; her dress was delicious, her hair gracefully and +becomingly arranged, her hat, in exquisite taste, was remarkable even +beside Mme. d'Espard, that leader of fashion. + +There is something in the art of wearing a hat that escapes +definition. Tilted too far to the back of the head, it imparts a bold +expression to the face; bring it too far forward, it gives you a +sinister look; tipped to one side, it has a jaunty air; a well-dressed +woman wears her hat exactly as she means to wear it, and exactly at +the right angle. Mme. de Bargeton had solved this curious problem at +sight. A dainty girdle outlined her slender waist. She had adopted her +cousin's gestures and tricks of manner; and now, as she sat by Mme. +d'Espard's side, she played with a tiny scent bottle that dangled by a +slender gold chain from one of her fingers, displayed a little +well-gloved hand without seeming to do so. She had modeled herself on +Mme. d'Espard without mimicking her; the Marquise had found a cousin +worthy of her, and seemed to be proud of her pupil. + +The men and women on the footways all gazed at the splendid carriage, +with the bearings of the d'Espards and Blamont-Chauvrys upon the +panels. Lucien was amazed at the number of greetings received by the +cousins; he did not know that the "all Paris," which consists in some +score of salons, was well aware already of the relationship between +the ladies. A little group of young men on horseback accompanied the +carriage in the Bois; Lucien could recognize de Marsay and Rastignac +among them, and could see from their gestures that the pair of +coxcombs were complimenting Mme. de Bargeton upon her transformation. +Mme. d'Espard was radiant with health and grace. So her indisposition +was simply a pretext for ridding herself of him, for there had been no +mention of another day! + +The wrathful poet went towards the caleche; he walked slowly, waited +till he came in full sight of the two ladies, and made them a bow. +Mme. de Bargeton would not see him; but the Marquise put up her +eyeglass, and deliberately cut him. He had been disowned by the +sovereign lords of Angouleme, but to be disowned by society in Paris +was another thing; the booby-squires by doing their utmost to mortify +Lucien admitted his power and acknowledged him as a man; for Mme. +d'Espard he had positively no existence. This was a sentence, it was a +refusal of justice. Poor poet! a deadly cold seized on him when he saw +de Marsay eying him through his glass; and when the Parisian lion let +that optical instrument fall, it dropped in so singular a fashion that +Lucien thought of the knife-blade of the guillotine. + +The caleche went by. Rage and a craving for vengeance took possession +of his slighted soul. If Mme. de Bargeton had been in his power, he +could have cut her throat at that moment; he was a Fouquier-Tinville +gloating over the pleasure of sending Mme. d'Espard to the scaffold. +If only he could have put de Marsay to the torture with refinements of +savage cruelty! Canalis went by on horseback, bowing to the prettiest +women, his dress elegant, as became the most dainty of poets. + +"Great heavens!" exclaimed Lucien. "Money, money at all costs! money +is the one power before which the world bends the knee." ("No!" cried +conscience, "not money, but glory; and glory means work! Work! that +was what David said.") "Great heavens! what am I doing here? But I +will triumph. I will drive along this avenue in a caleche with a +chasseur behind me! I will possess a Marquise d'Espard." And flinging +out the wrathful words, he went to Hurbain's to dine for two francs. + +Next morning, at nine o'clock, he went to the Rue Neuve-de-Luxembourg +to upbraid Louise for her barbarity. But Mme. de Bargeton was not at +home to him, and not only so, but the porter would not allow him to go +up to her rooms; so he stayed outside in the street, watching the +house till noon. At twelve o'clock Chatelet came out, looked at Lucien +out of the corner of his eye, and avoided him. + +Stung to the quick, Lucien hurried after his rival; and Chatelet, +finding himself closely pursued, turned and bowed, evidently intending +to shake him off by this courtesy. + +"Spare me just a moment for pity's sake, sir," said Lucien; "I want +just a word or two with you. You have shown me friendship, I now ask +the most trifling service of that friendship. You have just come from +Mme. de Bargeton; how have I fallen into disgrace with her and Mme. +d'Espard?--please explain." + +"M. Chardon, do you know why the ladies left you at the Opera that +evening?" asked Chatelet, with treacherous good-nature. + +"No," said the poor poet. + +"Well, it was M. de Rastignac who spoke against you from the +beginning. They asked him about you, and the young dandy simply said +that your name was Chardon, and not de Rubempre; that your mother was +a monthly nurse; that your father, when he was alive, was an +apothecary in L'Houmeau, a suburb of Angouleme; and that your sister, +a charming girl, gets up shirts to admiration, and is just about to be +married to a local printer named Sechard. Such is the world! You no +sooner show yourself than it pulls you to pieces. + +"M. de Marsay came to Mme. d'Espard to laugh at you with her; so the +two ladies, thinking that your presence put them in a false position, +went out at once. Do not attempt to go to either house. If Mme. de +Bargeton continued to receive your visits, her cousin would have +nothing to do with her. You have genius; try to avenge yourself. The +world looks down upon you; look down in your turn upon the world. Take +refuge in some garret, write your masterpieces, seize on power of any +kind, and you will see the world at your feet. Then you can give back +the bruises which you have received, and in the very place where they +were given. Mme. de Bargeton will be the more distant now because she +has been friendly. That is the way with women. But the question now +for you is not how to win back Anais' friendship, but how to avoid +making an enemy of her. I will tell you of a way. She has written +letters to you; send all her letters back to her, she will be sensible +that you are acting like a gentleman; and at a later time, if you +should need her, she will not be hostile. For my own part, I have so +high an opinion of your future, that I have taken your part +everywhere; and if I can do anything here for you, you will always +find me ready to be of use." + +The elderly beau seemed to have grown young again in the atmosphere of +Paris. He bowed with frigid politeness; but Lucien, woe-begone, +haggard, and undone, forgot to return the salutation. He went back to +his inn, and there found the great Staub himself, come in person, not +so much to try his customer's clothes as to make inquiries of the +landlady with regard to that customer's financial status. The report +had been satisfactory. Lucien had traveled post; Mme. de Bargeton +brought him back from Vaudeville last Thursday in her carriage. Staub +addressed Lucien as "Monsieur le Comte," and called his customer's +attention to the artistic skill with which he had brought a charming +figure into relief. + +"A young man in such a costume has only to walk in the Tuileries," he +said, "and he will marry an English heiress within a fortnight." + +Lucien brightened a little under the influences of the German tailor's +joke, the perfect fit of his new clothes, the fine cloth, and the +sight of a graceful figure which met his eyes in the looking-glass. +Vaguely he told himself that Paris was the capital of chance, and for +the moment he believed in chance. Had he not a volume of poems and a +magnificent romance entitled _The Archer of Charles IX._ in manuscript? +He had hope for the future. Staub promised the overcoat and the rest +of the clothes the next day. + +The next day the bootmaker, linen-draper, and tailor all returned +armed each with his bill, which Lucien, still under the charm of +provincial habits, paid forthwith, not knowing how otherwise to rid +himself of them. After he had paid, there remained but three hundred +and sixty francs out of the two thousand which he had brought with him +from Angouleme, and he had been but one week in Paris! Nevertheless, +he dressed and went to take a stroll in the Terrassee des Feuillants. +He had his day of triumph. He looked so handsome and so graceful, he +was so well dressed, that women looked at him; two or three were so +much struck with his beauty, that they turned their heads to look +again. Lucien studied the gait and carriage of the young men on the +Terrasse, and took a lesson in fine manners while he meditated on his +three hundred and sixty francs. + +That evening, alone in his chamber, an idea occurred to him which +threw a light on the problem of his existence at the Gaillard-Bois, +where he lived on the plainest fare, thinking to economize in this +way. He asked for his account, as if he meant to leave, and discovered +that he was indebted to his landlord to the extent of a hundred +francs. The next morning was spent in running around the Latin +Quarter, recommended for its cheapness by David. For a long while he +looked about till, finally, in the Rue de Cluny, close to the +Sorbonne, he discovered a place where he could have a furnished room +for such a price as he could afford to pay. He settled with his +hostess of the Gaillard-Bois, and took up his quarters in the Rue de +Cluny that same day. His removal only cost him the cab fare. + +When he had taken possession of his poor room, he made a packet of +Mme. de Bargeton's letters, laid them on the table, and sat down to +write to her; but before he wrote he fell to thinking over that fatal +week. He did not tell himself that he had been the first to be +faithless; that for a sudden fancy he had been ready to leave his +Louise without knowing what would become of her in Paris. He saw none +of his own shortcomings, but he saw his present position, and blamed +Mme. de Bargeton for it. She was to have lighted his way; instead she +had ruined him. He grew indignant, he grew proud, he worked himself +into a paroxysm of rage, and set himself to compose the following +epistle:-- + + + "What would you think, madame, of a woman who should take a fancy + to some poor and timid child full of the noble superstitions which + the grown man calls 'illusions;' and using all the charms of + woman's coquetry, all her most delicate ingenuity, should feign a + mother's love to lead that child astray? Her fondest promises, the + card-castles which raised his wonder, cost her nothing; she leads + him on, tightens her hold upon him, sometimes coaxing, sometimes + scolding him for his want of confidence, till the child leaves his + home and follows her blindly to the shores of a vast sea. Smiling, + she lures him into a frail skiff, and sends him forth alone and + helpless to face the storm. Standing safe on the rock, she laughs + and wishes him luck. You are that woman; I am that child. + + "The child has a keepsake in his hands, something which might + betray the wrongs done by your beneficence, your kindness in + deserting him. You might have to blush if you saw him struggling + for life, and chanced to recollect that once you clasped him to + your breast. When you read these words the keepsake will be in + your own safe keeping; you are free to forget everything. + + "Once you pointed out fair hopes to me in the skies, I awake to + find reality in the squalid poverty of Paris. While you pass, and + others bow before you, on your brilliant path in the great world, + I, I whom you deserted on the threshold, shall be shivering in the + wretched garret to which you consigned me. Yet some pang may + perhaps trouble your mind amid festivals and pleasures; you may + think sometimes of the child whom you thrust into the depths. If + so, madame, think of him without remorse. Out of the depths of his + misery the child offers you the one thing left to him--his + forgiveness in a last look. Yes, madame, thanks to you, I have + nothing left. Nothing! was not the world created from nothing? + Genius should follow the Divine example; I begin with God-like + forgiveness, but as yet I know not whether I possess the God-like + power. You need only tremble lest I should go astray; for you + would be answerable for my sins. Alas! I pity you, for you will + have no part in the future towards which I go, with work as my + guide." + + +After penning this rhetorical effusion, full of the sombre dignity +which an artist of one-and-twenty is rather apt to overdo, Lucien's +thoughts went back to them at home. He saw the pretty rooms which +David had furnished for him, at the cost of part of his little store, +and a vision rose before him of quiet, simple pleasures in the past. +Shadowy figures came about him; he saw his mother and Eve and David, +and heard their sobs over his leave-taking, and at that he began to +cry himself, for he felt very lonely in Paris, and friendless and +forlorn. + +Two or three days later he wrote to his sister:-- + + + "MY DEAR EVE,--When a sister shares the life of a brother who + devotes himself to art, it is her sad privilege to take more + sorrow than joy into her life; and I am beginning to fear that I + shall be a great trouble to you. Have I not abused your goodness + already? have not all of you sacrificed yourselves to me? It is + the memory of the past, so full of family happiness, that helps me + to bear up in my present loneliness. Now that I have tasted the + first beginnings of poverty and the treachery of the world of + Paris, how my thoughts have flown to you, swift as an eagle back + to its eyrie, so that I might be with true affection again. Did + you see sparks in the candle? Did a coal pop out of the fire? Did + you hear singing in your ears? And did mother say, 'Lucien is + thinking of us,' and David answer, 'He is fighting his way in the + world?' + + "My Eve, I am writing this letter for your eyes only. I cannot + tell any one else all that has happened to me, good and bad, + blushing for both, as I write, for good here is as rare as evil + ought to be. You shall have a great piece of news in a very few + words. Mme. de Bargeton was ashamed of me, disowned me, would not + see me, and gave me up nine days after we came to Paris. She saw + me in the street and looked another way; when, simply to follow + her into the society to which she meant to introduce me, I had + spent seventeen hundred and sixty francs out of the two thousand I + brought from Angouleme, the money so hardly scraped together. 'How + did you spend it?' you will ask. Paris is a strange bottomless + gulf, my poor sister; you can dine here for less than a franc, yet + the simplest dinner at a fashionable restaurant costs fifty + francs; there are waistcoats and trousers to be had for four + francs and two francs each; but a fashionable tailor never charges + less than a hundred francs. You pay for everything; you pay a + halfpenny to cross the kennel in the street when it rains; you + cannot go the least little way in a cab for less than thirty-two + sous. + + "I have been staying in one of the best parts of Paris, but now I + am living at the Hotel de Cluny, in the Rue de Cluny, one of the + poorest and darkest slums, shut in between three churches and the + old buildings of the Sorbonne. I have a furnished room on the + fourth floor; it is very bare and very dirty, but, all the same, I + pay fifteen francs a month for it. For breakfast I spend a penny + on a roll and a halfpenny for milk, but I dine very decently for + twenty-two sous at a restaurant kept by a man named Flicoteaux in + the Place de la Sorbonne itself. My expenses every month will not + exceed sixty francs, everything included, until the winter begins + --at least I hope not. So my two hundred and forty francs ought to + last me for the first four months. Between now and then I shall + have sold _The Archer of Charles IX._ and the _Marguerites_ no doubt. + Do not be in the least uneasy on my account. If the present is + cold and bare and poverty-stricken, the blue distant future is + rich and splendid; most great men have known the vicissitudes + which depress but cannot overwhelm me. + + "Plautus, the great comic Latin poet, was once a miller's lad. + Machiavelli wrote _The Prince_ at night, and by day was a common + working-man like any one else; and more than all, the great + Cervantes, who lost an arm at the battle of Lepanto, and helped to + win that famous day, was called a 'base-born, handless dotard' by + the scribblers of his day; there was an interval of ten years + between the appearance of the first part and the second of his + sublime _Don Quixote_ for lack of a publisher. Things are not so bad + as that nowadays. Mortifications and want only fall to the lot of + unknown writers; as soon as a man's name is known, he grows rich, + and I will be rich. And besides, I live within myself, I spend + half the day at the Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve, learning all + that I want to learn; I should not go far unless I knew more than + I do. So at this moment I am almost happy. In a few days I have + fallen in with my life very gladly. I begin the work that I love + with daylight, my subsistence is secure, I think a great deal, and + I study. I do not see that I am open to attack at any point, now + that I have renounced a world where my vanity might suffer at any + moment. The great men of every age are obliged to lead lives + apart. What are they but birds in the forest? They sing, nature + falls under the spell of their song, and no one should see them. + That shall be my lot, always supposing that I can carry out my + ambitious plans. + + "Mme. de Bargeton I do not regret. A woman who could behave as she + behaved does not deserve a thought. Nor am I sorry that I left + Angouleme. She did wisely when she flung me into the sea of Paris + to sink or swim. This is the place for men of letters and thinkers + and poets; here you cultivate glory, and I know how fair the + harvest is that we reap in these days. Nowhere else can a writer + find the living works of the great dead, the works of art which + quicken the imagination in the galleries and museums here; nowhere + else will you find great reference libraries always open in which + the intellect may find pasture. And lastly, here in Paris there is + a spirit which you breathe in the air; it infuses the least + details, every literary creation bears traces of its influence. + You learn more by talk in a cafe, or at a theatre, in one half + hour, than you would learn in ten years in the provinces. Here, in + truth, wherever you go, there is always something to see, + something to learn, some comparison to make. Extreme cheapness and + excessive dearness--there is Paris for you; there is honeycomb + here for every bee, every nature finds its own nourishment. So, + though life is hard for me just now, I repent of nothing. On the + contrary, a fair future spreads out before me, and my heart + rejoices though it is saddened for the moment. Good-bye my dear + sister. Do not expect letters from me regularly; it is one of the + peculiarities of Paris that one really does not know how the time + goes. Life is so alarmingly rapid. I kiss the mother and you and + David more tenderly than ever. + +"LUCIEN." + + +The name of Flicoteaux is engraved on many memories. Few indeed were +the students who lived in the Latin Quarter during the last twelve +years of the Restoration and did not frequent that temple sacred to +hunger and impecuniosity. There a dinner of three courses, with a +quarter bottle of wine or a bottle of beer, could be had for eighteen +sous; or for twenty-two sous the quarter bottle becomes a bottle. +Flicoteaux, that friend of youth, would beyond a doubt have amassed a +colossal fortune but for a line on his bill of fare, a line which +rival establishments are wont to print in capital letters, thus--BREAD +AT DISCRETION, which, being interpreted, should read "indiscretion." + +Flicoteaux has been nursing-father to many an illustrious name. +Verily, the heart of more than one great man ought to wax warm with +innumerable recollections of inexpressible enjoyment at the sight of +the small, square window panes that look upon the Place de la +Sorbonne, and the Rue Neuve-de-Richelieu. Flicoteaux II. and +Flicoteaux III. respected the old exterior, maintaining the dingy hue +and general air of a respectable, old-established house, showing +thereby the depth of their contempt for the charlatanism of the +shop-front, the kind of advertisement which feasts the eyes at the +expense of the stomach, to which your modern restaurant almost always +has recourse. Here you beheld no piles of straw-stuffed game never +destined to make the acquaintance of the spit, no fantastical fish to +justify the mountebank's remark, "I saw a fine carp to-day; I expect +to buy it this day week." Instead of the prime vegetables more +fittingly described by the word primeval, artfully displayed in the +window for the delectation of the military man and his fellow +country-woman the nursemaid, honest Flicoteaux exhibited full +salad-bowls adorned with many a rivet, or pyramids of stewed prunes to +rejoice the sight of the customer, and assure him that the word +"dessert," with which other handbills made too free, was in this case +no charter to hoodwink the public. Loaves of six pounds' weight, cut +in four quarters, made good the promise of "bread at discretion." Such +was the plenty of the establishment, that Moliere would have celebrated +it if it had been in existence in his day, so comically appropriate is +the name. + +Flicoteaux still subsists; so long as students are minded to live, +Flicoteaux will make a living. You feed there, neither more nor less; +and you feed as you work, with morose or cheerful industry, according +to the circumstances and the temperament. + +At that time his well-known establishment consisted of two +dining-halls, at right angles to each other; long, narrow, low-ceiled +rooms, looking respectively on the Rue Neuve-de-Richelieu and the Place +de la Sorbonne. The furniture must have come originally from the +refectory of some abbey, for there was a monastic look about the +lengthy tables, where the serviettes of regular customers, each thrust +through a numbered ring of crystallized tin plate, were laid by their +places. Flicoteaux I. only changed the serviettes of a Sunday; but +Flicoteaux II. changed them twice a week, it is said, under pressure of +competition which threatened his dynasty. + +Flicoteaux's restaurant is no banqueting-hall, with its refinements +and luxuries; it is a workshop where suitable tools are provided, and +everybody gets up and goes as soon as he has finished. The coming and +going within are swift. There is no dawdling among the waiters; they +are all busy; every one of them is wanted. + +The fare is not very varied. The potato is a permanent institution; +there might not be a single tuber left in Ireland, and prevailing +dearth elsewhere, but you would still find potatoes at Flicoteaux's. +Not once in thirty years shall you miss its pale gold (the color +beloved of Titian), sprinkled with chopped verdure; the potato enjoys +a privilege that women might envy; such as you see it in 1814, so +shall you find it in 1840. Mutton cutlets and fillet of beef at +Flicoteaux's represent black game and fillet of sturgeon at Very's; +they are not on the regular bill of fare, that is, and must be ordered +beforehand. Beef of the feminine gender there prevails; the young of +the bovine species appears in all kinds of ingenious disguises. When +the whiting and mackerel abound on our shores, they are likewise seen +in large numbers at Flicoteaux's; his whole establishment, indeed, is +directly affected by the caprices of the season and the vicissitudes +of French agriculture. By eating your dinners at Flicoteaux's you +learn a host of things of which the wealthy, the idle, and folk +indifferent to the phases of Nature have no suspicion, and the student +penned up in the Latin Quarter is kept accurately informed of the +state of the weather and good or bad seasons. He knows when it is a +good year for peas or French beans, and the kind of salad stuff that +is plentiful; when the Great Market is glutted with cabbages, he is at +once aware of the fact, and the failure of the beetroot crop is +brought home to his mind. A slander, old in circulation in Lucien's +time, connected the appearance of beef-steaks with a mortality among +horseflesh. + +Few Parisian restaurants are so well worth seeing. Every one at +Flicoteaux's is young; you see nothing but youth; and although earnest +faces and grave, gloomy, anxious faces are not lacking, you see hope +and confidence and poverty gaily endured. Dress, as a rule, is +careless, and regular comers in decent clothes are marked exceptions. +Everybody knows at once that something extraordinary is afoot: a +mistress to visit, a theatre party, or some excursion into higher +spheres. Here, it is said, friendships have been made among students +who became famous men in after days, as will be seen in the course of +this narrative; but with the exception of a few knots of young fellows +from the same part of France who make a group about the end of a +table, the gravity of the diners is hardly relaxed. Perhaps this +gravity is due to the catholicity of the wine, which checks good +fellowship of any kind. + +Flicoteaux's frequenters may recollect certain sombre and mysterious +figures enveloped in the gloom of the chilliest penury; these beings +would dine there daily for a couple of years and then vanish, and the +most inquisitive regular comer could throw no light on the +disappearance of such goblins of Paris. Friendships struck up over +Flicoteaux's dinners were sealed in neighboring cafes in the flames of +heady punch, or by the generous warmth of a small cup of black coffee +glorified by a dash of something hotter and stronger. + +Lucien, like all neophytes, was modest and regular in his habits in +those early days at the Hotel de Cluny. After the first unlucky +venture in fashionable life which absorbed his capital, he threw +himself into his work with the first earnest enthusiasm, which is +frittered away so soon over the difficulties or in the by-paths of +every life in Paris. The most luxurious and the very poorest lives are +equally beset with temptations which nothing but the fierce energy of +genius or the morose persistence of ambition can overcome. + +Lucien used to drop in at Flicoteaux's about half-past four, having +remarked the advantages of an early arrival; the bill-of-fare was more +varied, and there was still some chance of obtaining the dish of your +choice. Like all imaginative persons, he had taken a fancy to a +particular seat, and showed discrimination in his selection. On the +very first day he had noticed a table near the counter, and from the +faces of those who sat about it, and chance snatches of their talk, he +recognized brothers of the craft. A sort of instinct, moreover, +pointed out the table near the counter as a spot whence he could +parlay with the owners of the restaurant. In time an acquaintance +would grow up, he thought, and then in the day of distress he could no +doubt obtain the necessary credit. So he took his place at a small +square table close to the desk, intended probably for casual comers, +for the two clean serviettes were unadorned with rings. Lucien's +opposite neighbor was a thin, pallid youth, to all appearance as poor +as himself; his handsome face was somewhat worn, already it told of +hopes that had vanished, leaving lines upon his forehead and barren +furrows in his soul, where seeds had been sown that had come to +nothing. Lucien felt drawn to the stranger by these tokens; his +sympathies went out to him with irresistible fervor. + +After a week's exchange of small courtesies and remarks, the poet from +Angouleme found the first person with whom he could chat. The +stranger's name was Etienne Lousteau. Two years ago he had left his +native place, a town in Berri, just as Lucien had come from Angouleme. +His lively gestures, bright eyes, and occasionally curt speech +revealed a bitter apprenticeship to literature. Etienne had come from +Sancerre with his tragedy in his pocket, drawn to Paris by the same +motives that impelled Lucien--hope of fame and power and money. + +Sometimes Etienne Lousteau came for several days together; but in a +little while his visits became few and far between, and he would stay +away for five or six days in succession. Then he would come back, and +Lucien would hope to see his poet next day, only to find a stranger in +his place. When two young men meet daily, their talk harks back to +their last conversation; but these continual interruptions obliged +Lucien to break the ice afresh each time, and further checked an +intimacy which made little progress during the first few weeks. On +inquiry of the damsel at the counter, Lucien was told that his future +friend was on the staff of a small newspaper, and wrote reviews of +books and dramatic criticism of pieces played at the Ambigu-Comique, +the Gaite, and the Panorama-Dramatique. The young man became a +personage all at once in Lucien's eyes. Now, he thought, he would lead +the conversation on rather more personal topics, and make some effort +to gain a friend so likely to be useful to a beginner. The journalist +stayed away for a fortnight. Lucien did not know that Etienne only +dined at Flicoteaux's when he was hard up, and hence his gloomy air of +disenchantment and the chilly manner, which Lucien met with gracious +smiles and amiable remarks. But, after all, the project of a +friendship called for mature deliberation. This obscure journalist +appeared to lead an expensive life in which _petits verres_, cups of +coffee, punch-bowls, sight-seeing, and suppers played a part. In the +early days of Lucien's life in the Latin Quarter, he behaved like a +poor child bewildered by his first experience of Paris life; so that +when he had made a study of prices and weighed his purse, he lacked +courage to make advances to Etienne; he was afraid of beginning a +fresh series of blunders of which he was still repenting. And he was +still under the yoke of provincial creeds; his two guardian angels, +Eve and David, rose up before him at the least approach of an evil +thought, putting him in mind of all the hopes that were centered on +him, of the happiness that he owed to the old mother, of all the +promises of his genius. + +He spent his mornings in studying history at the Bibliotheque +Sainte-Genevieve. His very first researches made him aware of frightful +errors in the memoirs of _The Archer of Charles IX._ When the library +closed, he went back to his damp, chilly room to correct his work, +cutting out whole chapters and piecing it together anew. And after +dining at Flicoteaux's, he went down to the Passage du Commerce to see +the newspapers at Blosse's reading-room, as well as new books and +magazines and poetry, so as to keep himself informed of the movements +of the day. And when, towards midnight, he returned to his wretched +lodgings, he had used neither fuel nor candle-light. His reading in +those days made such an enormous change in his ideas, that he revised +the volume of flower-sonnets, his beloved _Marguerites_, working them +over to such purpose, that scarce a hundred lines of the original +verses were allowed to stand. + +So in the beginning Lucien led the honest, innocent life of the +country lad who never leaves the Latin Quarter; devoting himself +wholly to his work, with thoughts of the future always before him; who +finds Flicoteaux's ordinary luxurious after the simple home-fare; and +strolls for recreation along the alleys of the Luxembourg, the blood +surging back to his heart as he gives timid side glances to the pretty +women. But this could not last. Lucien, with his poetic temperament +and boundless longings, could not withstand the temptations held out +by the play-bills. + +The Theatre-Francais, the Vaudeville, the Varietes, the Opera-Comique +relieved him of some sixty francs, although he always went to the pit. +What student could deny himself the pleasure of seeing Talma in one of +his famous roles? Lucien was fascinated by the theatre, that first +love of all poetic temperaments; the actors and actresses were +awe-inspiring creatures; he did not so much as dream of the possibility +of crossing the footlights and meeting them on familiar terms. The men +and women who gave him so much pleasure were surely marvelous beings, +whom the newspapers treated with as much gravity as matters of +national interest. To be a dramatic author, to have a play produced on +the stage! What a dream was this to cherish! A dream which a few bold +spirits like Casimir Delavigne had actually realized. Thick swarming +thoughts like these, and moments of belief in himself, followed by +despair gave Lucien no rest, and kept him in the narrow way of toil +and frugality, in spite of the smothered grumblings of more than one +frenzied desire. + +Carrying prudence to an extreme, he made it a rule never to enter the +precincts of the Palais Royal, that place of perdition where he had +spent fifty francs at Very's in a single day, and nearly five hundred +francs on his clothes; and when he yielded to temptation, and saw +Fleury, Talma, the two Baptistes, or Michot, he went no further than +the murky passage where theatre-goers used to stand in a string from +half-past five in the afternoon till the hour when the doors opened, +and belated comers were compelled to pay ten sous for a place near the +ticket-office. And after waiting for two hours, the cry of "All +tickets are sold!" rang not unfrequently in the ears of disappointed +students. When the play was over, Lucien went home with downcast eyes, +through streets lined with living attractions, and perhaps fell in +with one of those commonplace adventures which loom so large in a +young and timorous imagination. + +One day Lucien counted over his remaining stock of money, and took +alarm at the melting of his funds; a cold perspiration broke out upon +him when he thought that the time had come when he must find a +publisher, and try also to find work for which a publisher would pay +him. The young journalist, with whom he had made a one-sided +friendship, never came now to Flicoteaux's. Lucien was waiting for a +chance--which failed to present itself. In Paris there are no chances +except for men with a very wide circle of acquaintance; chances of +success of every kind increase with the number of your connections; +and, therefore, in this sense also the chances are in favor of the big +battalions. Lucien had sufficient provincial foresight still left, and +had no mind to wait until only a last few coins remained to him. He +resolved to face the publishers. + +So one tolerably chilly September morning Lucien went down the Rue de +la Harpe, with his two manuscripts under his arm. As he made his way +to the Quai des Augustins, and went along, looking into the +booksellers' windows on one side and into the Seine on the other, his +good genius might have counseled him to pitch himself into the water +sooner than plunge into literature. After heart-searching hesitations, +after a profound scrutiny of the various countenances, more or less +encouraging, soft-hearted, churlish, cheerful, or melancholy, to be +seen through the window panes, or in the doorways of the booksellers' +establishments, he espied a house where the shopmen were busy packing +books at a great rate. Goods were being despatched. The walls were +plastered with bills: + + + JUST OUT. + + LE SOLITAIRE, by M. le Vicomte d'Arlincourt. + Third edition. + LEONIDE, by Victor Ducange; five volumes + 12mo, printed on fine paper. 12 francs. + INDUCTIONS MORALES, by Keratry. + + +"They are lucky, that they are!" exclaimed Lucien. + +The placard, a new and original idea of the celebrated Ladvocat, was +just beginning to blossom out upon the walls. In no long space Paris +was to wear motley, thanks to the exertions of his imitators, and the +Treasury was to discover a new source of revenue. + +Anxiety sent the blood surging to Lucien's heart, as he who had been +so great at Angouleme, so insignificant of late in Paris, slipped past +the other houses, summoned up all his courage, and at last entered the +shop thronged with assistants, customers, and booksellers--"And +authors too, perhaps!" thought Lucien. + +"I want to speak with M. Vidal or M. Porchon," he said, addressing a +shopman. He had read the names on the sign-board--VIDAL & PORCHON (it +ran), _French and foreign booksellers' agents_. + +"Both gentlemen are engaged," said the man. + +"I will wait." + +Left to himself, the poet scrutinized the packages, and amused himself +for a couple of hours by scanning the titles of books, looking into +them, and reading a page or two here and there. At last, as he stood +leaning against a window, he heard voices, and suspecting that the +green curtains hid either Vidal or Porchon, he listened to the +conversation. + +"Will you take five hundred copies of me? If you will, I will let you +have them at five francs, and give fourteen to the dozen." + +"What does that bring them in at?" + +"Sixteen sous less." + +"Four francs four sous?" said Vidal or Porchon, whichever it was. + +"Yes," said the vendor. + +"Credit your account?" inquired the purchaser. + +"Old humbug! you would settle with me in eighteen months' time, with +bills at a twelvemonth." + +"No. Settled at once," returned Vidal or Porchon. + +"Bills at nine months?" asked the publisher or author, who evidently +was selling his book. + +"No, my dear fellow, twelve months," returned one of the firm of +booksellers' agents. + +There was a pause. + +"You are simply cutting my throat!" said the visitor. + +"But in a year's time shall we have placed a hundred copies of +_Leonide_?" said the other voice. "If books went off as fast as the +publishers would like, we should be millionaires, my good sir; but +they don't, they go as the public pleases. There is some one now +bringing out an edition of Scott's novels at eighteen sous per volume, +three livres twelve sous per copy, and you want me to give you more +for your stale remainders? No. If you mean me to push this novel of +yours, you must make it worth my while.--Vidal!" + +A stout man, with a pen behind his ear, came down from his desk. + +"How many copies of Ducange did you place last journey?" asked Porchon +of his partner. + +"Two hundred of _Le Petit Vieillard de Calais_, but to sell them I was +obliged to cry down two books which pay in less commission, and +uncommonly fine 'nightingales' they are now. + +(A "nightingale," as Lucien afterwards learned, is a bookseller's name +for books that linger on hand, perched out of sight in the loneliest +nooks in the shop.) + +"And besides," added Vidal, "Picard is bringing out some novels, as +you know. We have been promised twenty per cent on the published price +to make the thing a success." + +"Very well, at twelve months," the publisher answered in a piteous +voice, thunderstruck by Vidal's confidential remark. + +"Is it an offer?" Porchon inquired curtly. + +"Yes." The stranger went out. After he had gone, Lucien heard Porchon +say to Vidal: + +"We have three hundred copies on order now. We will keep him waiting +for his settlement, sell the _Leonides_ for five francs net, settlement +in six months, and----" + +"And that will be fifteen hundred francs into our pockets," said +Vidal. + +"Oh, I saw quite well that he was in a fix. He is giving Ducange four +thousand francs for two thousand copies." + +Lucien cut Vidal short by appearing in the entrance of the den. + +"I have the honor of wishing you a good day, gentlemen," he said, +addressing both partners. The booksellers nodded slightly. + +"I have a French historical romance after the style of Scott. It is +called _The Archer of Charles IX._; I propose to offer it to you----" + +Porchon glanced at Lucien with lustreless eyes, and laid his pen down +on the desk. Vidal stared rudely at the author. + +"We are not publishing booksellers, sir; we are booksellers' agents," +he said. "When we bring out a book ourselves, we only deal in +well-known names; and we only take serious literature besides--history +and epitomes." + +"But my book is very serious. It is an attempt to set the struggle +between Catholics and Calvinists in its true light; the Catholics were +supporters of absolute monarchy, and the Protestants for a republic." + +"M. Vidal!" shouted an assistant. Vidal fled. + +"I don't say, sir, that your book is not a masterpiece," replied +Porchon, with scanty civility, "but we only deal in books that are +ready printed. Go and see somebody that buys manuscripts. There is old +Doguereau in the Rue du Coq, near the Louvre, he is in the romance +line. If you had only spoken sooner, you might have seen Pollet, a +competitor of Doguereau and of the publisher in the Wooden Galleries." + +"I have a volume of poetry----" + +"M. Porchon!" somebody shouted. + +"_Poetry_!" Porchon exclaimed angrily. "For what do you take me?" he +added, laughing in Lucien's face. And he dived into the regions of the +back shop. + +Lucien went back across the Pont Neuf absorbed in reflection. From all +that he understood of this mercantile dialect, it appeared that books, +like cotton nightcaps, were to be regarded as articles of merchandise +to be sold dear and bought cheap. + +"I have made a mistake," said Lucien to himself; but, all the same, +this rough-and-ready practical aspect of literature made an impression +upon him. + +In the Rue du Coq he stopped in front of a modest-looking shop, which +he had passed before. He saw the inscription DOGUEREAU, BOOKSELLER, +painted above it in yellow letters on a green ground, and remembered +that he had seen the name at the foot of the title-page of several +novels at Blosse's reading-room. In he went, not without the inward +trepidation which a man of any imagination feels at the prospect of a +battle. Inside the shop he discovered an odd-looking old man, one of +the queer characters of the trade in the days of the Empire. + +Doguereau wore a black coat with vast square skirts, when fashion +required swallow-tail coats. His waistcoat was of some cheap material, +a checked pattern of many colors; a steel chain, with a copper key +attached to it, hung from his fob and dangled down over a roomy pair +of black nether garments. The booksellers' watch must have been the +size of an onion. Iron-gray ribbed stockings, and shoes with silver +buckles completed is costume. The old man's head was bare, and +ornamented with a fringe of grizzled locks, quite poetically scanty. +"Old Doguereau," as Porchon styled him, was dressed half like a +professor of belles-lettres as to his trousers and shoes, half like a +tradesman with respect to the variegated waistcoat, the stockings, and +the watch; and the same odd mixture appeared in the man himself. He +united the magisterial, dogmatic air, and the hollow countenance of +the professor of rhetoric with the sharp eyes, suspicious mouth, and +vague uneasiness of the bookseller. + +"M. Doguereau?" asked Lucien. + +"That is my name, sir." + +"You are very young," remarked the bookseller. + +"My age, sir, has nothing to do with the matter." + +"True," and the old bookseller took up the manuscript. "Ah, begad! _The +Archer of Charles IX._, a good title. Let us see now, young man, just +tell me your subject in a word or two." + +"It is a historical work, sir, in the style of Scott. The character of +the struggle between the Protestants and Catholics is depicted as a +struggle between two opposed systems of government, in which the +throne is seriously endangered. I have taken the Catholic side." + +"Eh! but you have ideas, young man. Very well, I will read your book, +I promise you. I would rather have had something more in Mrs. +Radcliffe's style; but if you are industrious, if you have some notion +of style, conceptions, ideas, and the art of telling a story, I don't +ask better than to be of use to you. What do we want but good +manuscripts?" + +"When can I come back?" + +"I am going into the country this evening; I shall be back again the +day after to-morrow. I shall have read your manuscript by that time; +and if it suits me, we might come to terms that very day." + +Seeing his acquaintance so easy, Lucien was inspired with the unlucky +idea of bringing the _Marguerites_ upon the scene. + +"I have a volume of poetry as well, sir----" he began. + +"Oh! you are a poet! Then I don't want your romance," and the old man +handed back the manuscript. "The rhyming fellows come to grief when +they try their hands at prose. In prose you can't use words that mean +nothing; you absolutely must say something." + +"But Sir Walter Scott, sir, wrote poetry as well as----" + +"That is true," said Doguereau, relenting. He guessed that the young +fellow before him was poor, and kept the manuscript. "Where do you +live? I will come and see you." + +Lucien, all unsuspicious of the idea at the back of the old man's +head, gave his address; he did not see that he had to do with a +bookseller of the old school, a survival of the eighteenth century, +when booksellers tried to keep Voltaires and Montesquieus starving in +garrets under lock and key. + +"The Latin Quarter. I am coming back that very way," said Doguereau, +when he had read the address. + +"Good man!" thought Lucien, as he took his leave. "So I have met with +a friend to young authors, a man of taste who knows something. That is +the kind of man for me! It is just as I said to David--talent soon +makes its way in Paris." + +Lucien went home again happy and light of heart; he dreamed of glory. +He gave not another thought to the ominous words which fell on his ear +as he stood by the counter in Vidal and Porchon's shop; he beheld +himself the richer by twelve hundred francs at least. Twelve hundred +francs! It meant a year in Paris, a whole year of preparation for the +work that he meant to do. What plans he built on that hope! What sweet +dreams, what visions of a life established on a basis of work! +Mentally he found new quarters, and settled himself in them; it would +not have taken much to set him making a purchase or two. He could only +stave off impatience by constant reading at Blosse's. + +Two days later old Doguereau come to the lodgings of his budding Sir +Walter Scott. He was struck with the pains which Lucien had taken with +the style of this his first work, delighted with the strong contrasts +of character sanctioned by the epoch, and surprised at the spirited +imagination which a young writer always displays in the scheming of a +first plot--he had not been spoiled, thought old Daddy Doguereau. He +had made up his mind to give a thousand francs for _The Archer of +Charles IX._; he would buy the copyright out and out, and bind Lucien +by an engagement for several books, but when he came to look at the +house, the old fox thought better of it. + +"A young fellow that lives here has none but simple tastes," said he +to himself; "he is fond of study, fond of work; I need not give more +than eight hundred francs." + +"Fourth floor," answered the landlady, when he asked for M. Lucien de +Rubempre. The old bookseller, peering up, saw nothing but the sky +above the fourth floor. + +"This young fellow," thought he, "is a good-looking lad; one might go +so far as to say that he is very handsome. If he were to make too much +money, he would only fall into dissipated ways, and then he would not +work. In the interests of us both, I shall only offer six hundred +francs, in coin though, not paper." + +He climbed the stairs and gave three raps at the door. Lucien came to +open it. The room was forlorn in its bareness. A bowl of milk and a +penny roll stood on the table. The destitution of genius made an +impression on Daddy Doguereau. + +"Let him preserve these simple habits of life, this frugality, these +modest requirements," thought he.--Aloud he said: "It is a pleasure to +me to see you. Thus, sir, lived Jean-Jacques, whom you resemble in +more ways than one. Amid such surroundings the fire of genius shines +brightly; good work is done in such rooms as these. This is how men of +letters should work, instead of living riotously in cafes and +restaurants, wasting their time and talent and our money." + +He sat down. + +"Your romance is not bad, young man. I was a professor of rhetoric +once; I know French history, there are some capital things in it. You +have a future before you, in fact." + +"Oh! sir." + +"No; I tell you so. We may do business together. I will buy your +romance." + +Lucien's heart swelled and throbbed with gladness. He was about to +enter the world of literature; he should see himself in print at last. + +"I will give you four hundred francs," continued Doguereau in honeyed +accents, and he looked at Lucien with an air which seemed to betoken +an effort of generosity. + +"The volume?" queried Lucien. + +"For the romance," said Doguereau, heedless of Lucien's surprise. "In +ready money," he added; "and you shall undertake to write two books +for me every year for six years. If the first book is out of print in +six months, I will give you six hundred francs for the others. So, if +you write two books each year, you will be making a hundred francs a +month; you will have a sure income, you will be well off. There are +some authors whom I only pay three hundred francs for a romance; I +give two hundred for translations of English books. Such prices would +have been exorbitant in the old days." + +"Sir, we cannot possibly come to an understanding. Give me back my +manuscript, I beg," said Lucien, in a cold chill. + +"Here it is," said the old bookseller. "You know nothing of business, +sir. Before an author's first book can appear, a publisher is bound to +sink sixteen hundred francs on the paper and the printing of it. It is +easier to write a romance than to find all that money. I have a +hundred romances in manuscript, and I have not a hundred and sixty +thousand francs in my cash box, alas! I have not made so much in all +these twenty years that I have been a bookseller. So you don't make a +fortune by printing romances, you see. Vidal and Porchon only take +them of us on conditions that grow harder and harder day by day. You +have only your time to lose, while I am obliged to disburse two +thousand francs. If we fail, _habent sua fata libelli_, I lose two +thousand francs; while, as for you, you simply hurl an ode at the +thick-headed public. When you have thought over this that I have the +honor of telling you, you will come back to me.--_You will come back to +me_!" he asserted authoritatively, by way of reply to a scornful +gesture made involuntarily by Lucien. "So far from finding a publisher +obliging enough to risk two thousand francs for an unknown writer, you +will not find a publisher's clerk that will trouble himself to look +through your screed. Now that I have read it I can point out a good +many slips in grammar. You have put _observer_ for _faire observer_ and +_malgre que_. _Malgre_ is a preposition, and requires an object." + +Lucien appeared to be humiliated. + +"When I see you again, you will have lost a hundred francs," he added. +"I shall only give a hundred crowns." + +With that he rose and took his leave. On the threshold he said, "If +you had not something in you, and a future before you; if I did not +take an interest in studious youth, I should not have made you such a +handsome offer. A hundred francs per month! Think of it! After all, a +romance in a drawer is not eating its head off like a horse in a +stable, nor will it find you in victuals either, and that's a fact." + +Lucien snatched up his manuscript and dashed it on the floor. + +"I would rather burn it, sir!" he exclaimed. + +"You have a poet's head," returned his senior. + +Lucien devoured his bread and supped his bowl of milk, then he went +downstairs. His room was not large enough for him; he was turning +round and round in it like a lion in a cage at the Jardin des Plantes. + +At the Bibliotheque Saint-Genevieve, whither Lucien was going, he had +come to know a stranger by sight; a young man of five-and-twenty or +thereabouts, working with the sustained industry which nothing can +disturb nor distract, the sign by which your genuine literary worker +is known. Evidently the young man had been reading there for some +time, for the librarian and attendants all knew him and paid him +special attention; the librarian would even allow him to take away +books, with which Lucien saw him return in the morning. In the +stranger student he recognized a brother in penury and hope. + +Pale-faced and slight and thin, with a fine forehead hidden by masses +of black, tolerably unkempt hair, there was something about him that +attracted indifferent eyes: it was a vague resemblance which he bore +to portraits of the young Bonaparte, engraved from Robert Lefebvre's +picture. That engraving is a poem of melancholy intensity, of +suppressed ambition, of power working below the surface. Study the +face carefully, and you will discover genius in it and discretion, and +all the subtlety and greatness of the man. The portrait has speaking +eyes like a woman's; they look out, greedy of space, craving +difficulties to vanquish. Even if the name of Bonaparte were not +written beneath it, you would gaze long at that face. + +Lucien's young student, the incarnation of this picture, usually wore +footed trousers, shoes with thick soles to them, an overcoat of coarse +cloth, a black cravat, a waistcoat of some gray-and-white material +buttoned to the chin, and a cheap hat. Contempt for superfluity in +dress was visible in his whole person. Lucien also discovered that the +mysterious stranger with that unmistakable stamp which genius sets +upon the forehead of its slaves was one of Flicoteaux's most regular +customers; he ate to live, careless of the fare which appeared to be +familiar to him, and drank water. Wherever Lucien saw him, at the +library or at Flicoteaux's, there was a dignity in his manner, +springing doubtless from the consciousness of a purpose that filled +his life, a dignity which made him unapproachable. He had the +expression of a thinker, meditation dwelt on the fine nobly carved +brow. You could tell from the dark bright eyes, so clear-sighted and +quick to observe, that their owner was wont to probe to the bottom of +things. He gesticulated very little, his demeanor was grave. Lucien +felt an involuntary respect for him. + +Many times already the pair had looked at each other at the +Bibliotheque or at Flicoteaux's; many times they had been on the point +of speaking, but neither of them had ventured so far as yet. The +silent young man went off to the further end of the library, on the +side at right angles to the Place de la Sorbonne, and Lucien had no +opportunity of making his acquaintance, although he felt drawn to a +worker whom he knew by indescribable tokens for a character of no +common order. Both, as they came to know afterwards, were +unsophisticated and shy, given to fears which cause a pleasurable +emotion to solitary creatures. Perhaps they never would have been +brought into communication if they had not come across each other that +day of Lucien's disaster; for as Lucien turned into the Rue des Gres, +he saw the student coming away from the Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve. + +"The library is closed; I don't know why, monsieur," said he. + +Tears were standing in Lucien's eyes; he expressed his thanks by one +of those gestures that speak more eloquently than words, and unlock +hearts at once when two men meet in youth. They went together along +the Rue des Gres towards the Rue de la Harpe. + +"As that is so, I shall go to the Luxembourg for a walk," said Lucien. +"When you have come out, it is not easy to settle down to work again." + +"No; one's ideas will not flow in the proper current," remarked the +stranger. "Something seems to have annoyed you, monsieur?" + +"I have just had a queer adventure," said Lucien, and he told the +history of his visit to the Quai, and gave an account of his +subsequent dealings with the old bookseller. He gave his name and said +a word or two of his position. In one month or thereabouts he had +spent sixty francs on his board, thirty for lodging, twenty more +francs in going to the theatre, and ten at Blosse's reading room--one +hundred and twenty francs in all, and now he had just a hundred and +twenty francs in hand. + +"Your story is mine, monsieur, and the story of ten or twelve hundred +young fellows besides who come from the country to Paris every year. +There are others even worse off than we are. Do you see that theatre?" +he continued, indicating the turrets of the Odeon. "There came one day +to lodge in one of the houses in the square a man of talent who had +fallen into the lowest depths of poverty. He was married, in addition +to the misfortunes which we share with him, to a wife whom he loved; +and the poorer or the richer, as you will, by two children. He was +burdened with debt, but he put his faith in his pen. He took a comedy +in five acts to the Odeon; the comedy was accepted, the management +arranged to bring it out, the actors learned their parts, the stage +manager urged on the rehearsals. Five several bits of luck, five +dramas to be performed in real life, and far harder tasks than the +writing of a five-act play. The poor author lodged in a garret; you +can see the place from here. He drained his last resources to live +until the first representation; his wife pawned her clothes, they all +lived on dry bread. On the day of the final rehearsal, the household +owed fifty francs in the Quarter to the baker, the milkwoman, and the +porter. The author had only the strictly necessary clothes--a coat, a +shirt, trousers, a waistcoat, and a pair of boots. He felt sure of his +success; he kissed his wife. The end of their troubles was at hand. +'At last! There is nothing against us now,' cried he.--'Yes, there is +fire,' said his wife; 'look, the Odeon is on fire!'--The Odeon was on +fire, monsieur. So do not you complain. You have clothes, you have +neither wife nor child, you have a hundred and twenty francs for +emergencies in your pocket, and you owe no one a penny.--Well, the +piece went through a hundred and fifty representations at the Theatre +Louvois. The King allowed the author a pension. 'Genius is patience,' +as Buffon said. And patience after all is a man's nearest approach to +Nature's processes of creation. What is Art, monsieur, but Nature +concentrated?" + +By this time the young men were striding along the walks of the +Luxembourg, and in no long time Lucien learned the name of the +stranger who was doing his best to administer comfort. That name has +since grown famous. Daniel d'Arthez is one of the most illustrious of +living men of letters; one of the rare few who show us an example of +"a noble gift with a noble nature combined," to quote a poet's fine +thought. + +"There is no cheap route to greatness," Daniel went on in his kind +voice. "The works of Genius are watered with tears. The gift that is +in you, like an existence in the physical world, passes through +childhood and its maladies. Nature sweeps away sickly or deformed +creatures, and Society rejects an imperfectly developed talent. Any +man who means to rise above the rest must make ready for a struggle +and be undaunted by difficulties. A great writer is a martyr who does +not die; that is all.--There is the stamp of genius on your forehead," +d'Arthez continued, enveloping Lucien by a glance; "but unless you +have within you the will of genius, unless you are gifted with angelic +patience, unless, no matter how far the freaks of Fate have set you +from your destined goal, you can find the way to your Infinite as the +turtles in the Indies find their way to the ocean, you had better give +up at once." + +"Then do you yourself expect these ordeals?" asked Lucien. + +"Trials of every kind, slander and treachery, and effrontery and +cunning, the rivals who act unfairly, and the keen competition of the +literary market," his companion said resignedly. "What is a first +loss, if only your work was good?" + +"Will you look at mine and give me your opinion?" asked Lucien. + +"So be it," said d'Arthez. "I am living in the Rue des Quatre-Vents. +Desplein, one of the most illustrious men of genius in our time, the +greatest surgeon that the world has known, once endured the martyrdom +of early struggles with the first difficulties of a glorious career in +the same house. I think of that every night, and the thought gives me +the stock of courage that I need every morning. I am living in the +very room where, like Rousseau, he had no Theresa. Come in an hour's +time. I shall be in." + +The poets grasped each other's hands with a rush of melancholy and +tender feeling inexpressible in words, and went their separate ways; +Lucien to fetch his manuscript, Daniel d'Arthez to pawn his watch and +buy a couple of faggots. The weather was cold, and his new-found +friend should find a fire in his room. + +Lucien was punctual. He noticed at once that the house was of an even +poorer class than the Hotel de Cluny. A staircase gradually became +visible at the further end of a dark passage; he mounted to the fifth +floor, and found d'Arthez's room. + +A bookcase of dark-stained wood, with rows of labeled cardboard cases +on the shelves, stood between the two crazy windows. A gaunt, painted +wooden bedstead, of the kind seen in school dormitories, a +night-table, picked up cheaply somewhere, and a couple of horsehair +armchairs, filled the further end of the room. The wall-paper, a +Highland plaid pattern, was glazed over with the grime of years. +Between the window and the grate stood a long table littered with +papers, and opposite the fireplace there was a cheap mahogany chest of +drawers. A second-hand carpet covered the floor--a necessary luxury, +for it saved firing. A common office armchair, cushioned with leather, +crimson once, but now hoary with wear, was drawn up to the table. Add +half-a-dozen rickety chairs, and you have a complete list of the +furniture. Lucien noticed an old-fashioned candle-sconce for a +card-table, with an adjustable screen attached, and wondered to see +four wax candles in the sockets. D'Arthez explained that he could not +endure the smell of tallow, a little trait denoting great delicacy of +sense perception, and the exquisite sensibility which accompanies it. + +The reading lasted for seven hours. Daniel listened conscientiously, +forbearing to interrupt by word or comment--one of the rarest proofs +of good taste in a listener. + +"Well?" queried Lucien, laying the manuscript on the chimney-piece. + +"You have made a good start on the right way," d'Arthez answered +judicially, "but you must go over your work again. You must strike out +a different style for yourself if you do not mean to ape Sir Walter +Scott, for you have taken him for your model. You begin, for instance, +as he begins, with long conversations to introduce your characters, +and only when they have said their say does description and action +follow. + +"This opposition, necessary in all work of a dramatic kind, comes +last. Just put the terms of the problem the other way round. Give +descriptions, to which our language lends itself so admirably, instead +of diffuse dialogue, magnificent in Scott's work, but colorless in +your own. Lead naturally up to your dialogue. Plunge straight into the +action. Treat your subject from different points of view, sometimes in +a side-light, sometimes retrospectively; vary your methods, in fact, +to diversify your work. You may be original while adapting the Scots +novelist's form of dramatic dialogue to French history. There is no +passion in Scott's novels; he ignores passion, or perhaps it was +interdicted by the hypocritical manners of his country. Woman for him +is duty incarnate. His heroines, with possibly one or two exceptions, +are all alike; he has drawn them all from the same model, as painters +say. They are, every one of them, descended from Clarissa Harlowe. And +returning continually, as he did, to the same idea of woman, how could +he do otherwise than produce a single type, varied only by degrees of +vividness in the coloring? Woman brings confusion into Society through +passion. Passion gives infinite possibilities. Therefore depict +passion; you have one great resource open to you, foregone by the +great genius for the sake of providing family reading for prudish +England. In France you have the charming sinner, the brightly-colored +life of Catholicism, contrasted with sombre Calvinistic figures on a +background of the times when passions ran higher than at any other +period of our history. + +"Every epoch which has left authentic records since the time of +Charles the Great calls for at least one romance. Some require four or +five; the periods of Louis XIV., of Henry IV., of Francis I., for +instance. You would give us in this way a picturesque history of +France, with the costumes and furniture, the houses and their +interiors, and domestic life, giving us the spirit of the time instead +of a laborious narration of ascertained facts. Then there is further +scope for originality. You can remove some of the popular delusions +which disfigure the memories of most of our kings. Be bold enough in +this first work of yours to rehabilitate the great magnificent figure +of Catherine, whom you have sacrificed to the prejudices which still +cloud her name. And finally, paint Charles IX. for us as he really +was, and not as Protestant writers have made him. Ten years of +persistent work, and fame and fortune will be yours." + +By this time it was nine o'clock; Lucien followed the example set in +secret by his future friend by asking him to dine at Eldon's, and +spent twelve francs at that restaurant. During the dinner Daniel +admitted Lucien into the secret of his hopes and studies. Daniel +d'Arthez would not allow that any writer could attain to a pre-eminent +rank without a profound knowledge of metaphysics. He was engaged in +ransacking the spoils of ancient and modern philosophy, and in the +assimilation of it all; he would be like Moliere, a profound +philosopher first, and a writer of comedies afterwards. He was +studying the world of books and the living world about him--thought +and fact. His friends were learned naturalists, young doctors of +medicine, political writers and artists, a number of earnest students +full of promise. + +D'Arthez earned a living by conscientious and ill-paid work; he wrote +articles for encyclopaedias, dictionaries of biography and natural +science, doing just enough to enable him to live while he followed his +own bent, and neither more nor less. He had a piece of imaginative +work on hand, undertaken solely for the sake of studying the resources +of language, an important psychological study in the form of a novel, +unfinished as yet, for d'Arthez took it up or laid it down as the +humor took him, and kept it for days of great distress. D'Arthez's +revelations of himself were made very simply, but to Lucien he seemed +like an intellectual giant; and by eleven o'clock, when they left the +restaurant, he began to feel a sudden, warm friendship for this +nature, unconscious of its loftiness, this unostentatious worth. + +Lucien took d'Arthez's advice unquestioningly, and followed it out to +the letter. The most magnificent palaces of fancy had been suddenly +flung open to him by a nobly-gifted mind, matured already by thought +and critical examinations undertaken for their own sake, not for +publication, but for the solitary thinker's own satisfaction. The +burning coal had been laid on the lips of the poet of Angouleme, a +word uttered by a hard student in Paris had fallen upon ground +prepared to receive it in the provincial. Lucien set about recasting +his work. + +In his gladness at finding in the wilderness of Paris a nature +abounding in generous and sympathetic feeling, the distinguished +provincial did, as all young creatures hungering for affection are +wont to do; he fastened, like a chronic disease, upon this one friend +that he had found. He called for D'Arthez on his way to the +Bibliotheque, walked with him on fine days in the Luxembourg Gardens, +and went with his friend every evening as far as the door of his +lodging-house after sitting next to him at Flicoteaux's. He pressed +close to his friend's side as a soldier might keep by a comrade on the +frozen Russian plains. + +During those early days of his acquaintance, he noticed, not without +chagrin, that his presence imposed a certain restraint on the circle +of Daniel's intimates. The talk of those superior beings of whom +d'Arthez spoke to him with such concentrated enthusiasm kept within +the bounds of a reserve but little in keeping with the evident warmth +of their friendships. At these times Lucien discreetly took his leave, +a feeling of curiosity mingling with the sense of something like pain +at the ostracism to which he was subjected by these strangers, who all +addressed each other by their Christian names. Each one of them, like +d'Arthez, bore the stamp of genius upon his forehead. + +After some private opposition, overcome by d'Arthez without Lucien's +knowledge, the newcomer was at length judged worthy to make one of the +_cenacle_ of lofty thinkers. Henceforward he was to be one of a little +group of young men who met almost every evening in d'Arthez's room, +united by the keenest sympathies and by the earnestness of their +intellectual life. They all foresaw a great writer in d'Arthez; they +looked upon him as their chief since the loss of one of their number, +a mystical genius, one of the most extraordinary intellects of the +age. This former leader had gone back to his province for reasons on +which it serves no purpose to enter, but Lucien often heard them speak +of this absent friend as "Louis." Several of the group were destined +to fall by the way; but others, like d'Arthez, have since won all the +fame that was their due. A few details as to the circle will readily +explain Lucien's strong feeling of interest and curiosity. + +One among those who still survive was Horace Bianchon, then a +house-student at the Hotel-Dieu; later, a shining light at the Ecole +de Paris, and now so well known that it is needless to give any +description of his appearance, genius, or character. + +Next came Leon Giraud, that profound philosopher and bold theorist, +turning all systems inside out, criticising, expressing, and +formulating, dragging them all to the feet of his idol--Humanity; +great even in his errors, for his honesty ennobled his mistakes. An +intrepid toiler, a conscientious scholar, he became the acknowledged +head of a school of moralists and politicians. Time alone can +pronounce upon the merits of his theories; but if his convictions have +drawn him into paths in which none of his old comrades tread, none the +less he is still their faithful friend. + +Art was represented by Joseph Bridau, one of the best painters among +the younger men. But for a too impressionable nature, which made havoc +of Joseph's heart, he might have continued the traditions of the great +Italian masters, though, for that matter, the last word has not yet +been said concerning him. He combines Roman outline with Venetian +color; but love is fatal to his work, love not merely transfixes his +heart, but sends his arrow through the brain, deranges the course of +his life, and sets the victim describing the strangest zigzags. If the +mistress of the moment is too kind or too cruel, Joseph will send into +the Exhibition sketches where the drawing is clogged with color, or +pictures finished under the stress of some imaginary woe, in which he +gave his whole attention to the drawing, and left the color to take +care of itself. He is a constant disappointment to his friends and the +public; yet Hoffmann would have worshiped him for his daring +experiments in the realms of art. When Bridau is wholly himself he is +admirable, and as praise is sweet to him, his disgust is great when +one praises the failures in which he alone discovers all that is +lacking in the eyes of the public. He is whimsical to the last degree. +His friends have seen him destroy a finished picture because, in his +eyes, it looked too smooth. "It is overdone," he would say; "it is +niggling work." + +With his eccentric, yet lofty nature, with a nervous organization and +all that it entails of torment and delight, the craving for perfection +becomes morbid. Intellectually he is akin to Sterne, though he is not +a literary worker. There is an indescribable piquancy about his +epigrams and sallies of thought. He is eloquent, he knows how to love, +but the uncertainty that appears in his execution is a part of the +very nature of the man. The brotherhood loved him for the very +qualities which the philistine would style defects. + +Last among the living comes Fulgence Ridal. No writer of our times +possesses more of the exuberant spirit of pure comedy than this poet, +careless of fame, who will fling his more commonplace productions to +theatrical managers, and keep the most charming scenes in the seraglio +of his brain for himself and his friends. Of the public he asks just +sufficient to secure his independence, and then declines to do +anything more. Indolent and prolific as Rossini, compelled, like great +poet-comedians, like Moliere and Rabelais, to see both sides of +everything, and all that is to be said both for and against, he is a +sceptic, ready to laugh at all things. Fulgence Ridal is a great +practical philosopher. His worldly wisdom, his genius for observation, +his contempt for fame ("fuss," as he calls it) have not seared a kind +heart. He is as energetic on behalf of another as he is careless where +his own interests are concerned; and if he bestirs himself, it is for +a friend. Living up to his Rabelaisian mask, he is no enemy to good +cheer, though he never goes out of his way to find it; he is +melancholy and gay. His friends dubbed him the "Dog of the Regiment." +You could have no better portrait of the man than his nickname. + +Three more of the band, at least as remarkable as the friends who have +just been sketched in outline, were destined to fall by the way. Of +these, Meyraux was the first. Meyraux died after stirring up the +famous controversy between Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a great +question which divided the whole scientific world into two opposite +camps, with these two men of equal genius as leaders. This befell some +months before the death of the champion of rigorous analytical science +as opposed to the pantheism of one who is still living to bear an +honored name in Germany. Meyraux was the friend of that "Louis" of +whom death was so soon to rob the intellectual world. + +With these two, both marked by death, and unknown to-day in spite of +their wide knowledge and their genius, stands a third, Michel +Chrestien, the great Republican thinker, who dreamed of European +Federation, and had no small share in bringing about the +Saint-Simonian movement of 1830. A politician of the calibre of +Saint-Just and Danton, but simple, meek as a maid, and brimful of +illusions and loving-kindness; the owner of a singing voice which +would have sent Mozart, or Weber, or Rossini into ecstasies, for his +singing of certain songs of Beranger's could intoxicate the heart in +you with poetry, or hope, or love--Michel Chrestien, poor as Lucien, +poor as Daniel d'Arthez, as all the rest of his friends, gained a +living with the haphazard indifference of a Diogenes. He indexed +lengthy works, he drew up prospectuses for booksellers, and kept his +doctrines to himself, as the grave keeps the secrets of the dead. Yet +the gay bohemian of intellectual life, the great statesman who might +have changed the face of the world, fell as a private soldier in the +cloister of Saint-Merri; some shopkeeper's bullet struck down one of +the noblest creatures that ever trod French soil, and Michel Chrestien +died for other doctrines than his own. His Federation scheme was more +dangerous to the aristocracy of Europe than the Republican propaganda; +it was more feasible and less extravagant than the hideous doctrines +of indefinite liberty proclaimed by the young madcaps who assume the +character of heirs of the Convention. All who knew the noble plebeian +wept for him; there is not one of them but remembers, and often +remembers, a great obscure politician. + +Esteem and friendship kept the peace between the extremes of hostile +opinion and conviction represented in the brotherhood. Daniel d'Arthez +came of a good family in Picardy. His belief in the Monarchy was quite +as strong as Michel Chrestien's faith in European Federation. Fulgence +Ridal scoffed at Leon Giraud's philosophical doctrines, while Giraud +himself prophesied for d'Arthez's benefit the approaching end of +Christianity and the extinction of the institution of the family. +Michel Chrestien, a believer in the religion of Christ, the divine +lawgiver, who taught the equality of men, would defend the immortality +of the soul from Bianchon's scalpel, for Horace Bianchon was before +all things an analyst. + +There was plenty of discussion, but no bickering. Vanity was not +engaged, for the speakers were also the audience. They would talk over +their work among themselves and take counsel of each other with the +delightful openness of youth. If the matter in hand was serious, the +opponent would leave his own position to enter into his friend's point +of view; and being an impartial judge in a matter outside his own +sphere, would prove the better helper; envy, the hideous treasure of +disappointment, abortive talent, failure, and mortified vanity, was +quite unknown among them. All of them, moreover, were going their +separate ways. For these reasons, Lucien and others admitted to their +society felt at their ease in it. Wherever you find real talent, you +will find frank good fellowship and sincerity, and no sort of +pretension, the wit that caresses the intellect and never is aimed at +self-love. + +When the first nervousness, caused by respect, wore off, it was +unspeakably pleasant to make one of this elect company of youth. +Familiarity did not exclude in each a consciousness of his own value, +nor a profound esteem for his neighbor; and finally, as every member +of the circle felt that he could afford to receive or to give, no one +made a difficulty of accepting. Talk was unflagging, full of charm, +and ranging over the most varied topics; words light as arrows sped to +the mark. There was a strange contrast between the dire material +poverty in which the young men lived and the splendor of their +intellectual wealth. They looked upon the practical problems of +existence simply as matter for friendly jokes. The cold weather +happened to set in early that year. Five of d'Arthez's friends +appeared one day, each concealing firewood under his cloak; the same +idea had occurred to the five, as it sometimes happens that all the +guests at a picnic are inspired with the notion of bringing a pie as +their contribution. + +All of them were gifted with the moral beauty which reacts upon the +physical form, and, no less than work and vigils, overlays a youthful +face with a shade of divine gold; purity of life and the fire of +thought had brought refinement and regularity into features somewhat +pinched and rugged. The poet's amplitude of brow was a striking +characteristic common to them all; the bright, sparkling eyes told of +cleanliness of life. The hardships of penury, when they were felt at +all, were born so gaily and embraced with such enthusiasm, that they +had left no trace to mar the serenity peculiar to the faces of the +young who have no grave errors laid to their charge as yet, who have +not stooped to any of the base compromises wrung from impatience of +poverty by the strong desire to succeed. The temptation to use any +means to this end is the greater since that men of letters are lenient +with bad faith and extend an easy indulgence to treachery. + +There is an element in friendship which doubles its charm and renders +it indissoluble--a sense of certainty which is lacking in love. These +young men were sure of themselves and of each other; the enemy of one +was the enemy of all; the most urgent personal considerations would +have been shattered if they had clashed with the sacred solidarity of +their fellowship. All alike incapable of disloyalty, they could oppose +a formidable No to any accusation brought against the absent and +defend them with perfect confidence. With a like nobility of nature +and strength of feeling, it was possible to think and speak freely on +all matters of intellectual or scientific interest; hence the honesty +of their friendships, the gaiety of their talk, and with this +intellectual freedom of the community there was no fear of being +misunderstood; they stood upon no ceremony with each other; they +shared their troubles and joys, and gave thought and sympathy from +full hearts. The charming delicacy of feeling which makes the tale of +_Deux Amis_ a treasury for great souls, was the rule of their daily +life. It may be imagined, therefore, that their standard of +requirements was not an easy one; they were too conscious of their +worth, too well aware of their happiness, to care to trouble their +life with the admixture of a new and unknown element. + +This federation of interests and affection lasted for twenty years +without a collision or disappointment. Death alone could thin the +numbers of the noble Pleiades, taking first Louis Lambert, later +Meyraux and Michel Chrestien. + +When Michel Chrestien fell in 1832 his friends went, in spite of the +perils of the step, to find his body at Saint-Merri; and Horace +Bianchon, Daniel d'Arthez, Leon Giraud, Joseph Bridau, and Fulgence +Ridal performed the last duties to the dead, between two political +fires. By night they buried their beloved in the cemetery of +Pere-Lachaise; Horace Bianchon, undaunted by the difficulties, cleared +them away one after another--it was he indeed who besought the +authorities for permission to bury the fallen insurgent and confessed +to his old friendship with the dead Federalist. The little group of +friends present at the funeral with those five great men will never +forget that touching scene. + +As you walk in the trim cemetery you will see a grave purchased in +perpetuity, a grass-covered mound with a dark wooden cross above it, +and the name in large red letters--MICHEL CHRESTIEN. There is no other +monument like it. The friends thought to pay a tribute to the sternly +simple nature of the man by the simplicity of the record of his death. + +So, in that chilly garret, the fairest dreams of friendship were +realized. These men were brothers leading lives of intellectual +effort, loyally helping each other, making no reservations, not even +of their worst thoughts; men of vast acquirements, natures tried in +the crucible of poverty. Once admitted as an equal among such elect +souls, Lucien represented beauty and poetry. They admired the sonnets +which he read to them; they would ask him for a sonnet as he would ask +Michel Chrestien for a song. And, in the desert of Paris, Lucien found +an oasis in the Rue des Quatre-Vents. + +At the beginning of October, Lucien had spent the last of his money on +a little firewood; he was half-way through the task of recasting his +work, the most strenuous of all toil, and he was penniless. As for +Daniel d'Arthez, burning blocks of spent tan, and facing poverty like +a hero, not a word of complaint came from him; he was as sober as any +elderly spinster, and methodical as a miser. This courage called out +Lucien's courage; he had only newly come into the circle, and shrank +with invincible repugnance from speaking of his straits. One morning +he went out, manuscript in hand, and reached the Rue du Coq; he would +sell _The Archer of Charles IX._ to Doguereau; but Doguereau was out. +Lucien little knew how indulgent great natures can be to the +weaknesses of others. Every one of the friends had thought of the +peculiar troubles besetting the poetic temperament, of the prostration +which follows upon the struggle, when the soul has been overwrought by +the contemplation of that nature which it is the task of art to +reproduce. And strong as they were to endure their own ills, they felt +keenly for Lucien's distress; they guessed that his stock of money was +failing; and after all the pleasant evenings spent in friendly talk +and deep meditations, after the poetry, the confidences, the bold +flights over the fields of thought or into the far future of the +nations, yet another trait was to prove how little Lucien had +understood these new friends of his. + +"Lucien, dear fellow," said Daniel, "you did not dine at Flicoteaux's +yesterday, and we know why." + +Lucien could not keep back the overflowing tears. + +"You showed a want of confidence in us," said Michel Chrestien; "we +shall chalk that up over the chimney, and when we have scored ten we +will----" + +"We have all of us found a bit of extra work," said Bianchon; "for my +own part, I have been looking after a rich patient for Desplein; +d'Arthez has written an article for the _Revue Encyclopedique_; +Chrestien thought of going out to sing in the Champs Elysees of an +evening with a pocket-handkerchief and four candles, but he found a +pamphlet to write instead for a man who has a mind to go into +politics, and gave his employer six hundred francs worth of +Machiavelli; Leon Giraud borrowed fifty francs of his publisher, +Joseph sold one or two sketches; and Fulgence's piece was given on +Sunday, and there was a full house." + +"Here are two hundred francs," said Daniel, "and let us say no more +about it." + +"Why, if he is not going to hug us all as if we had done something +extraordinary!" cried Chrestien. + +Lucien, meanwhile, had written to the home circle. His letter was a +masterpiece of sensibility and goodwill, as well as a sharp cry wrung +from him by distress. The answers which he received the next day will +give some idea of the delight that Lucien took in this living +encyclopedia of angelic spirits, each of whom bore the stamp of the +art or science which he followed:-- + + + _David Sechard to Lucien._ + + "MY DEAR LUCIEN,--Enclosed herewith is a bill at ninety days, + payable to your order, for two hundred francs. You can draw on M. + Metivier, paper merchant, our Paris correspondent in the Rue + Serpente. My good Lucien, we have absolutely nothing. Eve has + undertaken the charge of the printing-house, and works at her task + with such devotion, patience, and industry, that I bless heaven + for giving me such an angel for a wife. She herself says that it + is impossible to send you the least help. But I think, my friend + now that you are started in so promising a way, with such great + and noble hearts for your companions, that you can hardly fail to + reach the greatness to which you were born, aided as you are by + intelligence almost divine in Daniel d'Arthez and Michel Chrestien + and Leon Giraud, and counseled by Meyraux and Bianchon and Ridal, + whom we have come to know through your dear letter. So I have + drawn this bill without Eve's knowledge, and I will contrive + somehow to meet it when the time comes. Keep on your way, Lucien; + it is rough, but it will be glorious. I can bear anything but the + thought of you sinking into the sloughs of Paris, of which I saw + so much. Have sufficient strength of mind to do as you are doing, + and keep out of scrapes and bad company, wild young fellows and + men of letters of a certain stamp, whom I learned to take at their + just valuation when I lived in Paris. Be a worthy compeer of the + divine spirits whom we have learned to love through you. Your life + will soon meet with its reward. Farewell, dearest brother; you + have sent transports of joy to my heart. I did not expect such + courage of you. + +"DAVID." + + + _Eve Sechard to Lucien._ + + "DEAR,--your letter made all of us cry. As for the noble hearts to + whom your good angel surely led you, tell them that a mother and a + poor young wife will pray for them night and morning; and if the + most fervent prayers can reach the Throne of God, surely they will + bring blessings upon you all. Their names are engraved upon my + heart. Ah! some day I shall see your friends; I will go to Paris, + if I have to walk the whole way, to thank them for their + friendship for you, for to me the thought has been like balm to + smarting wounds. We are working like day laborers here, dear. This + husband of mine, the unknown great man whom I love more and more + every day, as I discover moment by moment the wealth of his + nature, leaves the printing-house more and more to me. Why, I + guess. Our poverty, yours, and ours, and our mother's, is + heartbreaking to him. Our adored David is a Prometheus gnawed by a + vulture, a haggard, sharp-beaked regret. As for himself, noble + fellow, he scarcely thinks of himself; he is hoping to make a + fortune for _us_. He spends his whole time in experiments in + paper-making; he begged me to take his place and look after the + business, and gives me as much help as his preoccupation allows. + Alas! I shall be a mother soon. That should have been a crowning + joy; but as things are, it saddens me. Poor mother! she has grown + young again; she has found strength to go back to her tiring + nursing. We should be happy if it were not for these money cares. + Old Father Sechard will not give his son a farthing. David went + over to see if he could borrow a little for you, for we were in + despair over your letter. 'I know Lucien,' David said; 'he will + lose his head and do something rash.'--I gave him a good scolding. + 'My brother disappoint us in any way!' I told him, 'Lucien knows + that I should die of sorrow.'--Mother and I have pawned a few + things; David does not know about it, mother will redeem them as + soon as she has made a little money. In this way we have managed + to put together a hundred francs, which I am sending you by the + coach. If I did not answer your last letter, do not remember it + against me, dear; we were working all night just then. I have been + working like a man. Oh, I had no idea that I was so strong! + + "Mme. de Bargeton is a heartless woman; she has no soul; even if + she cared for you no longer, she owed it to herself to use her + influence for you and to help you when she had torn you from us to + plunge you into that dreadful sea of Paris. Only by the special + blessing of Heaven could you have met with true friends there + among those crowds of men and innumerable interests. She is not + worth a regret. I used to wish that there might be some devoted + woman always with you, a second myself; but now I know that your + friends will take my place, and I am happy. Spread your wings, my + dear great genius, you will be our pride as well as our beloved. + +"EVE." + + + "My darling," the mother wrote, "I can only add my blessing to all + that your sister says, and assure you that you are more in my + thoughts and in my prayers (alas!) than those whom I see daily; + for some hearts, the absent are always in the right, and so it is + with the heart of your mother." + + +So two days after the loan was offered so graciously, Lucien repaid +it. Perhaps life had never seemed so bright to him as at that moment; +but the touch of self-love in his joy did not escape the delicate +sensibility and searching eyes of his friends. + +"Any one might think that you were afraid to owe us anything," +exclaimed Fulgence. + +"Oh! the pleasure that he takes in returning the money is a very +serious symptom to my mind," said Michel Chrestien. "It confirms some +observations of my own. There is a spice of vanity in Lucien." + +"He is a poet," said d'Arthez. + +"But do you grudge me such a very natural feeling?" asked Lucien. + +"We should bear in mind that he did not hide it," said Leon Giraud; +"he is still open with us; but I am afraid that he may come to feel +shy of us." + +"And why?" Lucien asked. + +"We can read your thoughts," answered Joseph Bridau. + +"There is a diabolical spirit in you that will seek to justify courses +which are utterly contrary to our principles. Instead of being a +sophist in theory, you will be a sophist in practice." + +"Ah! I am afraid of that," said d'Arthez. "You will carry on admirable +debates in your own mind, Lucien, and take up a lofty position in +theory, and end by blameworthy actions. You will never be at one with +yourself." + +"What ground have you for these charges?" + +"Thy vanity, dear poet, is so great that it intrudes itself even into +thy friendships!" cried Fulgence. "All vanity of that sort is a +symptom of shocking egoism, and egoism poisons friendship." + +"Oh! dear," said Lucien, "you cannot know how much I love you all." + +"If you loved us as we love you, would you have been in such a hurry +to return the money which we had such pleasure in lending? or have +made so much of it?" + +"We don't lend here; we give," said Joseph Bridau roughly. + +"Don't think us unkind, dear boy," said Michel Chrestien; "we are +looking forward. We are afraid lest some day you may prefer a petty +revenge to the joys of pure friendship. Read Goethe's _Tasso_, the great +master's greatest work, and you will see how the poet-hero loved +gorgeous stuffs and banquets and triumph and applause. Very well, be +Tasso without his folly. Perhaps the world and its pleasures tempt +you? Stay with us. Carry all the cravings of vanity into the world of +imagination. Transpose folly. Keep virtue for daily wear, and let +imagination run riot, instead of doing, as d'Arthez says, thinking +high thoughts and living beneath them." + +Lucien hung his head. His friends were right. + +"I confess that you are stronger than I," he said, with a charming +glance at them. "My back and shoulders are not made to bear the burden +of Paris life; I cannot struggle bravely. We are born with different +temperaments and faculties, and you know better than I that faults and +virtues have their reverse side. I am tired already, I confess." + +"We will stand by you," said d'Arthez; "it is just in these ways that +a faithful friendship is of use." + +"The help that I have just received is precarious, and every one of us +is just as poor as another; want will soon overtake me again. +Chrestien, at the service of the first that hires him, can do nothing +with the publishers; Bianchon is quite out of it; d'Arthez's +booksellers only deal in scientific and technical books--they have no +connection with publishers of new literature; and as for Horace and +Fulgence Ridal and Bridau, their work lies miles away from the +booksellers. There is no help for it; I must make up my mind one way +or another." + +"Stick by us, and make up your mind to it," said Bianchon. "Bear up +bravely, and trust in hard work." + +"But what is hardship for you is death for me," Lucien put in quickly. + +"Before the cock crows thrice," smiled Leon Giraud, "this man will +betray the cause of work for an idle life and the vices of Paris." + +"Where has work brought you?" asked Lucien, laughing. + +"When you start out from Paris for Italy, you don't find Rome +half-way," said Joseph Bridau. "You want your pease to grow ready +buttered for you." + +The conversation ended in a joke, and they changed the subject. +Lucien's friends, with their perspicacity and delicacy of heart, tried +to efface the memory of the little quarrel; but Lucien knew +thenceforward that it was no easy matter to deceive them. He soon fell +into despair, which he was careful to hide from such stern mentors as +he imagined them to be; and the Southern temper that runs so easily +through the whole gamut of mental dispositions, set him making the +most contradictory resolutions. + +Again and again he talked of making the plunge into journalism; and +time after time did his friends reply with a "Mind you do nothing of +the sort!" + +"It would be the tomb of the beautiful, gracious Lucien whom we love +and know," said d'Arthez. + +"You would not hold out for long between the two extremes of toil and +pleasure which make up a journalist's life, and resistance is the very +foundation of virtue. You would be so delighted to exercise your power +of life and death over the offspring of the brain, that you would be +an out-and-out journalist in two months' time. To be a journalist +--that is to turn Herod in the republic of letters. The man who will +say anything will end by sticking at nothing. That was Napoleon's +maxim, and it explains itself." + +"But you would be with me, would you not?" asked Lucien. + +"Not by that time," said Fulgence. "If you were a journalist, you +would no more think of us than the Opera girl in all her glory, with +her adorers and her silk-lined carriage, thinks of the village at home +and her cows and her sabots. You could never resist the temptation to +pen a witticism, though it should bring tears to a friend's eyes. I +come across journalists in theatre lobbies; it makes me shudder to see +them. Journalism is an inferno, a bottomless pit of iniquity and +treachery and lies; no one can traverse it undefiled, unless, like +Dante, he is protected by Virgil's sacred laurel." + +But the more the set of friends opposed the idea of journalism, the +more Lucien's desire to know its perils grew and tempted him. He began +to debate within his own mind; was it not ridiculous to allow want to +find him a second time defenceless? He bethought him of the failure of +his attempts to dispose of his first novel, and felt but little +tempted to begin a second. How, besides, was he to live while he was +writing another romance? One month of privation had exhausted his +stock of patience. Why should he not do nobly that which journalists +did ignobly and without principle? His friends insulted him with their +doubts; he would convince them of his strength of mind. Some day, +perhaps, he would be of use to them; he would be the herald of their +fame! + +"And what sort of a friendship is it which recoils from complicity?" +demanded he one evening of Michel Chrestien; Lucien and Leon Giraud +were walking home with their friend. + +"We shrink from nothing," Michel Chrestien made reply. "If you were so +unlucky as to kill your mistress, I would help you to hide your crime, +and could still respect you; but if you were to turn spy, I should +shun you with abhorrence, for a spy is systematically shameless and +base. There you have journalism summed up in a sentence. Friendship +can pardon error and the hasty impulse of passion; it is bound to be +inexorable when a man deliberately traffics in his own soul, and +intellect, and opinions." + +"Why cannot I turn journalist to sell my volume of poetry and the +novel, and then give up at once?" + +"Machiavelli might do so, but not Lucien de Rubempre," said Leon +Giraud. + +"Very well," exclaimed Lucien; "I will show you that I can do as much +as Machiavelli." + +"Oh!" cried Michel, grasping Leon's hand, "you have done it, Leon. +--Lucien," he continued, "you have three hundred francs in hand; you +can live comfortably for three months; very well, then, work hard and +write another romance. D'Arthez and Fulgence will help you with the +plot; you will improve, you will be a novelist. And I, meanwhile, will +enter one of those _lupanars_ of thought; for three months I will be a +journalist. I will sell your books to some bookseller or other by +attacking his publications; I will write the articles myself; I will +get others for you. We will organize a success; you shall be a great +man, and still remain our Lucien." + +"You must despise me very much, if you think that I should perish +while you escape," said the poet. + +"O Lord, forgive him; it is a child!" cried Michel Chrestien. + + + +When Lucien's intellect had been stimulated by the evenings spent in +d'Arthez's garret, he had made some study of the jokes and articles in +the smaller newspapers. He was at least the equal, he felt, of the +wittiest contributors; in private he tried some mental gymnastics of +the kind, and went out one morning with the triumphant idea of finding +some colonel of such light skirmishers of the press and enlisting in +their ranks. He dressed in his best and crossed the bridges, thinking +as he went that authors, journalists, and men of letters, his future +comrades, in short, would show him rather more kindness and +disinterestedness than the two species of booksellers who had so +dashed his hopes. He should meet with fellow-feeling, and something of +the kindly and grateful affection which he found in the _cenacle_ of the +Rue des Quatre-Vents. Tormented by emotion, consequent upon the +presentiments to which men of imagination cling so fondly, half +believing, half battling with their belief in them, he arrived in the +Rue Saint-Fiacre off the Boulevard Montmartre. Before a house, +occupied by the offices of a small newspaper, he stopped, and at the +sight of it his heart began to throb as heavily as the pulses of a +youth upon the threshold of some evil haunt. + +Nevertheless, upstairs he went, and found the offices in the low +_entresol_ between the ground floor and the first story. The first room +was divided down the middle by a partition, the lower half of solid +wood, the upper lattice work to the ceiling. In this apartment Lucien +discovered a one-armed pensioner supporting several reams of paper on +his head with his remaining hand, while between his teeth he held the +passbook which the Inland Revenue Department requires every newspaper +to produce with each issue. This ill-favored individual, owner of a +yellow countenance covered with red excrescences, to which he owed his +nickname of "Coloquinte," indicated a personage behind the lattice as +the Cerberus of the paper. This was an elderly officer with a medal on +his chest and a silk skull-cap on his head; his nose was almost hidden +by a pair of grizzled moustaches, and his person was hidden as +completely in an ample blue overcoat as the body of the turtle in its +carapace. + +"From what date do you wish your subscription to commence, sir?" +inquired the Emperor's officer. + +"I did not come about a subscription," returned Lucien. Looking about +him, he saw a placard fastened on a door, corresponding to the one by +which he had entered, and read the words--EDITOR'S OFFICE, and below, +in smaller letters, _No admittance except on business_. + +"A complaint, I expect?" replied the veteran. "Ah! yes; we have been +hard on Mariette. What would you have? I don't know the why and +wherefore of it yet.--But if you want satisfaction, I am ready for +you," he added, glancing at a collection of small arms and foils +stacked in a corner, the armory of the modern warrior. + +"That was still further from my intention, sir. I have come to speak +to the editor." + +"Nobody is ever here before four o'clock." + +"Look you here, Giroudeau, old chap," remarked a voice, "I make it +eleven columns; eleven columns at five francs apiece is fifty-five +francs, and I have only been paid forty; so you owe me another fifteen +francs, as I have been telling you." + +These words proceeded from a little weasel-face, pallid and +semi-transparent as the half-boiled white of an egg; two slits of eyes +looked out of it, mild blue in tint, but appallingly malignant in +expression; and the owner, an insignificant young man, was completely +hidden by the veteran's opaque person. It was a blood-curdling voice, +a sound between the mewing of a cat and the wheezy chokings of a +hyena. + +"Yes, yes, my little militiaman," retorted he of the medal, "but you +are counting the headings and white lines. I have Finot's instructions +to add up the totals of the lines, and to divide them by the proper +number for each column; and after I performed that concentrating +operation on your copy, there were three columns less." + +"He doesn't pay for the blanks, the Jew! He reckons them in though +when he sends up the total of his work to his partner, and he gets +paid for them too. I will go and see Etienne Lousteau, Vernou----" + +"I cannot go beyond my orders, my boy," said the veteran. "What! do +you cry out against your foster-mother for a matter of fifteen francs? +you that turn out an article as easily as I smoke a cigar. Fifteen +francs! why, you will give a bowl of punch to your friends, or win an +extra game of billiards, and there's an end of it!" + +"Finot's savings will cost him very dear," said the contributor as he +took his departure. + +"Now, would not anybody think that he was Rousseau and Voltaire rolled +in one?" the cashier remarked to himself as he glanced at Lucien. + +"I will come in again at four, sir," said Lucien. + +While the argument proceeded, Lucien had been looking about him. He +saw upon the walls the portraits of Benjamin Constant, General Foy, +and the seventeen illustrious orators of the Left, interspersed with +caricatures at the expense of the Government; but he looked more +particularly at the door of the sanctuary where, no doubt, the paper +was elaborated, the witty paper that amused him daily, and enjoyed the +privilege of ridiculing kings and the most portentous events, of +calling anything and everything in question with a jest. Then he +sauntered along the boulevards. It was an entirely novel amusement; +and so agreeable did he find it, that, looking at the turret clocks, +he saw the hour hands were pointing to four, and only then remembered +that he had not breakfasted. + +He went at once in the direction of the Rue Saint-Fiacre, climbed the +stair, and opened the door. + +The veteran officer was absent; but the old pensioner, sitting on a +pile of stamped papers, was munching a crust and acting as sentinel +resignedly. Coloquinte was as much accustomed to his work in the +office as to the fatigue duty of former days, understanding as much or +as little about it as the why and wherefore of forced marches made by +the Emperor's orders. Lucien was inspired with the bold idea of +deceiving that formidable functionary. He settled his hat on his head, +and walked into the editor's office as if he were quite at home. + +Looking eagerly about him, he beheld a round table covered with a +green cloth, and half-a-dozen cherry-wood chairs, newly reseated with +straw. The colored brick floor had not been waxed, but it was clean; +so clean that the public, evidently, seldom entered the room. There +was a mirror above the chimney-piece, and on the ledge below, amid a +sprinkling of visiting-cards, stood a shopkeeper's clock, smothered +with dust, and a couple of candlesticks with tallow dips thrust into +their sockets. A few antique newspapers lay on the table beside an +inkstand containing some black lacquer-like substance, and a +collection of quill pens twisted into stars. Sundry dirty scraps of +paper, covered with almost undecipherable hieroglyphs, proved to be +manuscript articles torn across the top by the compositor to check off +the sheets as they were set up. He admired a few rather clever +caricatures, sketched on bits of brown paper by somebody who evidently +had tried to kill time by killing something else to keep his hand in. + +Other works of art were pinned in the cheap sea-green wall-paper. +These consisted of nine pen-and-ink illustrations for _Le Solitaire_. +The work had attained to such an unheard-of European popularity, that +journalists evidently were tired of it.--"The Solitary makes his first +appearance in the provinces; sensation among the women.--The Solitary +perused at a chateau.--Effect of the Solitary on domestic animals. +--The Solitary explained to savage tribes, with the most brilliant +results.--The Solitary translated into Chinese and presented by the +author to the Emperor at Pekin.--The Mont Sauvage, Rape of Elodie." +--(Lucien though this caricature very shocking, but he could not help +laughing at it.)--"The Solitary under a canopy conducted in triumphal +procession by the newspapers.--The Solitary breaks the press to +splinters, and wounds the printers.--Read backwards, the superior +beauties of the Solitary produce a sensation at the Academie."--On a +newspaper-wrapper Lucien noticed a sketch of a contributor holding out +his hat, and beneath it the words, "Finot! my hundred francs," and a +name, since grown more notorious than famous. + +Between the window and the chimney-piece stood a writing-table, a +mahogany armchair, and a waste-paper basket on a strip of hearth-rug; +the dust lay thick on all these objects. There were short curtains in +the windows. About a score of new books lay on the writing-table, +deposited there apparently during the day, together with prints, +music, snuff-boxes of the "Charter" pattern, a copy of the ninth +edition of _Le Solitaire_ (the great joke of the moment), and some ten +unopened letters. + +Lucien had taken stock of this strange furniture, and made reflections +of the most exhaustive kind upon it, when, the clock striking five, he +returned to question the pensioner. Coloquinte had finished his crust, +and was waiting with the patience of a commissionaire, for the man of +medals, who perhaps was taking an airing on the boulevard. + +At this conjuncture the rustle of a dress sounded on the stair, and +the light unmistakable footstep of a woman on the threshold. The +newcomer was passably pretty. She addressed herself to Lucien. + +"Sir," she said, "I know why you cry up Mlle. Virginie's hats so much; +and I have come to put down my name for a year's subscription in the +first place; but tell me your conditions----" + +"I am not connected with the paper, madame." + +"Oh!" + +"A subscription dating from October?" inquired the pensioner. + +"What does the lady want to know?" asked the veteran, reappearing on +the scene. + +The fair milliner and the retired military man were soon deep in +converse; and when Lucien, beginning to lose patience, came back to +the first room, he heard the conclusion of the matter. + +"Why, I shall be delighted, quite delighted, sir. Mlle. Florentine can +come to my shop and choose anything she likes. Ribbons are in my +department. So it is all quite settled. You will say no more about +Virginie, a botcher that cannot design a new shape, while I have ideas +of my own, I have." + +Lucien heard a sound as of coins dropping into a cashbox, and the +veteran began to make up his books for the day. + +"I have been waiting here for an hour, sir," Lucien began, looking not +a little annoyed. + +"And 'they' have not come yet!" exclaimed Napoleon's veteran, civilly +feigning concern. "I am not surprised at that. It is some time since I +have seen 'them' here. It is the middle of the month, you see. Those +fine fellows only turn up on pay days--the 29th or the 30th." + +"And M. Finot?" asked Lucien, having caught the editor's name. + +"He is in the Rue Feydeau, that's where he lives. Coloquinte, old +chap, just take him everything that has come in to-day when you go +with the paper to the printers." + +"Where is the newspaper put together?" Lucien said to himself. + +"The newspaper?" repeated the officer, as he received the rest of the +stamp money from Coloquinte, "the newspaper?--broum! broum!--(Mind you +are round at the printers' by six o'clock to-morrow, old chap, to send +off the porters.)--The newspaper, sir, is written in the street, at +the writers' houses, in the printing-office between eleven and twelve +o'clock at night. In the Emperor's time, sir, these shops for spoiled +paper were not known. Oh! he would have cleared them out with four men +and a corporal; they would not have come over _him_ with their talk. But +that is enough of prattling. If my nephew finds it worth his while, +and so long as they write for the son of the Other (broum! broum!) +----after all, there is no harm in that. Ah! by the way, subscribers +don't seem to me to be advancing in serried columns; I shall leave my +post." + +"You seem to know all about the newspaper, sir," Lucien began. + +"From a business point of view, broum! broum!" coughed the soldier, +clearing his throat. "From three to five francs per column, according +to ability.--Fifty lines to a column, forty letters to a line; no +blanks; there you are! As for the staff, they are queer fish, little +youngsters whom I wouldn't take on for the commissariat; and because +they make fly tracks on sheets of white paper, they look down, +forsooth, on an old Captain of Dragoons of the Guard, that retired +with a major's rank after entering every European capital with +Napoleon." + +The soldier of Napoleon brushed his coat, and made as if he would go +out, but Lucien, swept to the door, had courage enough to make a +stand. + +"I came to be a contributor of the paper," he said. "I am full of +respect, I vow and declare, for a captain of the Imperial Guard, those +men of bronze----" + +"Well said, my little civilian, there are several kinds of +contributors; which kind do you wish to be?" replied the trooper, +bearing down on Lucien, and descending the stairs. At the foot of the +flight he stopped, but it was only to light a cigar at the porter's +box. + +"If any subscribers come, you see them and take note of them, Mother +Chollet.--Simply subscribers, never know anything but subscribers," he +added, seeing that Lucien followed him. "Finot is my nephew; he is the +only one of my family that has done anything to relieve me in my +position. So when anybody comes to pick a quarrel with Finot, he finds +old Giroudeau, Captain of the Dragoons of the Guard, that set out as a +private in a cavalry regiment in the army of the Sambre-et-Meuse, and +was fencing-master for five years to the First Hussars, army of Italy! +One, two, and the man that had any complaints to make would be turned +off into the dark," he added, making a lunge. "Now writers, my boy, +are in different corps; there is the writer who writes and draws his +pay; there is the writer who writes and gets nothing (a volunteer we +call him); and, lastly, there is the writer who writes nothing, and he +is by no means the stupidest, for he makes no mistakes; he gives +himself out for a literary man, he is on the paper, he treats us to +dinners, he loafs about the theatres, he keeps an actress, he is very +well off. What do you mean to be?" + +"The man that does good work and gets good pay." + +"You are like the recruits. They all want to be marshals of France. +Take old Giroudeau's word for it, and turn right about, in +double-quick time, and go and pick up nails in the gutter like that +good fellow yonder; you can tell by the look of him that he has been +in the army.--Isn't it a shame that an old soldier who has walked into +the jaws of death hundreds of times should be picking up old iron in +the streets of Paris? Ah! God A'mighty! 'twas a shabby trick to desert +the Emperor.--Well, my boy, the individual you saw this morning has +made his forty francs a month. Are you going to do better? And, +according to Finot, he is the cleverest man on the staff." + +"When you enlisted in the Sambre-et-Meuse, did they talk about +danger?" + +"Rather." + +"Very well?" + +"Very well. Go and see my nephew Finot, a good fellow, as good a +fellow as you will find, if you can find him, that is, for he is like +a fish, always on the move. In his way of business, there is no +writing, you see, it is setting others to write. That sort like +gallivanting about with actresses better than scribbling on sheets of +paper, it seems. Oh! they are queer customers, they are. Hope I may +have the honor of seeing you again." + +With that the cashier raised his formidable loaded cane, one of the +defenders of Germainicus, and walked off, leaving Lucien in the +street, as much bewildered by this picture of the newspaper world as +he had formerly been by the practical aspects of literature at Messrs. +Vidal and Porchon's establishment. + +Ten several times did Lucien repair to the Rue Feydeau in search of +Andoche Finot, and ten times he failed to find that gentleman. He went +first thing in the morning; Finot had not come in. At noon, Finot had +gone out; he was breakfasting at such and such a cafe. At the cafe, in +answer to inquiries of the waitress, made after surmounting +unspeakable repugnance, Lucien heard that Finot had just left the +place. Lucien, at length tired out, began to regard Finot as a +mythical and fabulous character; it appeared simpler to waylay Etienne +Lousteau at Flicoteaux's. That youthful journalist would, doubtless, +explain the mysteries that enveloped the paper for which he wrote. + +Since the day, a hundred times blessed, when Lucien made the +acquaintance of Daniel d'Arthez, he had taken another seat at +Flicoteaux's. The two friends dined side by side, talking in lowered +voices of the higher literature, of suggested subjects, and ways of +presenting, opening up, and developing them. At the present time +Daniel d'Arthez was correcting the manuscript of _The Archer of Charles +IX._ He reconstructed whole chapters, and wrote the fine passages found +therein, as well as the magnificent preface, which is, perhaps, the +best thing in the book, and throws so much light on the work of the +young school of literature. One day it so happened that Daniel had +been waiting for Lucien, who now sat with his friend's hand in his +own, when he saw Etienne Lousteau turn the door-handle. Lucien +instantly dropped Daniel's hand, and told the waiter that he would +dine at his old place by the counter. D'Arthez gave Lucien a glance of +divine kindness, in which reproach was wrapped in forgiveness. The +glance cut the poet to the quick; he took Daniel's hand and grasped it +anew. + +"It is an important question of business for me; I will tell you about +it afterwards," said he. + +Lucien was in his old place by the time that Lousteau reached the +table; as the first comer, he greeted his acquaintance; they soon +struck up a conversation, which grew so lively that Lucien went off in +search of the manuscript of the _Marguerites_, while Lousteau finished +his dinner. He had obtained leave to lay his sonnets before the +journalist, and mistook the civility of the latter for willingness to +find him a publisher, or a place on the paper. When Lucien came +hurrying back again, he saw d'Arthez resting an elbow on the table in +a corner of the restaurant, and knew that his friend was watching him +with melancholy eyes, but he would not see d'Arthez just then; he felt +the sharp pangs of poverty, the goadings of ambition, and followed +Lousteau. + +In the late afternoon the journalist and the neophyte went to the +Luxembourg, and sat down under the trees in that part of the gardens +which lies between the broad Avenue de l'Observatoire and the Rue de +l'Ouest. The Rue de l'Ouest at that time was a long morass, bounded by +planks and market-gardens; the houses were all at the end nearest the +Rue de Vaugirard; and the walk through the gardens was so little +frequented, that at the hour when Paris dines, two lovers might fall +out and exchange the earnest of reconciliation without fear of +intruders. The only possible spoil-sport was the pensioner on duty at +the little iron gate on the Rue de l'Ouest, if that gray-headed +veteran should take it into his head to lengthen his monotonous beat. +There, on a bench beneath the lime-trees, Etienne Lousteau sat and +listened to sample-sonnets from the _Marguerites_. + +Etienne Lousteau, after a two-years' apprenticeship, was on the staff +of a newspaper; he had his foot in the stirrup; he reckoned some of +the celebrities of the day among his friends; altogether, he was an +imposing personage in Lucien's eyes. Wherefore, while Lucien untied +the string about the _Marguerites_, he judged it necessary to make some +sort of preface. + +"The sonnet, monsieur," said he, "is one of the most difficult forms +of poetry. It has fallen almost entirely into disuse. No Frenchman can +hope to rival Petrarch; for the language in which the Italian wrote, +being so infinitely more pliant than French, lends itself to play of +thought which our positivism (pardon the use of the expression) +rejects. So it seemed to me that a volume of sonnets would be +something quite new. Victor Hugo has appropriated the old, Canalis +writes lighter verse, Beranger has monopolized songs, Casimir +Delavigne has taken tragedy, and Lamartine the poetry of meditation." + +"Are you a 'Classic' or a 'Romantic'?" inquired Lousteau. + +Lucien's astonishment betrayed such complete ignorance of the state of +affairs in the republic of letters, that Lousteau thought it necessary +to enlighten him. + +"You have come up in the middle of a pitched battle, my dear fellow; +you must make your decision at once. Literature is divided, in the +first place, into several zones, but our great men are ranged in two +hostile camps. The Royalists are 'Romantics,' the Liberals are +'Classics.' The divergence of taste in matters literary and divergence +of political opinion coincide; and the result is a war with weapons of +every sort, double-edged witticisms, subtle calumnies and nicknames _a +outrance_, between the rising and the waning glory, and ink is shed in +torrents. The odd part of it is that the Royalist-Romantics are all +for liberty in literature, and for repealing laws and conventions; +while the Liberal-Classics are for maintaining the unities, the +Alexandrine, and the classical theme. So opinions in politics on +either side are directly at variance with literary taste. If you are +eclectic, you will have no one for you. Which side do you take?" + +"Which is the winning side?" + +"The Liberal newspapers have far more subscribers than the Royalist +and Ministerial journals; still, though Canalis is for Church and +King, and patronized by the Court and the clergy, he reaches other +readers.--Pshaw! sonnets date back to an epoch before Boileau's time," +said Etienne, seeing Lucien's dismay at the prospect of choosing +between two banners. "Be a Romantic. The Romantics are young men, and +the Classics are pedants; the Romantics will gain the day." + +The word "pedant" was the latest epithet taken up by Romantic +journalism to heap confusion on the Classical faction. + +Lucien began to read, choosing first of all the title-sonnets. + + + EASTER DAISIES. + + The daisies in the meadows, not in vain, + In red and white and gold before our eyes, + Have written an idyll for man's sympathies, + And set his heart's desire in language plain. + + Gold stamens set in silver filigrane + Reveal the treasures which we idolize; + And all the cost of struggle for the prize + Is symboled by a secret blood-red stain. + + Was it because your petals once uncurled + When Jesus rose upon a fairer world, + And from wings shaken for a heav'nward flight + Shed grace, that still as autumn reappears + You bloom again to tell of dead delight, + To bring us back the flower of twenty years? + + +Lucien felt piqued by Lousteau's complete indifference during the +reading of the sonnet; he was unfamiliar as yet with the disconcerting +impassibility of the professional critic, wearied by much reading of +poetry, prose, and plays. Lucien was accustomed to applause. He choked +down his disappointment and read another, a favorite with Mme. de +Bargeton and with some of his friends in the Rue des Quatre-Vents. + +"This one, perhaps, will draw a word from him," he thought. + + + THE MARGUERITE. + + I am the Marguerite, fair and tall I grew + In velvet meadows, 'mid the flowers a star. + They sought me for my beauty near and far; + My dawn, I thought, should be for ever new. + But now an all unwished-for gift I rue, + A fatal ray of knowledge shed to mar + My radiant star-crown grown oracular, + For I must speak and give an answer true. + An end of silence and of quiet days, + The Lover with two words my counsel prays; + And when my secret from my heart is reft, + When all my silver petals scattered lie, + I am the only flower neglected left, + Cast down and trodden under foot to die. + + +At the end, the poet looked up at his Aristarchus. Etienne Lousteau +was gazing at the trees in the Pepiniere. + +"Well?" asked Lucien. + +"Well, my dear fellow, go on! I am listening to you, am I not? That +fact in itself is as good as praise in Paris." + +"Have you had enough?" Lucien asked. + +"Go on," the other answered abruptly enough. + +Lucien proceeded to read the following sonnet, but his heart was dead +within him; Lousteau's inscrutable composure froze his utterance. If +he had come a little further upon the road, he would have known that +between writer and writer silence or abrupt speech, under such +circumstances, is a betrayal of jealousy, and outspoken admiration +means a sense of relief over the discovery that the work is not above +the average after all. + + + THE CAMELLIA. + + In Nature's book, if rightly understood, + The rose means love, and red for beauty glows; + A pure, sweet spirit in the violet blows, + And bright the lily gleams in lowlihood. + + But this strange bloom, by sun and wind unwooed, + Seems to expand and blossom 'mid the snows, + A lily sceptreless, a scentless rose, + For dainty listlessness of maidenhood. + + Yet at the opera house the petals trace + For modesty a fitting aureole; + An alabaster wreath to lay, methought, + In dusky hair o'er some fair woman's face + Which kindles ev'n such love within the soul + As sculptured marble forms by Phidias wrought. + + +"What do you think of my poor sonnets?" Lucien asked, coming straight +to the point. + +"Do you want the truth?" + +"I am young enough to like the truth, and so anxious to succeed that I +can hear it without taking offence, but not without despair," replied +Lucien. + +"Well, my dear fellow, the first sonnet, from its involved style, was +evidently written at Angouleme; it gave you so much trouble, no doubt, +that you cannot give it up. The second and third smack of Paris +already; but read us one more sonnet," he added, with a gesture that +seemed charming to the provincial. + +Encouraged by the request, Lucien read with more confidence, choosing +a sonnet which d'Arthez and Bridau liked best, perhaps on account of +its color. + + + THE TULIP. + + I am the Tulip from Batavia's shore; + The thrifty Fleming for my beauty rare + Pays a king's ransom, when that I am fair, + And tall, and straight, and pure my petal's core. + + And, like some Yolande of the days of yore, + My long and amply folded skirts I wear, + O'er-painted with the blazon that I bear + --Gules, a fess azure; purpure, fretty, or. + + The fingers of the Gardener divine + Have woven for me my vesture fair and fine, + Of threads of sunlight and of purple stain; + No flower so glorious in the garden bed, + But Nature, woe is me, no fragrance shed + Within my cup of Orient porcelain. + + +"Well?" asked Lucien after a pause, immeasurably long, as it seemed to +him. + +"My dear fellow," Etienne said, gravely surveying the tips of Lucien's +boots (he had brought the pair from Angouleme, and was wearing them +out). "My dear fellow, I strongly recommend you to put your ink on +your boots to save blacking, and to take your pens for toothpicks, so +that when you come away from Flicoteaux's you can swagger along this +picturesque alley looking as if you had dined. Get a situation of any +sort or description. Run errands for a bailiff if you have the heart, +be a shopman if your back is strong enough, enlist if you happen to +have a taste for military music. You have the stuff of three poets in +you; but before you can reach your public, you will have time to die +of starvation six times over, if you intend to live on the proceeds of +your poetry, that is. And from your too unsophisticated discourse, it +would seem to be your intention to coin money out of your inkstand. + +"I say nothing as to your verses; they are a good deal better than all +the poetical wares that are cumbering the ground in booksellers' +backshops just now. Elegant 'nightingales' of that sort cost a little +more than the others, because they are printed on hand-made paper, but +they nearly all of them come down at last to the banks of the Seine. +You may study their range of notes there any day if you care to make +an instructive pilgrimage along the Quais from old Jerome's stall by +the Pont Notre Dame to the Pont Royal. You will find them all there +--all the _Essays in Verse_, the _Inspirations_, the lofty flights, +the hymns, and songs, and ballads, and odes; all the nestfuls hatched +during the last seven years, in fact. There lie their muses, thick +with dust, bespattered by every passing cab, at the mercy of every +profane hand that turns them over to look at the vignette on the +title-page. + +"You know nobody; you have access to no newspaper, so your _Marguerites_ +will remain demurely folded as you hold them now. They will never open +out to the sun of publicity in fair fields with broad margins enameled +with the florets which Dauriat the illustrious, the king of the Wooden +Galleries, scatters with a lavish hand for poets known to fame. I came +to Paris as you came, poor boy, with a plentiful stock of illusions, +impelled by irrepressible longings for glory--and I found the +realities of the craft, the practical difficulties of the trade, the +hard facts of poverty. In my enthusiasm (it is kept well under control +now), my first ebullition of youthful spirits, I did not see the +social machinery at work; so I had to learn to see it by bumping +against the wheels and bruising myself against the shafts, and chains. +Now you are about to learn, as I learned, that between you and all +these fair dreamed-of things lies the strife of men, and passions, and +necessities. + +"Willy-nilly, you must take part in a terrible battle; book against +book, man against man, party against party; make war you must, and +that systematically, or you will be abandoned by your own party. And +they are mean contests; struggles which leave you disenchanted, and +wearied, and depraved, and all in pure waste; for it often happens +that you put forth all your strength to win laurels for a man whom you +despise, and maintain, in spite of yourself, that some second-rate +writer is a genius. + +"There is a world behind the scenes in the theatre of literature. The +public in front sees unexpected or well-deserved success, and +applauds; the public does _not_ see the preparations, ugly as they +always are, the painted supers, the _claqueurs_ hired to applaud, the +stage carpenters, and all that lies behind the scenes. You are still +among the audience. Abdicate, there is still time, before you set your +foot on the lowest step of the throne for which so many ambitious +spirits are contending, and do not sell your honor, as I do, for a +livelihood." Etienne's eyes filled with tears as he spoke. + +"Do you know how I make a living?" he continued passionately. "The +little stock of money they gave me at home was soon eaten up. A piece +of mine was accepted at the Theatre-Francais just as I came to an end +of it. At the Theatre-Francais the influence of a first gentleman of +the bedchamber, or of a prince of the blood, would not be enough to +secure a turn of favor; the actors only make concessions to those who +threaten their self-love. If it is in your power to spread a report +that the _jeune premier_ has the asthma, the leading lady a fistula +where you please, and the soubrette has foul breath, then your piece +would be played to-morrow. I do not know whether in two years' time, I +who speak to you now, shall be in a position to exercise such power. +You need so many to back you. And where and how am I to gain my bread +meanwhile? + +"I tried lots of things; I wrote a novel, anonymously; old Doguereau +gave me two hundred francs for it, and he did not make very much out +of it himself. Then it grew plain to me that journalism alone could +give me a living. The next thing was to find my way into those shops. +I will not tell you all the advances I made, nor how often I begged in +vain. I will say nothing of the six months I spent as extra hand on a +paper, and was told that I scared subscribers away, when as a fact I +attracted them. Pass over the insults I put up with. At this moment I +am doing the plays at the Boulevard theatres, almost _gratis_, for a +paper belonging to Finot, that stout young fellow who breakfasts two +or three times a month, even now, at the Cafe Voltaire (but you don't +go there). I live by selling tickets that managers give me to bribe a +good word in the paper, and reviewers' copies of books. In short, +Finot once satisfied, I am allowed to write for and against various +commercial articles, and I traffic in tribute paid in kind by various +tradesmen. A facetious notice of a Carminative Toilet Lotion, _Pate des +Sultanes_, Cephalic Oil, or Brazilian Mixture brings me in twenty or +thirty francs. + +"I am obliged to dun the publishers when they don't send in a +sufficient number of reviewers' copies; Finot, as editor, appropriates +two and sells them, and I must have two to sell. If a book of capital +importance comes out, and the publisher is stingy with copies, his +life is made a burden to him. The craft is vile, but I live by it, and +so do scores of others. Do not imagine that things are any better in +public life. There is corruption everywhere in both regions; every man +is corrupt or corrupts others. If there is any publishing enterprise +somewhat larger than usual afoot, the trade will pay me something to +buy neutrality. The amount of my income varies, therefore, directly +with the prospectuses. When prospectuses break out like a rash, money +pours into my pockets; I stand treat all round. When trade is dull, I +dine at Flicoteaux's. + +"Actresses will pay you likewise for praise, but the wiser among them +pay for criticism. To be passed over in silence is what they dread the +most; and the very best thing of all, from their point of view, is +criticism which draws down a reply; it is far more effectual than bald +praise, forgotten as soon as read, and it costs more in consequence. +Celebrity, my dear fellow, is based upon controversy. I am a hired +bravo; I ply my trade among ideas and reputations, commercial, +literary, and dramatic; I make some fifty crowns a month; I can sell a +novel for five hundred francs; and I am beginning to be looked upon as +a man to be feared. Some day, instead of living with Florine at the +expense of a druggist who gives himself the airs of a lord, I shall be +in a house of my own; I shall be on the staff of a leading newspaper, +I shall have a _feuilleton_; and on that day, my dear fellow, Florine +will become a great actress. As for me, I am not sure what I shall be +when that time comes, a minister or an honest man--all things are +still possible." + +He raised his humiliated head, and looked out at the green leaves, +with an expression of despairing self-condemnation dreadful to see. + +"And I had a great tragedy accepted!" he went on. "And among my papers +there is a poem, which will die. And I was a good fellow, and my heart +was clean! I used to dream lofty dreams of love for great ladies, +queens in the great world; and--my mistress is an actress at the +Panorama-Dramatique. And lastly, if a bookseller declines to send a +copy of a book to my paper, I will run down work which is good, as I +know." + +Lucien was moved to tears, and he grasped Etienne's hand in his. The +journalist rose to his feet, and the pair went up and down the broad +Avenue de l'Observatoire, as if their lungs craved ampler breathing +space. + +"Outside the world of letters," Etienne Lousteau continued, "not a +single creature suspects that every one who succeeds in that world +--who has a certain vogue, that is to say, or comes into fashion, or +gains reputation, or renown, or fame, or favor with the public (for by +these names we know the rungs of the ladder by which we climb to the +higher heights above and beyond them),--every one who comes even thus +far is the hero of a dreadful Odyssey. Brilliant portents rise above +the mental horizon through a combination of a thousand accidents; +conditions change so swiftly that no two men have been known to reach +success by the same road. Canalis and Nathan are two dissimilar cases; +things never fall out in the same way twice. There is d'Arthez, who +knocks himself to pieces with work--he will make a famous name by some +other chance. + +"This so much desired reputation is nearly always crowned +prostitution. Yes; the poorest kind of literature is the hapless +creature freezing at the street corner; second-rate literature is the +kept-mistress picked out of the brothels of journalism, and I am her +bully; lastly, there is lucky literature, the flaunting, insolent +courtesan who has a house of her own and pays taxes, who receives +great lords, treating or ill-treating them as she pleases, who has +liveried servants and a carriage, and can afford to keep greedy +creditors waiting. Ah! and for yet others, for me not so very long +ago, for you to-day--she is a white-robed angel with many-colored +wings, bearing a green palm branch in the one hand, and in the other a +flaming sword. An angel, something akin to the mythological +abstraction which lives at the bottom of a well, and to the poor and +honest girl who lives a life of exile in the outskirts of the great +city, earning every penny with a noble fortitude and in the full light +of virtue, returning to heaven inviolate of body and soul; unless, +indeed, she comes to lie at the last, soiled, despoiled, polluted, and +forgotten, on a pauper's bier. As for the men whose brains are +encompassed with bronze, whose hearts are still warm under the snows +of experience, they are found but seldom in the country that lies at +our feet," he added, pointing to the great city seething in the late +afternoon light. + +A vision of d'Arthez and his friends flashed upon Lucien's sight, and +made appeal to him for a moment; but Lousteau's appalling lamentation +carried him away. + +"They are very few and far between in that great fermenting vat; rare +as love in love-making, rare as fortunes honestly made in business, +rare as the journalist whose hands are clean. The experience of the +first man who told me all that I am telling you was thrown away upon +me, and mine no doubt will be wasted upon you. It is always the same +old story year after year; the same eager rush to Paris from the +provinces; the same, not to say a growing, number of beardless, +ambitious boys, who advance, head erect, and the heart that Princess +Tourandocte of the _Mille et un Jours_--each one of them fain to be her +Prince Calaf. But never a one of them reads the riddle. One by one +they drop, some into the trench where failures lie, some into the mire +of journalism, some again into the quagmires of the book-trade. + +"They pick up a living, these beggars, what with biographical notices, +penny-a-lining, and scraps of news for the papers. They become +booksellers' hacks for the clear-headed dealers in printed paper, who +would sooner take the rubbish that goes off in a fortnight than a +masterpiece which requires time to sell. The life is crushed out of +the grubs before they reach the butterfly stage. They live by shame +and dishonor. They are ready to write down a rising genius or to +praise him to the skies at a word from the pasha of the +_Constitutionnel_, the _Quotidienne_, or the _Debats_, at a sign from a +publisher, at the request of a jealous comrade, or (as not seldom +happens) simply for a dinner. Some surmount the obstacles, and these +forget the misery of their early days. I, who am telling you this, +have been putting the best that is in me into newspaper articles for +six months past for a blackguard who gives them out as his own and has +secured a _feuilleton_ in another paper on the strength of them. He has +not taken me on as his collaborator, he has not give me so much as a +five-franc piece, but I hold out a hand to grasp his when we meet; I +cannot help myself." + +"And why?" Lucien, asked, indignantly. + +"I may want to put a dozen lines into his _feuilleton_ some day," +Lousteau answered coolly. "In short, my dear fellow, in literature you +will not make money by hard work, that is not the secret of success; +the point is to exploit the work of somebody else. A newspaper +proprietor is a contractor, we are the bricklayers. The more mediocre +the man, the better his chance of getting on among mediocrities; he +can play the toad-eater, put up with any treatment, and flatter all +the little base passions of the sultans of literature. There is Hector +Merlin, who came from Limoges a short time ago; he is writing +political articles already for a Right Centre daily, and he is at work +on our little paper as well. I have seen an editor drop his hat and +Merlin pick it up. The fellow was careful never to give offence, and +slipped into the thick of the fight between rival ambitions. I am +sorry for you. It is as if I saw in you the self that I used to be, +and sure am I that in one or two years' time you will be what I am +now.--You will think that there is some lurking jealousy or personal +motive in this bitter counsel, but it is prompted by the despair of a +damned soul that can never leave hell.--No one ventures to utter such +things as these. You hear the groans of anguish from a man wounded to +the heart, crying like a second Job from the ashes, 'Behold my +sores!'" + +"But whether I fight upon this field or elsewhere, fight I must," said +Lucien. + +"Then, be sure of this," returned Lousteau, "if you have anything in +you, the war will know no truce, the best chance of success lies in an +empty head. The austerity of your conscience, clear as yet, will relax +when you see that a man holds your future in his two hands, when a +word from such a man means life to you, and he will not say that word. +For, believe me, the most brutal bookseller in the trade is not so +insolent, so hard-hearted to a newcomer as the celebrity of the day. +The bookseller sees a possible loss of money, while the writer of +books dreads a possible rival; the first shows you the door, the +second crushes the life out of you. To do really good work, my boy, +means that you will draw out the energy, sap, and tenderness of your +nature at every dip of the pen in the ink, to set it forth for the +world in passion and sentiment and phrases. Yes; instead of acting, +you will write; you will sing songs instead of fighting; you will love +and hate and live in your books; and then, after all, when you shall +have reserved your riches for your style, your gold and purple for +your characters, and you yourself are walking the streets of Paris in +rags, rejoicing in that, rivaling the State Register, you have +authorized the existence of beings styled Adolphe, Corinne or +Clarissa, Rene or Manon; when you shall have spoiled your life and +your digestion to give life to that creation, then you shall see it +slandered, betrayed, sold, swept away into the back waters of oblivion +by journalists, and buried out of sight by your best friends. How can +you afford to wait until the day when your creation shall rise again, +raised from the dead--how? when? and by whom? Take a magnificent book, +the _pianto_ of unbelief; _Obermann_ is a solitary wanderer in the desert +places of booksellers' warehouses, he has been a 'nightingale,' +ironically so called, from the very beginning: when will his Easter +come? Who knows? Try, to begin with, to find somebody bold enough to +print the _Marguerites_; not to pay for them, but simply to print them; +and you will see some queer things." + +The fierce tirade, delivered in every tone of the passionate feeling +which it expressed, fell upon Lucien's spirit like an avalanche, and +left a sense of glacial cold. For one moment he stood silent; then, as +he felt the terrible stimulating charm of difficulty beginning to work +upon him, his courage blazed up. He grasped Lousteau's hand. + +"I will triumph!" he cried aloud. + +"Good!" said the other, "one more Christian given over to the wild +beasts in the arena.--There is a first-night performance at the +Panorama-Dramatique, my dear fellow; it doesn't begin till eight, so +you can change your coat, come properly dressed in fact, and call for +me. I am living on the fourth floor above the Cafe Servel, Rue de la +Harpe. We will go to Dauriat's first of all. You still mean to go on, +do you not? Very well, I will introduce you to one of the kings of the +trade to-night, and to one or two journalists. We will sup with my +mistress and several friends after the play, for you cannot count that +dinner as a meal. Finot will be there, editor and proprietor of my +paper. As Minette says in the Vaudeville (do you remember?), 'Time is +a great lean creature.' Well, for the like of us, Chance is a great +lean creature, and must be tempted." + +"I shall remember this day as long as I live," said Lucien. + +"Bring your manuscript with you, and be careful of your dress, not on +Florine's account, but for the booksellers' benefit." + +The comrade's good-nature, following upon the poet's passionate +outcry, as he described the war of letters, moved Lucien quite as +deeply as d'Arthez's grave and earnest words on a former occasion. The +prospect of entering at once upon the strife with men warmed him. In +his youth and inexperience he had no suspicion how real were the moral +evils denounced by the journalist. Nor did he know that he was +standing at the parting of two distinct ways, between two systems, +represented by the brotherhood upon one hand, and journalism upon the +other. The first way was long, honorable, and sure; the second beset +with hidden dangers, a perilous path, among muddy channels where +conscience is inevitably bespattered. The bent of Lucien's character +determined for the shorter way, and the apparently pleasanter way, and +to snatch at the quickest and promptest means. At this moment he saw +no difference between d'Arthez's noble friendship and Lousteau's easy +comaraderie; his inconstant mind discerned a new weapon in journalism; +he felt that he could wield it, so he wished to take it. + +He was dazzled by the offers of this new friend, who had struck a hand +in his in an easy way, which charmed Lucien. How should he know that +while every man in the army of the press needs friends, every leader +needs men. Lousteau, seeing that Lucien was resolute, enlisted him as +a recruit, and hoped to attach him to himself. The relative positions +of the two were similar--one hoped to become a corporal, the other to +enter the ranks. + +Lucien went back gaily to his lodgings. He was as careful over his +toilet as on that former unlucky occasion when he occupied the +Marquise d'Espard's box; but he had learned by this time how to wear +his clothes with a better grace. They looked as though they belonged +to him. He wore his best tightly-fitting, light-colored trousers, and +a dress-coat. His boots, a very elegant pair adorned with tassels, had +cost him forty francs. His thick, fine, golden hair was scented and +crimped into bright, rippling curls. Self-confidence and belief in his +future lighted up his forehead. He paid careful attention to his +almost feminine hands, the filbert nails were a spotless pink, and the +white contours of his chin were dazzling by contrast with a black +satin stock. Never did a more beautiful youth come down from the hills +of the Latin Quarter. + +Glorious as a Greek god, Lucien took a cab, and reached the Cafe +Servel at a quarter to seven. There the portress gave him some +tolerably complicated directions for the ascent of four pairs of +stairs. Provided with these instructions, he discovered, not without +difficulty, an open door at the end of a long, dark passage, and in +another moment made the acquaintance of the traditional room of the +Latin Quarter. + +A young man's poverty follows him wherever he goes--into the Rue de la +Harpe as into the Rue de Cluny, into d'Arthez's room, into Chrestien's +lodging; yet everywhere no less the poverty has its own peculiar +characteristics, due to the idiosyncrasies of the sufferer. Poverty in +this case wore a sinister look. + +A shabby, cheap carpet lay in wrinkles at the foot of a curtainless +walnut-wood bedstead; dingy curtains, begrimed with cigar smoke and +fumes from a smoky chimney, hung in the windows; a Carcel lamp, +Florine's gift, on the chimney-piece, had so far escaped the +pawnbroker. Add a forlorn-looking chest of drawers, and a table +littered with papers and disheveled quill pens, and the list of +furniture was almost complete. All the books had evidently arrived in +the course of the last twenty-four hours; and there was not a single +object of any value in the room. In one corner you beheld a collection +of crushed and flattened cigars, coiled pocket-handkerchiefs, shirts +which had been turned to do double duty, and cravats that had reached +a third edition; while a sordid array of old boots stood gaping in +another angle of the room among aged socks worn into lace. + +The room, in short, was a journalist's bivouac, filled with odds and +ends of no value, and the most curiously bare apartment imaginable. A +scarlet tinder-box glowed among a pile of books on the nightstand. A +brace of pistols, a box of cigars, and a stray razor lay upon the +mantel-shelf; a pair of foils, crossed under a wire mask, hung against +a panel. Three chairs and a couple of armchairs, scarcely fit for the +shabbiest lodging-house in the street, completed the inventory. + +The dirty, cheerless room told a tale of a restless life and a want of +self-respect; some one came hither to sleep and work at high pressure, +staying no longer than he could help, longing, while he remained, to +be out and away. What a difference between this cynical disorder and +d'Arthez's neat and self-respecting poverty! A warning came with the +thought of d'Arthez; but Lucien would not heed it, for Etienne made a +joking remark to cover the nakedness of a reckless life. + +"This is my kennel; I appear in state in the Rue de Bondy, in the new +apartments which our druggist has taken for Florine; we hold the +house-warming this evening." + +Etienne Lousteau wore black trousers and beautifully-varnished boots; +his coat was buttoned up to his chin; he probably meant to change his +linen at Florine's house, for his shirt collar was hidden by a velvet +stock. He was trying to renovate his hat by an application of the +brush. + +"Let us go," said Lucien. + +"Not yet. I am waiting for a bookseller to bring me some money; I have +not a farthing; there will be play, perhaps, and in any case I must +have gloves." + +As he spoke, the two new friends heard a man's step in the passage +outside. + +"There he is," said Lousteau. "Now you will see, my dear fellow, the +shape that Providence takes when he manifests himself to poets. You +are going to behold Dauriat, the fashionable bookseller of the Quai +des Augustins, the pawnbroker, the marine store dealer of the trade, +the Norman ex-greengrocer.--Come along, old Tartar!" shouted Lousteau. + +"Here am I," said a voice like a cracked bell. + +"Brought the money with you?" + +"Money? There is no money now in the trade," retorted the other, a +young man who eyed Lucien curiously. + +"_Imprimis_, you owe me fifty francs," Lousteau continued. + +"There are two copies of _Travels in Egypt_ here, a marvel, so they say, +swarming with woodcuts, sure to sell. Finot has been paid for two +reviews that I am to write for him. _Item_ two works, just out, by +Victor Ducange, a novelist highly thought of in the Marais. _Item_ a +couple of copies of a second work by Paul de Kock, a beginner in the +same style. _Item_ two copies of _Yseult of Dole_, a charming provincial +work. Total, one hundred francs, my little Barbet." + +Barbet made a close survey of edges and binding. + +"Oh! they are in perfect condition," cried Lousteau. "The _Travels_ are +uncut, so is the Paul de Kock, so is the Ducange, so is that other +thing on the chimney-piece, _Considerations on Symbolism_. I will throw +that in; myths weary me to that degree that I will let you have the +thing to spare myself the sight of the swarms of mites coming out of +it." + +"But," asked Lucien, "how are you going to write your reviews?" + +Barbet, in profound astonishment, stared at Lucien; then he looked at +Etienne and chuckled. + +"One can see that the gentleman has not the misfortune to be a +literary man," said he. + +"No, Barbet--no. He is a poet, a great poet; he is going to cut out +Canalis, and Beranger, and Delavigne. He will go a long way if he does +not throw himself into the river, and even so he will get as far as +the drag-nets at Saint-Cloud." + +"If I had any advice to give the gentleman," remarked Barbet, "it +would be to give up poetry and take to prose. Poetry is not wanted on +the Quais just now." + +Barbet's shabby overcoat was fastened by a single button; his collar +was greasy; he kept his hat on his head as he spoke; he wore low +shoes, an open waistcoat gave glimpses of a homely shirt of coarse +linen. Good-nature was not wanting in the round countenance, with its +two slits of covetous eyes; but there was likewise the vague +uneasiness habitual to those who have money to spend and hear constant +applications for it. Yet, to all appearance, he was plain-dealing and +easy-natured, his business shrewdness was so well wadded round with +fat. He had been an assistant until he took a wretched little shop on +the Quai des Augustins two years since, and issued thence on his +rounds among journalists, authors, and printers, buying up free copies +cheaply, making in such ways some ten or twenty francs daily. Now, he +had money saved; he knew instinctively where every man was pressed; he +had a keen eye for business. If an author was in difficulties, he +would discount a bill given by a publisher at fifteen or twenty per +cent; then the next day he would go to the publisher, haggle over the +price of some work in demand, and pay him with his own bills instead +of cash. Barbet was something of a scholar; he had had just enough +education to make him careful to steer clear of modern poetry and +modern romances. He had a liking for small speculations, for books of +a popular kind which might be bought outright for a thousand francs +and exploited at pleasure, such as the _Child's History of France_, +_Book-keeping in Twenty Lessons_, and _Botany for Young Ladies_. Two +or three times already he had allowed a good book to slip through his +fingers; the authors had come and gone a score of times while he +hesitated, and could not make up his mind to buy the manuscript. When +reproached for his pusillanimity, he was wont to produce the account +of a notorious trial taken from the newspapers; it cost him nothing, +and had brought him in two or three thousand francs. + +Barbet was the type of bookseller that goes in fear and trembling; +lives on bread and walnuts; rarely puts his name to a bill; filches +little profits on invoices; makes deductions, and hawks his books +about himself; heaven only knows where they go, but he sells them +somehow, and gets paid for them. Barbet was the terror of printers, +who could not tell what to make of him; he paid cash and took off the +discount; he nibbled at their invoices whenever he thought they were +pressed for money; and when he had fleeced a man once, he never went +back to him--he feared to be caught in his turn. + +"Well," said Lousteau, "shall we go on with our business?" + +"Eh! my boy," returned Barbet in a familiar tone; "I have six thousand +volumes of stock on hand at my place, and paper is not gold, as the +old bookseller said. Trade is dull." + +"If you went into his shop, my dear Lucien," said Etienne, turning to +his friend, "you would see an oak counter from some bankrupt wine +merchant's sale, and a tallow dip, never snuffed for fear it should +burn too quickly, making darkness visible. By that anomalous light you +descry rows of empty shelves with some difficulty. An urchin in a blue +blouse mounts guard over the emptiness, and blows his fingers, and +shuffles his feet, and slaps his chest, like a cabman on the box. Just +look about you! there are no more books there than I have here. Nobody +could guess what kind of shop he keeps." + +"Here is a bill at three months for a hundred francs," said Barbet, +and he could not help smiling as he drew it out of his pocket; "I will +take your old books off your hands. I can't pay cash any longer, you +see; sales are too slow. I thought that you would be wanting me; I had +not a penny, and I made a bill simply to oblige you, for I am not fond +of giving my signature." + +"So you want my thanks and esteem into the bargain, do you?" + +"Bills are not met with sentiment," responded Barbet; "but I will +accept your esteem, all the same." + +"But I want gloves, and the perfumers will be base enough to decline +your paper," said Lousteau. "Stop, there is a superb engraving in the +top drawer of the chest there, worth eighty francs, proof before +letters and after letterpress, for I have written a pretty droll +article upon it. There was something to lay hold of in _Hippocrates +refusing the Presents of Artaxerxes_. A fine engraving, eh? Just the +thing to suit all the doctors, who are refusing the extravagant gifts +of Parisian satraps. You will find two or three dozen novels +underneath it. Come, now, take the lot and give me forty francs." + +"_Forty francs_!" exclaimed the bookseller, emitting a cry like the +squall of a frightened fowl. "Twenty at the very most! And then I may +never see the money again," he added. + +"Where are your twenty francs?" asked Lousteau. + +"My word, I don't know that I have them," said Barbet, fumbling in his +pockets. "Here they are. You are plundering me; you have an ascendency +over me----" + +"Come, let us be off," said Lousteau, and taking up Lucien's +manuscript, he drew a line upon it in ink under the string. + +"Have you anything else?" asked Barbet. + +"Nothing, you young Shylock. I am going to put you in the way of a bit +of very good business," Etienne continued ("in which you shall lose a +thousand crowns, to teach you to rob me in this fashion"), he added +for Lucien's ear. + +"But how about your reviews?" said Lucien, as they rolled away to the +Palais Royal. + +"Pooh! you do not know how reviews are knocked off. As for the _Travels +in Egypt_, I looked into the book here and there (without cutting the +pages), and I found eleven slips in grammar. I shall say that the +writer may have mastered the dicky-bird language on the flints that +they call 'obelisks' out there in Egypt, but he cannot write in his +own, as I will prove to him in a column and a half. I shall say that +instead of giving us the natural history and archaeology, he ought to +have interested himself in the future of Egypt, in the progress of +civilization, and the best method of strengthening the bond between +Egypt and France. France has won and lost Egypt, but she may yet +attach the country to her interests by gaining a moral ascendency over +it. Then some patriotic penny-a-lining, interlarded with diatribes on +Marseilles, the Levant and our trade." + +"But suppose that he had taken that view, what would you do?" + +"Oh well, I should say that instead of boring us with politics, he +should have written about art, and described the picturesque aspects +of the country and the local color. Then the critic bewails himself. +Politics are intruded everywhere; we are weary of politics--politics +on all sides. I should regret those charming books of travel that +dwelt upon the difficulties of navigation, the fascination of steering +between two rocks, the delights of crossing the line, and all the +things that those who never will travel ought to know. Mingle this +approval with scoffing at the travelers who hail the appearance of a +bird or a flying-fish as a great event, who dilate upon fishing, and +make transcripts from the log. Where, you ask, is that perfectly +unintelligible scientific information, fascinating, like all that is +profound, mysterious, and incomprehensible. The reader laughs, that is +all that he wants. As for novels, Florine is the greatest novel reader +alive; she gives me a synopsis, and I take her opinion and put a +review together. When a novelist bores her with 'author's stuff,' as +she calls it, I treat the work respectfully, and ask the publisher for +another copy, which he sends forthwith, delighted to have a favorable +review." + +"Goodness! and what of criticism, the critic's sacred office?" cried +Lucien, remembering the ideas instilled into him by the brotherhood. + +"My dear fellow," said Lousteau, "criticism is a kind of brush which +must not be used upon flimsy stuff, or it carries it all away with it. +That is enough of the craft, now listen! Do you see that mark?" he +continued, pointing to the manuscript of the _Marguerites_. "I have put +ink on the string and paper. If Dauriat reads your manuscript, he +certainly could not tie the string and leave it just as it was before. +So your book is sealed, so to speak. This is not useless to you for +the experiment that you propose to make. And another thing: please to +observe that you are not arriving quite alone and without a sponsor in +the place, like the youngsters who make the round of half-a-score of +publishers before they find one that will offer them a chair." + +Lucien's experience confirmed the truth of this particular. Lousteau +paid the cabman, giving him three francs--a piece of prodigality +following upon such impecuniosity astonishing Lucien more than a +little. Then the two friends entered the Wooden Galleries, where +fashionable literature, as it is called, used to reign in state. + + + + PART II + +The Wooden Galleries of the Palais Royal used to be one of the most +famous sights of Paris. Some description of the squalid bazar will not +be out of place; for there are few men of forty who will not take an +interest in recollections of a state of things which will seem +incredible to a younger generation. + +The great dreary, spacious Galerie d'Orleans, that flowerless +hothouse, as yet was not; the space upon which it now stands was +covered with booths; or, to be more precise, with small, wooden dens, +pervious to the weather, and dimly illuminated on the side of the +court and the garden by borrowed lights styled windows by courtesy, +but more like the filthiest arrangements for obscuring daylight to be +found in little wineshops in the suburbs. + +The Galleries, parallel passages about twelve feet in height, were +formed by a triple row of shops. The centre row, giving back and front +upon the Galleries, was filled with the fetid atmosphere of the place, +and derived a dubious daylight through the invariably dirty windows of +the roof; but so thronged were these hives, that rents were +excessively high, and as much as a thousand crowns was paid for a +space scarce six feet by eight. The outer rows gave respectively upon +the garden and the court, and were covered on that side by a slight +trellis-work painted green, to protect the crazy plastered walls from +continual friction with the passers-by. In a few square feet of earth +at the back of the shops, strange freaks of vegetable life unknown to +science grew amid the products of various no less flourishing +industries. You beheld a rosebush capped with printed paper in such a +sort that the flowers of rhetoric were perfumed by the cankered +blossoms of that ill-kept, ill-smelling garden. Handbills and ribbon +streamers of every hue flaunted gaily among the leaves; natural +flowers competed unsuccessfully for an existence with odds and ends of +millinery. You discovered a knot of ribbon adorning a green tuft; the +dahlia admired afar proved on a nearer view to be a satin rosette. + +The Palais seen from the court or from the garden was a fantastic +sight, a grotesque combination of walls of plaster patchwork which had +once been whitewashed, of blistered paint, heterogeneous placards, and +all the most unaccountable freaks of Parisian squalor; the green +trellises were prodigiously the dingier for constant contact with a +Parisian public. So, upon either side, the fetid, disreputable +approaches might have been there for the express purpose of warning +away fastidious people; but fastidious folk no more recoiled before +these horrors than the prince in the fairy stories turns tail at sight +of the dragon or of the other obstacles put between him and the +princess by the wicked fairy. + +There was a passage through the centre of the Galleries then as now; +and, as at the present day, you entered them through the two +peristyles begun before the Revolution, and left unfinished for lack +of funds; but in place of the handsome modern arcade leading to the +Theatre-Francais, you passed along a narrow, disproportionately lofty +passage, so ill-roofed that the rain came through on wet days. All the +roofs of the hovels indeed were in very bad repair, and covered here +and again with a double thickness of tarpaulin. A famous silk mercer +once brought an action against the Orleans family for damages done in +the course of a night to his stock of shawls and stuffs, and gained +the day and a considerable sum. It was in this last-named passage, +called "The Glass Gallery" to distinguish it from the Wooden +Galleries, that Chevet laid the foundations of his fortunes. + +Here, in the Palais, you trod the natural soil of Paris, augmented by +importations brought in upon the boots of foot passengers; here, at +all seasons, you stumbled among hills and hollows of dried mud swept +daily by the shopman's besom, and only after some practice could you +walk at your ease. The treacherous mud-heaps, the window-panes +incrusted with deposits of dust and rain, the mean-looking hovels +covered with ragged placards, the grimy unfinished walls, the general +air of a compromise between a gypsy camp, the booths of a country +fair, and the temporary structures that we in Paris build round about +public monuments that remain unbuilt; the grotesque aspect of the mart +as a whole was in keeping with the seething traffic of various kinds +carried on within it; for here in this shameless, unblushing haunt, +amid wild mirth and a babel of talk, an immense amount of business was +transacted between the Revolution of 1789 and the Revolution of 1830. + +For twenty years the Bourse stood just opposite, on the ground floor +of the Palais. Public opinion was manufactured, and reputations made +and ruined here, just as political and financial jobs were arranged. +People made appointments to meet in the Galleries before or after +'Change; on showery days the Palais Royal was often crowded with +weather-bound capitalists and men of business. The structure which had +grown up, no one knew how, about this point was strangely resonant, +laughter was multiplied; if two men quarreled, the whole place rang +from one end to the other with the dispute. In the daytime milliners +and booksellers enjoyed a monopoly of the place; towards nightfall it +was filled with women of the town. Here dwelt poetry, politics, and +prose, new books and classics, the glories of ancient and modern +literature side by side with political intrigue and the tricks of the +bookseller's trade. Here all the very latest and newest literature +were sold to a public which resolutely decline to buy elsewhere. +Sometimes several thousand copies of such and such a pamphlet by +Paul-Louis Courier would be sold in a single evening; and people +crowded thither to buy _Les aventures de la fille d'un Roi_--that +first shot fired by the Orleanists at The Charter promulgated by +Louis XVIII. + +When Lucien made his first appearance in the Wooden Galleries, some +few of the shops boasted proper fronts and handsome windows, but these +in every case looked upon the court or the garden. As for the centre +row, until the day when the whole strange colony perished under the +hammer of Fontaine the architect, every shop was open back and front +like a booth in a country fair, so that from within you could look out +upon either side through gaps among the goods displayed or through the +glass doors. As it was obviously impossible to kindle a fire, the +tradesmen were fain to use charcoal chafing-dishes, and formed a sort +of brigade for the prevention of fires among themselves; and, indeed, +a little carelessness might have set the whole quarter blazing in +fifteen minutes, for the plank-built republic, dried by the heat of +the sun, and haunted by too inflammable human material, was bedizened +with muslin and paper and gauze, and ventilated at times by a thorough +draught. + +The milliners' windows were full of impossible hats and bonnets, +displayed apparently for advertisement rather than for sale, each on a +separate iron spit with a knob at the top. The galleries were decked +out in all the colors of the rainbow. On what heads would those dusty +bonnets end their careers?--for a score of years the problem had +puzzled frequenters of the Palais. Saleswomen, usually plain-featured, +but vivacious, waylaid the feminine foot passenger with cunning +importunities, after the fashion of market-women, and using much the +same language; a shop-girl, who made free use of her eyes and tongue, +sat outside on a stool and harangued the public with "Buy a pretty +bonnet, madame?--Do let me sell you something!"--varying a rich and +picturesque vocabulary with inflections of the voice, with glances, +and remarks upon the passers-by. Booksellers and milliners lived on +terms of mutual understanding. + +But it was in the passage known by the pompous title of the "Glass +Gallery" that the oddest trades were carried on. Here were +ventriloquists and charlatans of every sort, and sights of every +description, from the kind where there is nothing to see to panoramas +of the globe. One man who has since made seven or eight hundred +thousand francs by traveling from fair to fair began here by hanging +out a signboard, a revolving sun in a blackboard, and the inscription +in red letters: "Here Man may see what God can never see. Admittance, +two sous." The showman at the door never admitted one person alone, +nor more than two at a time. Once inside, you confronted a great +looking-glass; and a voice, which might have terrified Hoffmann of +Berlin, suddenly spoke as if some spring had been touched, "You see +here, gentlemen, something that God can never see through all +eternity, that is to say, your like. God has not His like." And out +you went, too shamefaced to confess to your stupidity. + +Voices issued from every narrow doorway, crying up the merits of +Cosmoramas, views of Constantinople, marionettes, automatic +chess-players, and performing dogs who would pick you out the prettiest +woman in the company. The ventriloquist Fritz-James flourished here in +the Cafe Borel before he went to fight and fall at Montmartre with the +young lads from the Ecole polytechnique. Here, too, there were fruit +and flower shops, and a famous tailor whose gold-laced uniforms shone +like the sun when the shops were lighted at night. + +Of a morning the galleries were empty, dark, and deserted; the +shopkeepers chatted among themselves. Towards two o'clock in the +afternoon the Palais began to fill; at three, men came in from the +Bourse, and Paris, generally speaking, crowded the place. Impecunious +youth, hungering after literature, took the opportunity of turning +over the pages of the books exposed for sale on the stalls outside the +booksellers' shops; the men in charge charitably allowed a poor +student to pursue his course of free studies; and in this way a +duodecimo volume of some two hundred pages, such as _Smarra_ or _Pierre +Schlemihl_, or _Jean Sbogar_ or _Jocko_, might be devoured in a couple of +afternoons. There was something very French in this alms given to the +young, hungry, starved intellect. Circulating libraries were not as +yet; if you wished to read a book, you were obliged to buy it, for +which reason novels of the early part of the century were sold in +numbers which now seem well-nigh fabulous to us. + +But the poetry of this terrible mart appeared in all its splendor at +the close of the day. Women of the town, flocking in and out from the +neighboring streets, were allowed to make a promenade of the Wooden +Galleries. Thither came prostitutes from every quarter of Paris to "do +the Palais." The Stone Galleries belonged to privileged houses, which +paid for the right of exposing women dressed like princesses under +such and such an arch, or in the corresponding space of garden; but +the Wooden Galleries were the common ground of women of the streets. +This was _the_ Palais, a word which used to signify the temple of +prostitution. A woman might come and go, taking away her prey +whithersoever seemed good to her. So great was the crowd attracted +thither at night by the women, that it was impossible to move except +at a slow pace, as in a procession or at a masked ball. Nobody +objected to the slowness; it facilitated examination. The women +dressed in a way that is never seen nowadays. The bodices cut +extremely low both back and front; the fantastical head-dresses, +designed to attract notice; here a cap from the Pays de Caux, and +there a Spanish mantilla; the hair crimped and curled like a poodle's, +or smoothed down in bandeaux over the forehead; the close-fitting +white stockings and limbs, revealed it would not be easy to say how, +but always at the right moment--all this poetry of vice has fled. The +license of question and reply, the public cynicism in keeping with the +haunt, is now unknown even at masquerades or the famous public balls. +It was an appalling, gay scene. The dazzling white flesh of the +women's necks and shoulders stood out in magnificent contrast against +the men's almost invariably sombre costumes. The murmur of voices, the +hum of the crowd, could be heard even in the middle of the garden as a +sort of droning bass, interspersed with _fioriture_ of shrill laughter +or clamor of some rare dispute. You saw gentlemen and celebrities +cheek by jowl with gallows-birds. There was something indescribably +piquant about the anomalous assemblage; the most insensible of men +felt its charm, so much so, that, until the very last moment, Paris +came hither to walk up and down on the wooden planks laid over the +cellars where men were at work on the new buildings; and when the +squalid wooden erections were finally taken down, great and unanimous +regret was felt. + +Ladvocat the bookseller had opened a shop but a few days since in the +angle formed by the central passage which crossed the galleries; and +immediately opposite another bookseller, now forgotten, Dauriat, a +bold and youthful pioneer, who opened up the paths in which his rival +was to shine. Dauriat's shop stood in the row which gave upon the +garden; Ladvocat's, on the opposite side, looked out upon the court. +Dauriat's establishment was divided into two parts; his shop was +simply a great trade warehouse, and the second room was his private +office. + +Lucien, on this first visit to the Wooden Galleries, was bewildered by +a sight which no novice can resist. He soon lost the guide who +befriended him. + +"If you were as good-looking as yonder young fellow, I would give you +your money's worth," a woman said, pointing out Lucien to an old man. + +Lucien slunk through the crowd like a blind man's dog, following the +stream in a state of stupefaction and excitement difficult to +describe. Importuned by glances and white-rounded contours, dazzled by +the audacious display of bared throat and bosom, he gripped his roll +of manuscript tightly lest somebody should steal it--innocent that he +was! + +"Well, what is it, sir!" he exclaimed, thinking, when some one caught +him by the arm, that his poetry had proved too great a temptation to +some author's honesty, and turning, he recognized Lousteau. + +"I felt sure that you would find your way here at last," said his +friend. + +The poet was standing in the doorway of a shop crowded with persons +waiting for an audience with the sultan of the publishing trade. +Printers, paper-dealers, and designers were catechizing Dauriat's +assistants as to present or future business. + +Lousteau drew Lucien into the shop. "There! that is Finot who edits my +paper," he said; "he is talking with Felicien Vernou, who has +abilities, but the little wretch is as dangerous as a hidden disease." + +"Well, old boy, there is a first night for you," said Finot, coming up +with Vernou. "I have disposed of the box." + +"Sold it to Braulard?" + +"Well, and if I did, what then? You will get a seat. What do you want +with Dauriat? Oh, it is agreed that we are to push Paul de Kock, +Dauriat has taken two hundred copies, and Victor Ducange is refusing +to give him his next. Dauriat wants to set up another man in the same +line, he says. You must rate Paul de Kock above Ducange." + +"But I have a piece on with Ducange at the Gaite," said Lousteau. + +"Very well, tell him that I wrote the article. It can be supposed that +I wrote a slashing review, and you toned it down; and he will owe you +thanks." + +"Couldn't you get Dauriat's cashier to discount this bit of a bill for +a hundred francs?" asked Etienne Lousteau. "We are celebrating +Florine's house-warming with a supper to-night, you know." + +"Ah! yes, you are treating us all," said Finot, with an apparent +effort of memory. "Here, Gabusson," he added, handing Barbet's bill to +the cashier, "let me have ninety francs for this individual.--Fill in +your name, old man." + +Lousteau signed his name while the cashier counted out the money; and +Lucien, all eyes and ears, lost not a syllable of the conversation. + +"That is not all, my friend," Etienne continued; "I don't thank you, +we have sworn an eternal friendship. I have taken it upon myself to +introduce this gentleman to Dauriat, and you must incline his ear to +listen to us." + +"What is on foot?" asked Finot. + +"A volume of poetry," said Lucien. + +"Oh!" said Finot, with a shrug of the shoulders. + +"Your acquaintance cannot have had much to do with publishers, or he +would have hidden his manuscript in the loneliest spot in his +dwelling," remarked Vernou, looking at Lucien as he spoke. + +Just at that moment a good-looking young man came into the shop, gave +a hand to Finot and Lousteau, and nodded slightly to Vernou. The +newcomer was Emile Blondet, who had made his first appearance in the +_Journal des Debats_, with articles revealing capacities of the very +highest order. + +"Come and have supper with us at midnight, at Florine's," said +Lousteau. + +"Very good," said the newcomer. "But who is going to be there?" + +"Oh, Florine and Matifat the druggist," said Lousteau, "and du Bruel, +the author who gave Florine the part in which she is to make her first +appearance, a little old fogy named Cardot, and his son-in-law +Camusot, and Finot, and----" + +"Does your druggist do things properly?" + +"He will not give us doctored wine," said Lucien. + +"You are very witty, monsieur," Blondet returned gravely. "Is he +coming, Lousteau?" + +"Yes." + +"Then we shall have some fun." + +Lucien had flushed red to the tips of his ears. Blondet tapped on the +window above Dauriat's desk. + +"Is your business likely to keep you long, Dauriat?" + +"I am at your service, my friend." + +"That's right," said Lousteau, addressing his protege. "That young +fellow is hardly any older than you are, and he is on the _Debats_! He +is one of the princes of criticism. They are afraid of him, Dauriat +will fawn upon him, and then we can put in a word about our business +with the pasha of vignettes and type. Otherwise we might have waited +till eleven o'clock, and our turn would not have come. The crowd of +people waiting to speak with Dauriat is growing bigger every moment." + +Lucien and Lousteau followed Blondet, Finot, and Vernou, and stood in +a knot at the back of the shop. + +"What is he doing?" asked Blondet of the head-clerk, who rose to bid +him good-evening. + +"He is buying a weekly newspaper. He wants to put new life into it, +and set up a rival to the _Minerve_ and the _Conservateur_; Eymery has +rather too much of his own way in the _Minerve_, and the _Conservateur_ is +too blindly Romantic." + +"Is he going to pay well?" + +"Only too much--as usual," said the cashier. + +Just as he spoke another young man entered; this was the writer of a +magnificent novel which had sold very rapidly and met with the +greatest possible success. Dauriat was bringing out a second edition. +The appearance of this odd and extraordinary looking being, so +unmistakably an artist, made a deep impression on Lucien's mind. + +"That is Nathan," Lousteau said in his ear. + +Nathan, then in the prime of his youth, came up to the group of +journalists, hat in hand; and in spite of his look of fierce pride he +was almost humble to Blondet, whom as yet he only knew by sight. +Blondet did not remove his hat, neither did Finot. + +"Monsieur, I am delighted to avail myself of an opportunity yielded by +chance----" + +("He is so nervous that he is committing a pleonasm," said Felicien in +an aside to Lousteau.) + +"----to give expression to my gratitude for the splendid review which +you were so good as to give me in the _Journal des Debats_. Half the +success of my book is owing to you." + +"No, my dear fellow, no," said Blondet, with an air of patronage +scarcely masked by good-nature. "You have talent, the deuce you have, +and I'm delighted to make your acquaintance." + +"Now that your review has appeared, I shall not seem to be courting +power; we can feel at ease. Will you do me the honor and the pleasure +of dining with me to-morrow? Finot is coming.--Lousteau, old man, you +will not refuse me, will you?" added Nathan, shaking Etienne by the +hand.--"Ah, you are on the way to a great future, monsieur," he added, +turning again to Blondet; "you will carry on the line of Dussaults, +Fievees, and Geoffrois! Hoffmann was talking about you to a friend of +mine, Claude Vignon, his pupil; he said that he could die in peace, +the _Journal des Debats_ would live forever. They ought to pay you +tremendously well." + +"A hundred francs a column," said Blondet. "Poor pay when one is +obliged to read the books, and read a hundred before you find one +worth interesting yourself in, like yours. Your work gave me pleasure, +upon my word." + +"And brought him in fifteen hundred francs," said Lousteau for +Lucien's benefit. + +"But you write political articles, don't you?" asked Nathan. + +"Yes; now and again." + +Lucien felt like an embryo among these men; he had admired Nathan's +book, he had reverenced the author as an immortal; Nathan's abject +attitude before this critic, whose name and importance were both +unknown to him, stupefied Lucien. + +"How if I should come to behave as he does?" he thought. "Is a man +obliged to part with his self-respect?--Pray put on your hat again, +Nathan; you have written a great book, and the critic has only written +a review of it." + +These thoughts set the blood tingling in his veins. Scarce a minute +passed but some young author, poverty-stricken and shy, came in, asked +to speak with Dauriat, looked round the crowded shop despairingly, and +went out saying, "I will come back again." Two or three politicians +were chatting over the convocation of the Chambers and public business +with a group of well-known public men. The weekly newspaper for which +Dauriat was in treaty was licensed to treat of matters political, and +the number of newspapers suffered to exist was growing smaller and +smaller, till a paper was a piece of property as much in demand as a +theatre. One of the largest shareholders in the _Constitutionnel_ was +standing in the midst of the knot of political celebrities. Lousteau +performed the part of cicerone to admiration; with every sentence he +uttered Dauriat rose higher in Lucien's opinion. Politics and +literature seemed to converge in Dauriat's shop. He had seen a great +poet prostituting his muse to journalism, humiliating Art, as woman +was humiliated and prostituted in those shameless galleries without, +and the provincial took a terrible lesson to heart. Money! That was +the key to every enigma. Lucien realized the fact that he was unknown +and alone, and that the fragile clue of an uncertain friendship was +his sole guide to success and fortune. He blamed the kind and loyal +little circle for painting the world for him in false colors, for +preventing him from plunging into the arena, pen in hand. "I should be +a Blondet at this moment!" he exclaimed within himself. + +Only a little while ago they had sat looking out over Paris from the +Gardens of the Luxembourg, and Lousteau had uttered the cry of a +wounded eagle; then Lousteau had been a great man in Lucien's eyes, +and now he had shrunk to scarce visible proportions. The really +important man for him at this moment was the fashionable bookseller, +by whom all these men lived; and the poet, manuscript in hand, felt a +nervous tremor that was almost like fear. He noticed a group of busts +mounted on wooden pedestals, painted to resemble marble; Byron stood +there, and Goethe and M. de Canalis. Dauriat was hoping to publish a +volume by the last-named poet, who might see, on his entrance into the +shop, the estimation in which he was held by the trade. Unconsciously +Lucien's own self-esteem began to shrink, and his courage ebbed. He +began to see how large a part this Dauriat would play in his +destinies, and waited impatiently for him to appear. + +"Well, children," said a voice, and a short, stout man appeared, with +a puffy face that suggested a Roman pro-consul's visage, mellowed by +an air of good-nature which deceived superficial observers. "Well, +children, here am I, the proprietor of the only weekly paper in the +market, a paper with two thousand subscribers!" + +"Old joker! The registered number is seven hundred, and that is over +the mark," said Blondet. + +"Twelve thousand, on my sacred word of honor--I said two thousand for +the benefit of the printers and paper-dealers yonder," he added, +lowering his voice, then raising it again. "I thought you had more +tact, my boy," he added. + +"Are you going to take any partners?" inquired Finot. + +"That depends," said Dauriat. "Will you take a third at forty thousand +francs?" + +"It's a bargain, if you will take Emile Blondet here on the staff, and +Claude Vignon, Scribe, Theodore Leclercq, Felicien Vernou, Jay, Jouy, +Lousteau, and----" + +"And why not Lucien de Rubempre?" the provincial poet put in boldly. + +"----and Nathan," concluded Finot. + +"Why not the people out there in the street?" asked Dauriat, scowling +at the author of the _Marguerites_.--"To whom have I the honor of +speaking?" he added, with an insolent glance. + +"One moment, Dauriat," said Lousteau. "I have brought this gentleman +to you. Listen to me, while Finot is thinking over your proposals." + +Lucien watched this Dauriat, who addressed Finot with the familiar tu, +which even Finot did not permit himself to use in reply; who called +the redoubtable Blondet "my boy," and extended a hand royally to +Nathan with a friendly nod. The provincial poet felt his shirt wet +with perspiration when the formidable sultan looked indifferent and +ill pleased. + +"Another piece of business, my boy!" exclaimed Dauriat. "Why, I have +eleven hundred manuscripts on hand, as you know! Yes, gentlemen, I +have eleven hundred manuscripts submitted to me at this moment; ask +Gabusson. I shall soon be obliged to start a department to keep +account of the stock of manuscripts, and a special office for reading +them, and a committee to vote on their merits, with numbered counters +for those who attend, and a permanent secretary to draw up the minutes +for me. It will be a kind of local branch of the Academie, and the +Academicians will be better paid in the Wooden Galleries than at the +Institut." + +"'Tis an idea," said Blondet. + +"A bad idea," returned Dauriat. "It is not my business to take stock +of the lucubrations of those among you who take to literature because +they cannot be capitalists, and there is no opening for them as +bootmakers, nor corporals, nor domestic servants, nor officials, nor +bailiffs. Nobody comes here until he has made a name for himself! Make +a name for yourself, and you will find gold in torrents. I have made +three great men in the last two years; and lo and behold three +examples of ingratitude! Here is Nathan talking of six thousand francs +for the second edition of his book, which cost me three thousand +francs in reviews, and has not brought in a thousand yet. I paid a +thousand francs for Blondet's two articles, besides a dinner, which +cost me five hundred----" + +"But if all booksellers talked as you do, sir, how could a man publish +his first book at all?" asked Lucien. Blondet had gone down +tremendously in his opinion since he had heard the amount given by +Dauriat for the articles in the _Debats_. + +"That is not my affair," said Dauriat, looking daggers at this +handsome young fellow, who was smiling pleasantly at him. "I do not +publish books for amusement, nor risk two thousand francs for the sake +of seeing my money back again. I speculate in literature, and publish +forty volumes of ten thousand copies each, just as Panckouke does and +the Baudoins. With my influence and the articles which I secure, I can +push a business of a hundred thousand crowns, instead of a single +volume involving a couple of thousand francs. It is just as much +trouble to bring out a new name and to induce the public to take up an +author and his book, as to make a success with the _Theatres etrangers_, +_Victoires et Conquetes_, or _Memoires sur la Revolution_, books that +bring in a fortune. I am not here as a stepping-stone to future fame, +but to make money, and to find it for men with distinguished names. +The manuscripts for which I give a hundred thousand francs pay me +better than work by an unknown author who asks six hundred. If I am +not exactly a Maecenas, I deserve the gratitude of literature; I have +doubled the prices of manuscripts. I am giving you this explanation +because you are a friend of Lousteau's my boy," added Dauriat, +clapping Lucien on the shoulder with odious familiarity. "If I were to +talk to all the authors who have a mind that I should be their +publisher, I should have to shut up shop; I should pass my time very +agreeably no doubt, but the conversations would cost too much. I am +not rich enough yet to listen to all the monologues of self-conceit. +Nobody does, except in classical tragedies on the stage." + +The terrible Dauriat's gorgeous raiment seemed in the provincial +poet's eyes to add force to the man's remorseless logic. + +"What is it about?" he continued, addressing Lucien's protector. + +"It is a volume of magnificent poetry." + +At that word, Dauriat turned to Gabusson with a gesture worthy of +Talma. + +"Gabusson, my friend," he said, "from this day forward, when anybody +begins to talk of works in manuscript here--Do you hear that, all of +you?" he broke in upon himself; and three assistants at once emerged +from among the piles of books at the sound of their employer's +wrathful voice. "If anybody comes here with manuscripts," he +continued, looking at the finger-nails of a well-kept hand, "ask him +whether it is poetry or prose; and if he says poetry, show him the +door at once. Verses mean reverses in the booktrade." + +"Bravo! well put, Dauriat," cried the chorus of journalists. + +"It is true!" cried the bookseller, striding about his shop with +Lucien's manuscript in his hand. "You have no idea, gentlemen, of the +amount of harm that Byron, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Casimir Delavigne, +Canalis, and Beranger have done by their success. The fame of them has +brought down an invasion of barbarians upon us. I know _this_: there +are a thousand volumes of manuscript poetry going the round of the +publishers at this moment, things that nobody can make head nor tail +of, stories in verse that begin in the middle, like _The Corsair_ and +_Lara_. They set up to be original, forsooth, and indulge in stanzas +that nobody can understand, and descriptive poetry after the pattern +of the younger men who discovered Delille, and imagine that they are +doing something new. Poets have been swarming like cockchafers for two +years past. I have lost twenty thousand francs through poetry in the +last twelvemonth. You ask Gabusson! There may be immortal poets +somewhere in the world; I know of some that are blooming and rosy, and +have no beards on their chins as yet," he continued, looking at +Lucien; "but in the trade, young man, there are only four poets +--Beranger, Casimir Delavigne, Lamartine, and Victor Hugo; as for +Canalis--he is a poet made by sheer force of writing him up." + +Lucien felt that he lacked the courage to hold up his head and show +his spirit before all these influential persons, who were laughing +with all their might. He knew very well that he should look hopelessly +ridiculous, and yet he felt consumed by a fierce desire to catch the +bookseller by the throat, to ruffle the insolent composure of his +cravat, to break the gold chain that glittered on the man's chest, +trample his watch under his feet, and tear him in pieces. Mortified +vanity opened the door to thoughts of vengeance, and inwardly he swore +eternal enmity to that bookseller. But he smiled amiably. + +"Poetry is like the sun," said Blondet, "giving life alike to primeval +forests and to ants and gnats and mosquitoes. There is no virtue but +has a vice to match, and literature breeds the publisher." + +"And the journalist," said Lousteau. + +Dauriat burst out laughing. + +"What is this after all?" he asked, holding up the manuscript. + +"A volume of sonnets that will put Petrarch to the blush," said +Lousteau. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just what I say," answered Lousteau, seeing the knowing smile that +went round the group. Lucien could not take offence but he chafed +inwardly. + +"Very well, I will read them," said Dauriat, with a regal gesture that +marked the full extent of the concession. "If these sonnets of yours +are up to the level of the nineteenth century, I will make a great +poet of you, my boy." + +"If he has brains to equal his good looks, you will run no great +risks," remarked one of the greatest public speakers of the day, a +deputy who was chatting with the editor of the _Minerve_, and a writer +for the _Constitutionnel_. + +"Fame means twelve thousand francs in reviews, and a thousand more for +dinners, General," said Dauriat. "If M. Benjamin de Constant means to +write a paper on this young poet, it will not be long before I make a +bargain with him." + +At the title of General, and the distinguished name of Benjamin +Constant, the bookseller's shop took the proportions of Olympus for +the provincial great man. + +"Lousteau, I want a word with you," said Finot; "but I shall see you +again later, at the theatre.--Dauriat, I will take your offer, but on +conditions. Let us step into your office." + +"Come in, my boy," answered Dauriat, allowing Finot to pass before +him. Then, intimating to some ten persons still waiting for him that +he was engaged, he likewise was about to disappear when Lucien +impatiently stopped him. + +"You are keeping my manuscript. When shall I have an answer?" + +"Oh, come back in three or four days, my little poet, and we will +see." + +Lousteau hurried Lucien away; he had not time to take leave of Vernou +and Blondet and Raoul Nathan, nor to salute General Foy nor Benjamin +Constant, whose book on the Hundred Days was just about to appear. +Lucien scarcely caught a glimpse of fair hair, a refined oval-shaped +face, keen eyes, and the pleasant-looking mouth belonging to the man +who had played the part of a Potemkin to Mme. de Stael for twenty +years, and now was at war with the Bourbons, as he had been at war +with Napoleon. He was destined to win his cause and to die stricken to +earth by his victory. + +"What a shop!" exclaimed Lucien, as he took his place in the cab +beside Lousteau. + +"To the Panorama-Dramatique; look sharp, and you shall have thirty +sous," Etienne Lousteau called to the cabman.--"Dauriat is a rascal +who sells books to the amount of fifteen or sixteen hundred thousand +francs every year. He is a kind of Minister of Literature," Lousteau +continued. His self-conceit had been pleasantly tickled, and he was +showing off before Lucien. "Dauriat is just as grasping as Barbet, but +it is on a wholesale scale. Dauriat can be civil, and he is generous, +but he has a great opinion of himself; as for his wit, it consists in +a faculty for picking up all that he hears, and his shop is a capital +place to frequent. You meet all the best men at Dauriat's. A young +fellow learns more there in an hour than by poring over books for +half-a-score of years. People talk about articles and concoct +subjects; you make the acquaintance of great or influential people who +may be useful to you. You must know people if you mean to get on +nowadays.--It is all luck, you see. And as for sitting by yourself in +a corner alone with your intellect, it is the most dangerous thing of +all." + +"But what insolence!" said Lucien. + +"Pshaw! we all of us laugh at Dauriat," said Etienne. "If you are in +need of him, he tramples upon you; if he has need of the _Journal des +Debats_, Emile Blondet sets him spinning like a top. Oh, if you take +to literature, you will see a good many queer things. Well, what was +I telling you, eh?" + +"Yes, you were right," said Lucien. "My experience in that shop was +even more painful than I expected, after your programme." + +"Why do you choose to suffer? You find your subject, you wear out your +wits over it with toiling at night, you throw your very life into it: +and after all your journeyings in the fields of thought, the monument +reared with your life-blood is simply a good or a bad speculation for +a publisher. Your work will sell or it will not sell; and therein, for +them, lies the whole question. A book means so much capital to risk, +and the better the book, the less likely it is to sell. A man of +talent rises above the level of ordinary heads; his success varies in +direct ratio with the time required for his work to be appreciated. +And no publisher wants to wait. To-day's book must be sold by +to-morrow. Acting on this system, publishers and booksellers do not +care to take real literature, books that call for the high praise that +comes slowly." + +"D'Arthez was right," exclaimed Lucien. + +"Do you know d'Arthez?" asked Lousteau. "I know of no more dangerous +company than solitary spirits like that fellow yonder, who fancy that +they can draw the world after them. All of us begin by thinking that +we are capable of great things; and when once a youthful imagination +is heated by this superstition, the candidate for posthumous honors +makes no attempt to move the world while such moving of the world is +both possible and profitable; he lets the time go by. I am for +Mahomet's system--if the mountain does not come to me, I am for going +to the mountain." + +The common-sense so trenchantly put in this sally left Lucien halting +between the resignation preached by the brotherhood and Lousteau's +militant doctrine. He said not a word till they reached the Boulevard +du Temple. + +The Panorama-Dramatique no longer exists. A dwelling-house stands on +the site of the once charming theatre in the Boulevard du Temple, +where two successive managements collapsed without making a single +hit; and yet Vignol, who has since fallen heir to some of Potier's +popularity, made his _debut_ there; and Florine, five years later a +celebrated actress, made her first appearance in the theatre opposite +the Rue Charlot. Play-houses, like men, have their vicissitudes. The +Panorama-Dramatique suffered from competition. The machinations of its +rivals, the Ambigu, the Gaite, the Porte Saint-Martin, and the +Vaudeville, together with a plethora of restrictions and a scarcity of +good plays, combined to bring about the downfall of the house. No +dramatic author cared to quarrel with a prosperous theatre for the +sake of the Panorama-Dramatique, whose existence was, to say the +least, problematical. The management at this moment, however, was +counting on the success of a new melodramatic comedy by M. du Bruel, a +young author who, after working in collaboration with divers +celebrities, had now produced a piece professedly entirely his own. It +had been specially composed for the leading lady, a young actress who +began her stage career as a supernumerary at the Gaite, and had been +promoted to small parts for the last twelvemonth. But though Mlle. +Florine's acting had attracted some attention, she obtained no +engagement, and the Panorama accordingly had carried her off. Coralie, +another actress, was to make her _debut_ at the same time. + +Lucien was amazed at the power wielded by the press. "This gentleman +is with me," said Etienne Lousteau, and the box-office clerks bowed +before him as one man. + +"You will find it no easy matter to get seats," said the head-clerk. +"There is nothing left now but the stage box." + +A certain amount of time was wasted in controversies with the +box-keepers in the lobbies, when Etienne said, "Let us go behind +the scenes; we will speak to the manager, he will take us into the +stage-box; and besides, I will introduce you to Florine, the heroine +of the evening." + +At a sign from Etienne Lousteau, the doorkeeper of the orchestra took +out a little key and unlocked a door in the thickness of the wall. +Lucien, following his friend, went suddenly out of the lighted +corridor into the black darkness of the passage between the house and +the wings. A short flight of damp steps surmounted, one of the +strangest of all spectacles opened out before the provincial poet's +eyes. The height of the roof, the slenderness of the props, the +ladders hung with Argand lamps, the atrocious ugliness of scenery +beheld at close quarters, the thick paint on the actors' faces, and +their outlandish costumes, made of such coarse materials, the stage +carpenters in greasy jackets, the firemen, the stage manager strutting +about with his hat on his head, the supernumeraries sitting among the +hanging back-scenes, the ropes and pulleys, the heterogeneous +collection of absurdities, shabby, dirty, hideous, and gaudy, was +something so altogether different from the stage seen over the +footlights, that Lucien's astonishment knew no bounds. The curtain was +just about to fall on a good old-fashioned melodrama entitled _Bertram_, +a play adapted from a tragedy by Maturin which Charles Nodier, +together with Byron and Sir Walter Scott, held in the highest esteem, +though the play was a failure on the stage in Paris. + +"Keep a tight hold of my arm, unless you have a mind to fall through a +trap-door, or bring down a forest on your head; you will pull down a +palace, or carry off a cottage, if you are not careful," said Etienne. +--"Is Florine in her dressing-room, my pet?" he added, addressing an +actress who stood waiting for her cue. + +"Yes, love. Thank you for the things you said about me. You are so +much nicer since Florine has come here." + +"Come, don't spoil your entry, little one. Quick with you, look sharp, +and say, 'Stop, wretched man!' nicely, for there are two thousand +francs of takings." + +Lucien was struck with amazement when the girl's whole face suddenly +changed, and she shrieked, "Stop, wretched man!" a cry that froze the +blood in your veins. She was no longer the same creature. + +"So this is the stage," he said to Lousteau. + +"It is like the bookseller's shop in the Wooden Galleries, or a +literary paper," said Etienne Lousteau; "it is a kitchen, neither more +nor less." + +Nathan appeared at this moment. + +"What brings you here?" inquired Lousteau. + +"Why, I am doing the minor theatres for the _Gazette_ until something +better turns up." + +"Oh! come to supper with us this evening; speak well of Florine, and I +will do as much for you." + +"Very much at your service," returned Nathan. + +"You know; she is living in the Rue du Bondy now." + +"Lousteau, dear boy, who is the handsome young man that you have +brought with you?" asked the actress, now returned to the wings. + +"A great poet, dear, that will have a famous name one of these days. +--M. Nathan, I must introduce M. Lucien de Rubempre to you, as you are +to meet again at supper." + +"You have a good name, monsieur," said Nathan. + +"Lucien, M. Raoul Nathan," continued Etienne. + +"I read your book two days ago; and, upon my word, I cannot understand +how you, who have written such a book, and such poetry, can be so +humble to a journalist." + +"Wait till your first book comes out," said Nathan, and a shrewd smile +flitted over his face. + +"I say! I say! here are Ultras and Liberals actually shaking hands!" +cried Vernou, spying the trio. + +"In the morning I hold the views of my paper," said Nathan, "in the +evening I think as I please; all journalists see double at night." + +Felicien Vernou turned to Lousteau. + +"Finot is looking for you, Etienne; he came with me, and--here he is!" + +"Ah, by the by, there is not a place in the house, is there?" asked +Finot. + +"You will always find a place in our hearts," said the actress, with +the sweetest smile imaginable. + +"I say, my little Florville, are you cured already of your fancy? They +told me that a Russian prince had carried you off." + +"Who carries off women in these days" said Florville (she who had +cried, "Stop, wretched man!"). "We stayed at Saint-Mande for ten days, +and my prince got off with paying the forfeit money to the management. +The manager will go down on his knees to pray for some more Russian +princes," Florville continued, laughing; "the forfeit money was so +much clear gain." + +"And as for you, child," said Finot, turning to a pretty girl in a +peasant's costume, "where did you steal these diamond ear-drops? Have +you hooked an Indian prince?" + +"No, a blacking manufacturer, an Englishman, who has gone off already. +It is not everybody who can find millionaire shopkeepers, tired of +domestic life, whenever they like, as Florine does and Coralie. Aren't +they just lucky?" + +"Florville, you will make a bad entry," said Lousteau; "the blacking +has gone to your head!" + +"If you want a success," said Nathan, "instead of screaming, 'He is +saved!' like a Fury, walk on quite quietly, go to the staircase, and +say, 'He is saved,' in a chest voice, like Pasta's '_O patria_,' in +_Tancreda_.--There, go along!" and he pushed her towards the stage. + +"It is too late," said Vernou, "the effect has hung fire." + +"What did she do? the house is applauding like mad," asked Lousteau. + +"Went down on her knees and showed her bosom; that is her great +resource," said the blacking-maker's widow. + +"The manager is giving up the stage box to us; you will find me there +when you come," said Finot, as Lousteau walked off with Lucien. + +At the back of the stage, through a labyrinth of scenery and +corridors, the pair climbed several flights of stairs and reached a +little room on a third floor, Nathan and Felicien Vernou following +them. + +"Good-day or good-night, gentlemen," said Florine. Then, turning to a +short, stout man standing in a corner, "These gentlemen are the rulers +of my destiny," she said, my future is in their hands; but they will +be under our table to-morrow morning, I hope, if M. Lousteau has +forgotten nothing----" + +"Forgotten! You are going to have Blondet of the _Debats_," said +Etienne, "the genuine Blondet, the very Blondet--Blondet himself, in +short." + +"Oh! Lousteau, you dear boy! stop, I must give you a kiss," and she +flung her arms about the journalist's neck. Matifat, the stout person +in the corner, looked serious at this. + +Florine was thin; her beauty, like a bud, gave promise of the flower +to come; the girl of sixteen could only delight the eyes of artists +who prefer the sketch to the picture. All the quick subtlety of her +character was visible in the features of the charming actress, who at +that time might have sat for Goethe's Mignon. Matifat, a wealthy +druggist of the Rue des Lombards, had imagined that a little Boulevard +actress would have no very expensive tastes, but in eleven months +Florine had cost him sixty thousand francs. Nothing seemed more +extraordinary to Lucien than the sight of an honest and worthy +merchant standing like a statue of the god Terminus in the actress' +narrow dressing-room, a tiny place some ten feet square, hung with a +pretty wall-paper, and adorned with a full-length mirror, a sofa, and +two chairs. There was a fireplace in the dressing-closet, a carpet on +the floor, and cupboards all round the room. A dresser was putting the +finishing touches to a Spanish costume; for Florine was to take the +part of a countess in an imbroglio. + +"That girl will be the handsomest actress in Paris in five years' +time," said Nathan, turning to Felicien Vernou. + +"By the by, darlings, you will take care of me to-morrow, won't you?" +said Florine, turning to the three journalists. "I have engaged cabs +for to-night, for I am going to send you home as tipsy as Shrove +Tuesday. Matifat has sent in wines--oh! wines worthy of Louis XVIII., +and engaged the Prussian ambassador's cook." + +"We expect something enormous from the look of the gentleman," +remarked Nathan. + +"And he is quite aware that he is treating the most dangerous men in +Paris," added Florine. + +Matifat was looking uneasily at Lucien; he felt jealous of the young +man's good looks. + +"But here is some one that I do not know," Florine continued, +confronting Lucien. "Which of you has imported the Apollo Belvedere +from Florence? He is as charming as one of Girodet's figures." + +"He is a poet, mademoiselle, from the provinces. I forgot to present +him to you; you are so beautiful to-night that you put the _Complete +Guide to Etiquette_ out of a man's head----" + +"Is he so rich that he can afford to write poetry?" asked Florine. + +"Poor as Job," said Lucien. + +"It is a great temptation for some of us," said the actress. + +Just then the author of the play suddenly entered, and Lucien beheld +M. du Bruel, a short, attenuated young man in an overcoat, a composite +human blend of the jack-in-office, the owner of house-property, and +the stockbroker. + +"Florine, child," said this personage, "are you sure of your part, eh? +No slips of memory, you know. And mind that scene in the second act, +make the irony tell, bring out that subtle touch; say, 'I do not love +you,' just as we agreed." + +"Why do you take parts in which you have to say such things?" asked +Matifat. + +The druggist's remark was received with a general shout of laughter. + +"What does it matter to you," said Florine, "so long as I don't say +such things to you, great stupid?--Oh! his stupidity is the pleasure +of my life," she continued, glancing at the journalist. "Upon my word, +I would pay him so much for every blunder, if it would not be the ruin +of me." + +"Yes, but you will look at me when you say it, as you do when you are +rehearsing, and it gives me a turn," remonstrated the druggist. + +"Very well, then, I will look at my friend Lousteau here." + +A bell rang outside in the passage. + +"Go out, all of you!" cried Florine; "let me read my part over again +and try to understand it." + +Lucien and Lousteau were the last to go. Lousteau set a kiss on +Florine's shoulder, and Lucien heard her say, "Not to-night. +Impossible. That stupid old animal told his wife that he was going out +into the country." + +"Isn't she charming?" said Etienne, as they came away. + +"But--but that Matifat, my dear fellow----" + +"Oh! you know nothing of Parisian life, my boy. Some things cannot be +helped. Suppose that you fell in love with a married woman, it comes +to the same thing. It all depends on the way that you look at it." + +Etienne and Lucien entered the stage-box, and found the manager there +with Finot. Matifat was in the ground-floor box exactly opposite with +a friend of his, a silk-mercer named Camusot (Coralie's protector), +and a worthy little old soul, his father-in-law. All three of these +city men were polishing their opera-glasses, and anxiously scanning +the house; certain symptoms in the pit appeared to disturb them. The +usual heterogeneous first-night elements filled the boxes--journalists +and their mistresses, _lorettes_ and their lovers, a sprinkling of the +determined playgoers who never miss a first night if they can help it, +and a very few people of fashion who care for this sort of sensation. +The first box was occupied by the head of a department, to whom du +Bruel, maker of vaudevilles, owed a snug little sinecure in the +Treasury. + +Lucien had gone from surprise to surprise since the dinner at +Flicoteaux's. For two months Literature had meant a life of poverty +and want; in Lousteau's room he had seen it at its cynical worst; in +the Wooden Galleries he had met Literature abject and Literature +insolent. The sharp contrasts of heights and depths; of compromise +with conscience; of supreme power and want of principle; of treachery +and pleasure; of mental elevation and bondage--all this made his head +swim, he seemed to be watching some strange unheard-of drama. + +Finot was talking with the manager. "Do you think du Bruel's piece +will pay?" he asked. + +"Du Bruel has tried to do something in Beaumarchais' style. Boulevard +audiences don't care for that kind of thing; they like harrowing +sensations; wit is not much appreciated here. Everything depends on +Florine and Coralie to-night; they are bewitchingly pretty and +graceful, wear very short skirts, and dance a Spanish dance, and +possibly they may carry off the piece with the public. The whole +affair is a gambling speculation. A few clever notices in the papers, +and I may make a hundred thousand crowns, if the play takes." + +"Oh! come, it will only be a moderate success, I can see," said Finot. + +"Three of the theatres have got up a plot," continued the manager; +"they will even hiss the piece, but I have made arrangements to defeat +their kind intentions. I have squared the men in their pay; they will +make a muddle of it. A couple of city men yonder have taken a hundred +tickets apiece to secure a triumph for Florine and Coralie, and given +them to acquaintances able and ready to act as chuckers out. The +fellows, having been paid twice, will go quietly, and a scene of that +sort always makes a good impression on the house." + +"Two hundred tickets! What invaluable men!" exclaimed Finot. + +"Yes. With two more actresses as handsomely kept as Florine and +Coralie, I should make something out of the business." + +For the past two hours the word money had been sounding in Lucien's +ears as the solution of every difficulty. In the theatre as in the +publishing trade, and in the publishing trade as in the +newspaper-office--it was everywhere the same; there was not a word of +art or of glory. The steady beat of the great pendulum, Money, seemed +to fall like hammer-strokes on his heart and brain. And yet while the +orchestra played the overture, while the pit was full of noisy tumult +of applause and hisses, unconsciously he drew a comparison between +this scene and others that came up in his mind. Visions arose before +him of David and the printing-office, of the poetry that he came to +know in that atmosphere of pure peace, when together they beheld the +wonders of Art, the high successes of genius, and visions of glory +borne on stainless wings. He thought of the evenings spent with +d'Arthez and his friends, and tears glittered in his eyes. + +"What is the matter with you?" asked Etienne Lousteau. + +"I see poetry fallen into the mire." + +"Ah! you have still some illusions left, my dear fellow." + +"Is there nothing for it but to cringe and submit to thickheads like +Matifat and Camusot, as actresses bow down to journalists, and we +ourselves to the booksellers?" + +"My boy, do you see that dull-brained fellow?" said Etienne, lowering +his voice, and glancing at Finot. "He has neither genius nor +cleverness, but he is covetous; he means to make a fortune at all +costs, and he is a keen man of business. Didn't you see how he made +forty per cent out of me at Dauriat's, and talked as if he were doing +me a favor?--Well, he gets letters from not a few unknown men of +genius who go down on their knees to him for a hundred francs." + +The words recalled the pen-and-ink sketch that lay on the table in the +editor's office and the words, "Finot, my hundred francs!" Lucien's +inmost soul shrank from the man in disgust. + +"I would sooner die," he said. + +"Sooner live," retorted Etienne. + +The curtain rose, and the stage-manager went off to the wings to give +orders. Finot turned to Etienne. + +"My dear fellow, Dauriat has passed his word; I am proprietor of +one-third of his weekly paper. I have agreed to give thirty thousand +francs in cash, on condition that I am to be editor and director. 'Tis +a splendid thing. Blondet told me that the Government intends to take +restrictive measures against the press; there will be no new papers +allowed; in six months' time it will cost a million francs to start a +new journal, so I struck a bargain though I have only ten thousand +francs in hand. Listen to me. If you can sell one-half of my share, +that is one-sixth of the paper, to Matifat for thirty thousand francs, +you shall be editor of my little paper with a salary of two hundred +and fifty francs per month. I want in any case to have the control of +my old paper, and to keep my hold upon it; but nobody need know that, +and your name will appear as editor. You will be paid at the rate of +five francs per column; you need not pay contributors more than three +francs, and you keep the difference. That means another four hundred +and fifty francs per month. But, at the same time, I reserve the right +to use the paper to attack or defend men or causes, as I please; and +you may indulge your own likes and dislikes so long as you do not +interfere with my schemes. Perhaps I may be a Ministerialist, perhaps +Ultra, I do not know yet; but I mean to keep up my connections with +the Liberal party (below the surface). I can speak out with you; you +are a good fellow. I might, perhaps, give you the Chambers to do for +another paper on which I work; I am afraid I can scarcely keep on with +it now. So let Florine do this bit of jockeying; tell her to put the +screw on her druggist. If I can't find the money within forty-eight +hours, I must cry off my bargain. Dauriat sold another third to his +printer and paper-dealer for thirty thousand francs; so he has his own +third _gratis_, and ten thousand francs to the good, for he only gave +fifty thousand for the whole affair. And in another year's time the +magazine will be worth two hundred thousand francs, if the Court buys +it up; if the Court has the good sense to suppress newspapers, as they +say." + +"You are lucky," said Lousteau. + +"If you had gone through all that I have endured, you would not say +that of me. I had my fill of misery in those days, you see, and there +was no help for it. My father is a hatter; he still keeps a shop in +the Rue du Coq. Nothing but millions of money or a social cataclysm +can open out the way to my goal; and of the two alternatives, I don't +know now that the revolution is not the easier. If I bore your +friend's name, I should have a chance to get on. Hush, here comes the +manager. Good-bye," and Finot rose to his feet, "I am going to the +Opera. I shall very likely have a duel on my hands to-morrow, for I +have put my initials to a terrific attack on a couple of dancers under +the protection of two Generals. I am giving it them hot and strong at +the Opera." + +"Aha?" said the manager. + +"Yes. They are stingy with me," returned Finot, "now cutting off a +box, and now declining to take fifty subscriptions. I have sent in my +_ultimatum_; I mean to have a hundred subscriptions out of them and a +box four times a month. If they take my terms, I shall have eight +hundred readers and a thousand paying subscribers, so we shall have +twelve hundred with the New Year." + +"You will end by ruining us," said the manager. + +"_You_ are not much hurt with your ten subscriptions. I had two good +notices put into the _Constitutionnel_." + +"Oh! I am not complaining of you," cried the manager. + +"Good-bye till to-morrow evening, Lousteau," said Finot. "You can give +me your answer at the Francais; there is a new piece on there; and as +I shall not be able to write the notice, you can take my box. I will +give you preference; you have worked yourself to death for me, and I +am grateful. Felicien Vernou offered twenty thousand francs for a +third share of my little paper, and to work without a salary for a +twelvemonth; but I want to be absolute master. Good-bye." + +"He is not named Finot" (_finaud_, slyboots) "for nothing," said Lucien. + +"He is a gallows-bird that will get on in the world," said Etienne, +careless whether the wily schemer overheard the remark or not, as he +shut the door of the box. + +"_He_!" said the manager. "He will be a millionaire; he will enjoy the +respect of all who know him; he may perhaps have friends some day----" + +"Good heavens! what a den!" said Lucien. "And are you going to drag +that excellent creature into such a business?" he continued, looking +at Florine, who gave them side glances from the stage. + +"She will carry it through too. You do not know the devotion and the +wiles of these beloved beings," said Lousteau. + +"They redeem their failings and expiate all their sins by boundless +love, when they love," said the manager. "A great love is all the +grander in an actress by reason of its violent contrast with her +surroundings." + +"And he who finds it, finds a diamond worthy of the proudest crown +lying in the mud," returned Lousteau. + +"But Coralie is not attending to her part," remarked the manager. +"Coralie is smitten with our friend here, all unsuspicious of his +conquest, and Coralie will make a fiasco; she is missing her cues, +this is the second time she had not heard the prompter. Pray, go into +the corner, monsieur," he continued. "If Coralie is smitten with you, +I will go and tell her that you have left the house." + +"No! no!" cried Lousteau; "tell Coralie that this gentleman is coming +to supper, and that she can do as she likes with him, and she will +play like Mlle. Mars." + +The manager went, and Lucien turned to Etienne. "What! do you mean to +say that you will ask that druggist, through Mlle. Florine, to pay +thirty thousand francs for one-half a share, when Finot gave no more +for the whole of it? And ask without the slightest scruple?----" + +Lousteau interrupted Lucien before he had time to finish his +expostulation. "My dear boy, what country can you come from? The +druggist is not a man; he is a strong box delivered into our hands by +his fancy for an actress." + +"How about your conscience?" + +"Conscience, my dear fellow, is a stick which every one takes up to +beat his neighbor and not for application to his own back. Come, now! +who the devil are you angry with? In one day chance has worked a +miracle for you, a miracle for which I have been waiting these two +years, and you must needs amuse yourself by finding fault with the +means? What! you appear to me to possess intelligence; you seem to be +in a fair way to reach that freedom from prejudice which is a first +necessity to intellectual adventurers in the world we live in; and are +you wallowing in scruples worthy of a nun who accuses herself of +eating an egg with concupiscence? . . . If Florine succeeds, I shall +be editor of a newspaper with a fixed salary of two hundred and fifty +francs per month; I shall take the important plays and leave the +vaudevilles to Vernou, and you can take my place and do the Boulevard +theatres, and so get a foot in the stirrup. You will make three francs +per column and write a column a day--thirty columns a month means +ninety francs; you will have some sixty francs worth of books to sell +to Barbet; and lastly, you can demand ten tickets a month of each of +your theatres--that is, forty tickets in all--and sell them for forty +francs to a Barbet who deals in them (I will introduce you to the +man), so you will have two hundred francs coming in every month. Then +if you make yourself useful to Finot, you might get a hundred francs +for an article in this new weekly review of his, in which case you +would show uncommon talent, for all the articles are signed, and you +cannot put in slip-shod work as you can on a small paper. In that case +you would be making a hundred crowns a month. Now, my dear boy, there +are men of ability, like that poor d'Arthez, who dines at Flicoteaux's +every day, who may wait for ten years before they will make a hundred +crowns; and you will be making four thousand francs a year by your +pen, to say nothing of the books you will write for the trade, if you +do work of that kind. + +"Now, a sub-prefect's salary only amounts to a thousand crowns, and +there he stops in his arrondissement, wearing away time like the rung +of a chair. I say nothing of the pleasure of going to the theatre +without paying for your seat, for that is a delight which quickly +palls; but you can go behind the scenes in four theatres. Be hard and +sarcastic for a month or two, and you will be simply overwhelmed with +invitations from actresses, and their adorers will pay court to you; +you will only dine at Flicoteaux's when you happen to have less than +thirty sous in your pocket and no dinner engagement. At the +Luxembourg, at five o'clock, you did not know which way to turn; now, +you are on the eve of entering a privileged class, you will be one of +the hundred persons who tell France what to think. In three days' +time, if all goes well, you can, if you choose, make a man's life a +curse to him by putting thirty jokes at his expense in print at the +rate of three a day; you can, if you choose, draw a revenue of +pleasure from the actresses at your theatres; you can wreck a good +play and send all Paris running after a bad one. If Dauriat declines +to pay you for your _Marguerites_, you can make him come to you, and +meekly and humbly implore you to take two thousand francs for them. If +you have the ability, and knock off two or three articles that +threaten to spoil some of Dauriat's speculations, or to ruin a book on +which he counts, you will see him come climbing up your stairs like a +clematis, and always at the door of your dwelling. As for your novel, +the booksellers who would show you more or less politely to the door +at this moment will be standing outside your attic in a string, and +the value of the manuscript, which old Doguereau valued at four +hundred francs will rise to four thousand. These are the advantages of +the journalist's profession. So let us do our best to keep all +newcomers out of it. It needs an immense amount of brains to make your +way, and a still greater amount of luck. And here are you quibbling +over your good fortune! If we had not met to-day, you see, at +Flicoteaux's, you might have danced attendance on the booksellers for +another three years, or starved like d'Arthez in a garret. By the time +that d'Arthez is as learned as Bayle and as great a writer of prose as +Rousseau, we shall have made our fortunes, you and I, and we shall +hold his in our hands--wealth and fame to give or to hold. Finot will +be a deputy and proprietor of a great newspaper, and we shall be +whatever we meant to be--peers of France, or prisoner for debt in +Sainte-Pelagie." + +"So Finot will sell his paper to the highest bidder among the +Ministers, just as he sells favorable notices to Mme. Bastienne and +runs down Mlle. Virginie, saying that Mme. Bastienne's bonnets are +superior to the millinery which they praised at first!" said Lucien, +recollecting that scene in the office. + +"My dear fellow, you are a simpleton," Lousteau remarked drily. "Three +years ago Finot was walking on the uppers of his boots, dining for +eighteen sous at Tabar's, and knocking off a tradesman's prospectus +(when he could get it) for ten francs. His clothes hung together by +some miracle as mysterious as the Immaculate Conception. _Now_, Finot +has a paper of his own, worth about a hundred thousand francs. What +with subscribers who pay and take no copies, genuine subscriptions, +and indirect taxes levied by his uncle, he is making twenty thousand +francs a year. He dines most sumptuously every day; he has set up a +cabriolet within the last month; and now, at last, behold him the +editor of a weekly review with a sixth share, for which he will not +pay a penny, a salary of five hundred francs per month, and another +thousand francs for supplying matter which costs him nothing, and for +which the firm pays. You yourself, to begin with, if Finot consents to +pay you fifty francs per sheet, will be only too glad to let him have +two or three articles for nothing. When you are in his position, you +can judge Finot; a man can only be tried by his peers. And for you, is +there not an immense future opening out before you, if you will +blindly minister to his enmity, attack at Finot's bidding, and praise +when he gives the word? Suppose that you yourself wish to be revenged +upon somebody, you can break a foe or friend on the wheel. You have +only to say to me, 'Lousteau, let us put an end to So-and-so,' and we +will kill him by a phrase put in the paper morning by morning; and +afterwards you can slay the slain with a solemn article in Finot's +weekly. Indeed, if it is a matter of capital importance to you, Finot +would allow you to bludgeon your man in a big paper with ten or twelve +thousand subscribers, _if_ you make yourself indispensable to Finot." + +"Then are you sure that Florine can bring her druggist to make the +bargain?" asked Lucien, dazzled by these prospects. + +"Quite sure. Now comes the interval, I will go and tell her everything +at once in a word or two; it will be settled to-night. If Florine once +has her lesson by heart, she will have all my wit and her own +besides." + +"And there sits that honest tradesman, gaping with open-mouthed +admiration at Florine, little suspecting that you are about to get +thirty thousand francs out of him!----" + +"More twaddle! Anybody might think that the man was going to be +robbed!" cried Lousteau. "Why, my dear boy, if the minister buys the +newspaper, the druggist may make twenty thousand francs in six months +on an investment of thirty thousand. Matifat is not looking at the +newspaper, but at Florine's prospects. As soon as it is known that +Matifat and Camusot--(for they will go shares)--that Matifat and +Camusot are proprietors of a review, the newspapers will be full of +friendly notices of Florine and Coralie. Florine's name will be made; +she will perhaps obtain an engagement in another theatre with a salary +of twelve thousand francs. In fact, Matifat will save a thousand +francs every month in dinners and presents to journalists. You know +nothing of men, nor of the way things are managed." + +"Poor man!" said Lucien, "he is looking forward to an evening's +pleasure." + +"And he will be sawn in two with arguments until Florine sees Finot's +receipt for a sixth share of the paper. And to-morrow I shall be +editor of Finot's paper, and making a thousand francs a month. The end +of my troubles is in sight!" cried Florine's lover. + + + +Lousteau went out, and Lucien sat like one bewildered, lost in the +infinite of thought, soaring above this everyday world. In the Wooden +Galleries he had seen the wires by which the trade in books is moved; +he has seen something of the kitchen where great reputations are made; +he had been behind the scenes; he had seen the seamy side of life, the +consciences of men involved in the machinery of Paris, the mechanism +of it all. As he watched Florine on the stage he almost envied +Lousteau his good fortune; already, for a few moments he had forgotten +Matifat in the background. He was not left alone for long, perhaps for +not more than five minutes, but those minutes seemed an eternity. + +Thoughts rose within him that set his soul on fire, as the spectacle +on the stage had heated his senses. He looked at the women with their +wanton eyes, all the brighter for the red paint on their cheeks, at +the gleaming bare necks, the luxuriant forms outlined by the +lascivious folds of the basquina, the very short skirts, that +displayed as much as possible of limbs encased in scarlet stockings +with green clocks to them--a disquieting vision for the pit. + +A double process of corruption was working within him in parallel +lines, like two channels that will spread sooner or later in flood +time and make one. That corruption was eating into Lucien's soul, as +he leaned back in his corner, staring vacantly at the curtain, one arm +resting on the crimson velvet cushion, and his hand drooping over the +edge. He felt the fascination of the life that was offered to him, of +the gleams of light among its clouds; and this so much the more keenly +because it shone out like a blaze of fireworks against the blank +darkness of his own obscure, monotonous days of toil. + +Suddenly his listless eyes became aware of a burning glance that +reached him through a rent in the curtain, and roused him from his +lethargy. Those were Coralie's eyes that glowed upon him. He lowered +his head and looked across at Camusot, who just then entered the +opposite box. + +That amateur was a worthy silk-mercer of the Rue des Bourdonnais, +stout and substantial, a judge in the commercial court, a father of +four children, and the husband of a second wife. At the age of +fifty-six, with a cap of gray hair on his head, he had the smug +appearance of a man who has his eighty thousand francs of income; and +having been forced to put up with a good deal that he did not like in +the way of business, has fully made up his mind to enjoy the rest of +his life, and not to quit this earth until he has had his share of +cakes and ale. A brow the color of fresh butter and florid cheeks like +a monk's jowl seemed scarcely big enough to contain his exuberant +jubilation. Camusot had left his wife at home, and they were applauding +Coralie to the skies. All the rich man's citizen vanity was summed up +and gratified in Coralie; in Coralie's lodging he gave himself the airs +of a great lord of a bygone day; now, at this moment, he felt that half +of her success was his; the knowledge that he had paid for it +confirmed him in this idea. Camusot's conduct was sanctioned by the +presence of his father-in-law, a little old fogy with powdered hair +and leering eyes, highly respected nevertheless. + +Again Lucien felt disgust rising within him. He thought of the year +when he loved Mme. de Bargeton with an exalted and disinterested love; +and at that thought love, as a poet understands it, spread its white +wings about him; countless memories drew a circle of distant blue +horizon about the great man of Angouleme, and again he fell to +dreaming. + +Up went the curtain, and there stood Coralie and Florine upon the +stage. + +"He is thinking about as much of you as of the Grand Turk, my dear +girl," Florine said in an aside while Coralie was finishing her +speech. + +Lucien could not help laughing. He looked at Coralie. She was one of +the most charming and captivating actresses in Paris, rivaling Mme. +Perrin and Mlle. Fleuriet, and destined likewise to share their fate. +Coralie was a woman of a type that exerts at will a power of +fascination over men. With an oval face of deep ivory tint, a mouth +red as a pomegranate, and a chin subtly delicate in its contour as the +edge of a porcelain cup, Coralie was a Jewess of the sublime type. The +jet black eyes behind their curving lashes seemed to scorch her +eyelids; you could guess how soft they might grow, or how sparks of +the heat of the desert might flash from them in response to a summons +from within. The circles of olive shadow about them were bounded by +thick arching lines of eyebrow. Magnificent mental power, well-nigh +amounting to genius, seemed to dwell in the swarthy forehead beneath +the double curve of ebony hair that lay upon it like a crown, and +gleamed in the light like a varnished surface; but like many another +actress, Coralie had little wit in spite of her aptness at greenroom +repartee, and scarcely any education in spite of her boudoir +experience. Her brain was prompted by her senses, her kindness was the +impulsive warm-heartedness of girls of her class. But who could +trouble over Coralie's psychology when his eyes were dazzled by those +smooth, round arms of hers, the spindle-shaped fingers, the fair white +shoulders, and breast celebrated in the Song of Songs, the flexible +curving lines of throat, the graciously moulded outlines beneath the +scarlet silk stockings? And this beauty, worthy of an Eastern poet, +was brought into relief by the conventional Spanish costume of the +stage. Coralie was the delight of the pit; all eyes dwelt on the +outlines moulded by the clinging folds of her bodice, and lingered +over the Andalusian contour of the hips from which her skirt hung, +fluttering wantonly with every movement. To Lucien, watching this +creature, who played for him alone, caring no more for Camusot than a +street-boy in the gallery cares for an apple-paring, there came a +moment when he set desire above love, and enjoyment above desire, and +the demon of Lust stirred strange thoughts in him. + +"I know nothing of the love that wallows in luxury and wine and +sensual pleasure," he said within himself. "I have lived more with +ideas than with realities. You must pass through all experience if you +mean to render all experience. This will be my first great supper, my +first orgy in a new and strange world; why should I not know, for +once, the delights which the great lords of the eighteenth century +sought so eagerly of wantons of the Opera? Must one not first learn of +courtesans and actresses the delights, the perfections, the +transports, the resources, the subtleties of love, if only to +translate them afterwards into the regions of a higher love than this? +And what is all this, after all, but the poetry of the senses? Two +months ago these women seemed to me to be goddesses guarded by dragons +that no one dared approach; I was envying Lousteau just now, but here +is another handsomer than Florine; why should I not profit by her +fancy, when the greatest nobles buy a night with such women with their +richest treasures? When ambassadors set foot in these depths, they +fling aside all thought of yesterday or to-morrow. I should be a fool +to be more squeamish than princes, especially as I love no one as +yet." + +Lucien had quite forgotten Camusot. To Lousteau he had expressed the +utmost disgust for this most hateful of all partitions, and now he +himself had sunk to the same level, and, carried away by the casuistry +of his vehement desire, had given the reins to his fancy. + +"Coralie is raving about you," said Lousteau as he came in. "Your +countenance, worthy of the greatest Greek sculptors, has worked +unutterable havoc behind the scenes. You are in luck my dear boy. +Coralie is eighteen years old, and in a few days' time she may be +making sixty thousand francs a year by her beauty. She is an honest +girl still. Since her mother sold her three years ago for sixty +thousand francs, she has tried to find happiness, and found nothing +but annoyance. She took to the stage in a desperate mood; she has a +horror of her first purchaser, de Marsay; and when she came out of the +galleys, for the king of dandies soon dropped her, she picked up old +Camusot. She does not care much about him, but he is like a father to +her, and she endures him and his love. Several times already she has +refused the handsomest proposals; she is faithful to Camusot, who lets +her live in peace. So you are her first love. The first sight of you +went to her heart like a pistol-shot, Florine has gone to her +dressing-room to bring the girl to reason. She is crying over your +cruelty; she has forgotten her part, the play will go to pieces, and +good-day to the engagement at the Gymnase which Camusot had planned +for her." + +"Pooh! . . . Poor thing!" said Lucien. Every instinct of vanity was +tickled by the words; he felt his heart swell high with self-conceit. +"More adventures have befallen me in this one evening, my dear fellow, +than in all the first eighteen years of my life." And Lucien related +the history of his love affairs with Mme. de Bargeton, and of the +cordial hatred he bore the Baron du Chatelet. + +"Stay though! the newspaper wants a _bete noire_; we will take him up. +The Baron is a buck of the Empire and a Ministerialist; he is the man +for us; I have seen him many a time at the Opera. I can see your great +lady as I sit here; she is often in the Marquise d'Espard's box. The +Baron is paying court to your lady love, a cuttlefish bone that she +is. Wait! Finot has just sent a special messenger round to say that +they are short of copy at the office. Young Hector Merlin has left +them in the lurch because they did not pay for white lines. Finot, in +despair, is knocking off an article against the Opera. Well now, my +dear fellow, you can do this play; listen to it and think it over, and +I will go to the manager's office and think out three columns about +your man and your disdainful fair one. They will be in no pleasant +predicament to-morrow." + +"So this is how a newspaper is written?" said Lucien. + +"It is always like this," answered Lousteau. "These ten months that I +have been a journalist, they have always run short of copy at eight +o'clock in the evening." + +Manuscript sent to the printer is spoken of as "copy," doubtless +because the writers are supposed to send in a fair copy of their work; +or possibly the word is ironically derived from the Latin word _copia_, +for copy is invariably scarce. + +"We always mean to have a few numbers ready in advance, a grand idea +that will never be realized," continued Lousteau. "It is ten o'clock, +you see, and not a line has been written. I shall ask Vernou and +Nathan for a score of epigrams on deputies, or on 'Chancellor Cruzoe,' +or on the Ministry, or on friends of ours if it needs must be. A man +in this pass would slaughter his parent, just as a privateer will load +his guns with silver pieces taken out of the booty sooner than perish. +Write a brilliant article, and you will make brilliant progress in +Finot's estimation; for Finot has a lively sense of benefits to come, +and that sort of gratitude is better than any kind of pledge, +pawntickets always excepted, for they invariably represent something +solid." + +"What kind of men can journalists be? Are you to sit down at a table +and be witty to order?" + +"Just exactly as a lamp begins to burn when you apply a match--so long +as there is any oil in it." + +Lousteau's hand was on the lock when du Bruel came in with the +manager. + +"Permit me, monsieur, to take a message to Coralie; allow me to tell +her that you will go home with her after supper, or my play will be +ruined. The wretched girl does not know what she is doing or saying; +she will cry when she ought to laugh and laugh when she ought to cry. +She has been hissed once already. You can still save the piece, and, +after all, pleasure is not a misfortune." + +"I am not accustomed to rivals, sir," Lucien answered. + +"Pray don't tell her that!" cried the manager. "Coralie is just the +girl to fling Camusot overboard and ruin herself in good earnest. The +proprietor of the _Golden Cocoon_, worthy man, allows her two thousand +francs a month, and pays for all her dresses and _claqueurs_." + +"As your promise pledges me to nothing, save your play," said Lucien, +with a sultan's airs. + +"But don't look as if you meant to snub that charming creature," +pleaded du Bruel. + +"Dear me! am I to write the notice of your play and smile on your +heroine as well?" exclaimed the poet. + +The author vanished with a signal to Coralie, who began to act +forthwith in a marvelous way. Vignol, who played the part of the +alcalde, and revealed for the first time his genius as an actor of old +men, came forward amid a storm of applause to make an announcement to +the house. + +"The piece which we have the honor of playing for you this evening, +gentlemen, is the work of MM. Raoul and de Cursy." + +"Why, Nathan is partly responsible," said Lousteau. "I don't wonder +that he looked in." + +"Coralie_! Coralie_!" shouted the enraptured house. "Florine, too!" +roared a voice of thunder from the opposite box, and other voices took +up the cry, "Florine and Coralie!" + +The curtain rose, Vignol reappeared between the two actresses; Matifat +and Camusot flung wreaths on the stage, and Coralie stooped for her +flowers and held them out to Lucien. + +For him those two hours spent in the theatre seemed to be a dream. The +spell that held him had begun to work when he went behind the scenes; +and, in spite of its horrors, the atmosphere of the place, its +sensuality and dissolute morals had affected the poet's still +untainted nature. A sort of malaria that infects the soul seems to +lurk among those dark, filthy passages filled with machinery, and lit +with smoky, greasy lamps. The solemnity and reality of life disappear, +the most sacred things are matter for a jest, the most impossible +things seem to be true. Lucien felt as if he had taken some narcotic, +and Coralie had completed the work. He plunged into this joyous +intoxication. + +The lights in the great chandelier were extinguished; there was no one +left in the house except the boxkeepers, busy taking away footstools +and shutting doors, the noises echoing strangely through the empty +theatre. The footlights, blown out as one candle, sent up a fetid reek +of smoke. The curtain rose again, a lantern was lowered from the +ceiling, and firemen and stage carpenters departed on their rounds. +The fairy scenes of the stage, the rows of fair faces in the boxes, +the dazzling lights, the magical illusion of new scenery and costume +had all disappeared, and dismal darkness, emptiness, and cold reigned +in their stead. It was hideous. Lucien sat on in bewilderment. + +"Well! are you coming, my boy?" Lousteau's voice called from the +stage. "Jump down." + +Lucien sprang over. He scarcely recognized Florine and Coralie in +their ordinary quilted paletots and cloaks, with their faces hidden by +hats and thick black veils. Two butterflies returned to the chrysalis +stage could not be more completely transformed. + +"Will you honor me by giving me your arm?" Coralie asked tremulously. + +"With pleasure," said Lucien. He could feel the beating of her heart +throbbing against his like some snared bird as she nestled closely to +his side, with something of the delight of a cat that rubs herself +against her master with eager silken caresses. + +"So we are supping together!" she said. + +The party of four found two cabs waiting for them at the door in the +Rue des Fosses-du-Temple. Coralie drew Lucien to one of the two, in +which Camusot and his father-in-law old Cardot were seated already. +She offered du Bruel a fifth place, and the manager drove off with +Florine, Matifat, and Lousteau. + +"These hackney cabs are abominable things," said Coralie. + +"Why don't you have a carriage?" returned du Bruel. + +"_Why_?" she asked pettishly. "I do not like to tell you before M. +Cardot's face; for he trained his son-in-law, no doubt. Would you +believe it, little and old as he is, M. Cardot only gives Florine five +hundred francs a month, just about enough to pay for her rent and her +grub and her clothes. The old Marquis de Rochegude offered me a +brougham two months ago, and he has six hundred thousand francs a +year, but I am an artist and not a common hussy." + +"You shall have a carriage the day after to-morrow, miss," said +Camusot benignly; "you never asked me for one." + +"As if one _asked_ for such a thing as that? What! you love a woman and +let her paddle about in the mud at the risk of breaking her legs? +Nobody but a knight of the yardstick likes to see a draggled skirt +hem." + +As she uttered the sharp words that cut Camusot to the quick, she +groped for Lucien's knee, and pressed it against her own, and clasped +her fingers upon his hand. She was silent. All her power to feel +seemed to be concentrated upon the ineffable joy of a moment which +brings compensation for the whole wretched past of a life such as +these poor creatures lead, and develops within their souls a poetry of +which other women, happily ignorant of these violent revulsions, know +nothing. + +"You played like Mlle. Mars herself towards the end," said du Bruel. + +"Yes," said Camusot, "something put her out at the beginning; but from +the middle of the second act to the very end, she was enough to drive +you wild with admiration. Half of the success of your play was due to +her." + +"And half of her success is due to me," said du Bruel. + +"This is all much ado about nothing," said Coralie in an unfamiliar +voice. And, seizing an opportunity in the darkness, she carried +Lucien's hand to her lips and kissed it and drenched it with tears. +Lucien felt thrilled through and through by that touch, for in the +humility of the courtesan's love there is a magnificence which might +set an example to angels. + +"Are you writing the dramatic criticism, monsieur?" said du Bruel, +addressing Lucien; "you can write a charming paragraph about our dear +Coralie." + +"Oh! do us that little service!" pleaded Camusot, down on his knees, +metaphorically speaking, before the critic. "You will always find me +ready to do you a good turn at any time." + +"Do leave him his independence," Coralie exclaimed angrily; "he will +write what he pleases. Papa Camusot, buy carriages for me instead of +praises." + +"You shall have them on very easy terms," Lucien answered politely. "I +have never written for newspapers before, so I am not accustomed to +their ways, my maiden pen is at your disposal----" + +"That is funny," said du Bruel. + +"Here we are in the Rue de Bondy," said Cardot. Coralie's sally had +quite crushed the little old man. + +"If you are giving me the first fruits of your pen, the first love +that has sprung up in my heart shall be yours," whispered Coralie in +the brief instant that they remained alone together in the cab; then +she went up to Florine's bedroom to change her dress for a toilette +previously sent. + +Lucien had no idea how lavishly a prosperous merchant will spend money +upon an actress or a mistress when he means to enjoy a life of +pleasure. Matifat was not nearly so rich a man as his friend Camusot, +and he had done his part rather shabbily, yet the sight of the +dining-room took Lucien by surprise. The walls were hung with green +cloth with a border of gilded nails, the whole room was artistically +decorated, lighted by handsome lamps, stands full of flowers stood in +every direction. The drawing-room was resplendent with the furniture +in fashion in those days--a Thomire chandelier, a carpet of Eastern +design, and yellow silken hangings relieved by a brown border. The +candlesticks, fire-irons, and clock were all in good taste; for +Matifat had left everything to Grindot, a rising architect, who was +building a house for him, and the young man had taken great pains with +the rooms when he knew that Florine was to occupy them. + +Matifat, a tradesman to the backbone, went about carefully, afraid to +touch the new furniture; he seemed to have the totals of the bills +always before his eyes, and to look upon the splendors about him as so +much jewelry imprudently withdrawn from the case. + +"And I shall be obliged to do as much for Florentine!" old Cardot's +eyes seemed to say. + +Lucien at once began to understand Lousteau's indifference to the +state of his garret. Etienne was the real king of these festivals; +Etienne enjoyed the use of all these fine things. He was standing just +now on the hearthrug with his back to the fire, as if he were the +master of the house, chatting with the manager, who was congratulating +du Bruel. + +"Copy, copy!" called Finot, coming into the room. "There is nothing in +the box; the printers are setting up my article, and they will soon +have finished." + +"We will manage," said Etienne. "There is a fire burning in Florine's +boudoir; there is a table there; and if M. Matifat will find us paper +and ink, we will knock off the newspaper while Florine and Coralie are +dressing." + +Cardot, Camusot, and Matifat disappeared in search of quills, +penknives, and everything necessary. Suddenly the door was flung open, +and Tullia, one of the prettiest opera-dancers of the day, dashed into +the room. + +"They agree to take the hundred copies, dear boy!" she cried, +addressing Finot; "they won't cost the management anything, for the +chorus and the orchestra and the _corps de ballet_ are to take them +whether they like it or not; but your paper is so clever that nobody +will grumble. And you are going to have your boxes. Here is the +subscription for the first quarter," she continued, holding out a +couple of banknotes; "so don't cut me up!" + +"It is all over with me!" groaned Finot; "I must suppress my +abominable diatribe, and I haven't another notion in my head." + +"What a happy inspiration, divine Lais!" exclaimed Blondet, who had +followed the lady upstairs and brought Nathan, Vernou and Claude +Vignon with him. "Stop to supper, there is a dear, or I will crush +thee, butterfly as thou art. There will be no professional jealousies, +as you are a dancer; and as to beauty, you have all of you too much +sense to show jealousy in public." + +"Oh dear!" cried Finot, "Nathan, Blondet, du Bruel, help friends! I +want five columns." + +"I can make two of the play," said Lucien. + +"I have enough for one," added Lousteau. + +"Very well; Nathan, Vernou, and du Bruel will make the jokes at the +end; and Blondet, good fellow, surely will vouchsafe a couple of short +columns for the first sheet. I will run round to the printer. It is +lucky that you brought your carriage, Tullia." + +"Yes, but the Duke is waiting below in it, and he has a German +Minister with him." + +"Ask the Duke and the Minister to come up," said Nathan. + +"A German? They are the ones to drink, and they listen too; he shall +hear some astonishing things to send home to his Government," cried +Blondet. + +"Is there any sufficiently serious personage to go down to speak to +him?" asked Finot. "Here, du Bruel, you are an official; bring up the +Duc de Rhetore and the Minister, and give your arm to Tullia. Dear me! +Tullia, how handsome you are to-night!" + +"We shall be thirteen at table!" exclaimed Matifat, paling visibly. + +"No, fourteen," said a voice in the doorway, and Florentine appeared. +"I have come to look after 'milord Cardot,'" she added, speaking with +a burlesque English accent. + +"And besides," said Lousteau, "Claude Vignon came with Blondet." + +"I brought him here to drink," returned Blondet, taking up an +inkstand. "Look here, all of you, you must use all your wit before +those fifty-six bottles of wine drive it out. And, of all things, stir +up du Bruel; he is a vaudevillist, he is capable of making bad jokes +if you get him to concert pitch." + +And Lucien wrote his first newspaper article at the round table in +Florine's boudoir, by the light of the pink candles lighted by +Matifat; before such a remarkable audience he was eager to show what +he could do. + + + THE PANORAMA-DRAMATIQUE. + + First performance of the _Alcalde in a Fix_, an imbroglio in three + acts.--First appearance of Mademoiselle Florine.--Mademoiselle + Coralie.--Vignol. + + + People are coming and going, walking and talking, everybody is + looking for something, nobody finds anything. General hubbub. The + Alcalde has lost his daughter and found his cap, but the cap does + not fit; it must belong to some thief. Where is the thief? People + walk and talk, and come and go more than ever. Finally the Alcalde + finds a man without his daughter, and his daughter without the + man, which is satisfactory for the magistrate, but not for the + audience. Quiet being resorted, the Alcalde tries to examine the + man. Behold a venerable Alcalde, sitting in an Alcalde's great + armchair, arranging the sleeves of his Alcalde's gown. Only in + Spain do Alcaldes cling to their enormous sleeves and wear plaited + lawn ruffles about the magisterial throat, a good half of an + Alcalde's business on the stage in Paris. This particular Alcalde, + wheezing and waddling about like an asthmatic old man, is Vignol, + on whom Potier's mantle has fallen; a young actor who personates + old age so admirably that the oldest men in the audience cannot + help laughing. With that quavering voice of his, that bald + forehead, and those spindle shanks trembling under the weight of a + senile frame, he may look forward to a long career of decrepitude. + There is something alarming about the young actor's old age; he is + so very old; you feel nervous lest senility should be infectious. + And what an admirable Alcalde he makes! What a delightful, uneasy + smile! what pompous stupidity! what wooden dignity! what judicial + hesitation! How well the man knows that black may be white, or + white black! How eminently well he is fitted to be Minister to a + constitutional monarch! The stranger answers every one of his + inquiries by a question; Vignol retorts in such a fashion, that + the person under examination elicits all the truth from the + Alcalde. This piece of pure comedy, with a breath of Moliere + throughout, puts the house in good humor. The people on the stage + all seemed to understand what they were about, but I am quite + unable to clear up the mystery, or to say wherein it lay; for the + Alcalde's daughter was there, personified by a living, breathing + Andalusian, a Spaniard with a Spaniard's eyes, a Spaniard's + complexion, a Spaniard's gait and figure, a Spaniard from top to + toe, with her poniard in her garter, love in her heart, and a + cross on the ribbon about her neck. When the act was over, and + somebody asked me how the piece was going, I answered, "She wears + scarlet stockings with green clocks to them; she has a little + foot, no larger than _that_, in her patent leather shoes, and the + prettiest pair of ankles in Andalusia!" Oh! that Alcalde's + daughter brings your heart into your mouth; she tantalizes you so + horribly, that you long to spring upon the stage and offer her + your thatched hovel and your heart, or thirty thousand livres per + annum and your pen. The Andalusian is the loveliest actress in + Paris. Coralie, for she must be called by her real name, can be a + countess or a _grisette_, and in which part she would be more + charming one cannot tell. She can be anything that she chooses; + she is born to achieve all possibilities; can more be said of a + boulevard actress? + + With the second act, a Parisian Spaniard appeared upon the scene, + with her features cut like a cameo and her dangerous eyes. "Where + does she come from?" I asked in my turn, and was told that she + came from the greenroom, and that she was Mademoiselle Florine; + but, upon my word, I could not believe a syllable of it, such + spirit was there in her gestures, such frenzy in her love. She is + the rival of the Alcalde's daughter, and married to a grandee cut + out to wear an Almaviva's cloak, with stuff sufficient in it for a + hundred boulevard noblemen. Mlle. Florine wore neither scarlet + stockings with green clocks, nor patent leather shoes, but she + appeared in a mantilla, a veil which she put to admirable uses, + like the great lady that she is! She showed to admiration that the + tigress can be a cat. I began to understand, from the sparkling + talk between the two, that some drama of jealousy was going on; + and just as everything was put right, the Alcalde's stupidity + embroiled everybody again. Torchbearers, rich men, footmen, + Figaros, grandees, alcaldes, dames, and damsels--the whole company + on the stage began to eddy about, and come and go, and look for + one another. The plot thickened, again I left it to thicken; for + Florine the jealous and the happy Coralie had entangled me once + more in the folds of mantilla and basquina, and their little feet + were twinkling in my eyes. + + I managed, however, to reach the third act without any mishap. The + commissary of police was not compelled to interfere, and I did + nothing to scandalize the house, wherefore I begin to believe in + the influence of that "public and religious morality," about which + the Chamber of Deputies is so anxious, that any one might think + there was no morality left in France. I even contrived to gather + that a man was in love with two women who failed to return his + affection, or else that two women were in love with a man who + loved neither of them; the man did not love the Alcalde, or the + Alcalde had no love for the man, who was nevertheless a gallant + gentleman, and in love with somebody, with himself, perhaps, or + with heaven, if the worst came to the worst, for he becomes a + monk. And if you want to know any more, you can go to the + Panorama-Dramatique. You are hereby given fair warning--you must + go once to accustom yourself to those irresistible scarlet + stockings with the green clocks, to little feet full of promises, + to eyes with a ray of sunlight shining through them, to the subtle + charm of a Parisienne disguised as an Andalusian girl, and of an + Andalusian masquerading as a Parisienne. You must go a second time + to enjoy the play, to shed tears over the love-distracted grandee, + and die of laughing at the old Alcalde. The play is twice a + success. The author, who writes it, it is said, in collaboration + with one of the great poets of the day, was called before the + curtain, and appeared with a love-distraught damsel on each arm, + and fairly brought down the excited house. The two dancers seemed + to have more wit in their legs than the author himself; but when + once the fair rivals left the stage, the dialogue seemed witty at + once, a triumphant proof of the excellence of the piece. The + applause and calls for the author caused the architect some + anxiety; but M. de Cursy, the author, being accustomed to volcanic + eruptions of the reeling Vesuvius beneath the chandelier, felt no + tremor. As for the actresses, they danced the famous bolero of + Seville, which once found favor in the sight of a council of + reverend fathers, and escaped ecclesiastical censure in spite of + its wanton dangerous grace. The bolero in itself would be enough + to attract old age while there is any lingering heat of youth in + the veins, and out of charity I warn these persons to keep the + lenses of their opera-glasses well polished. + + +While Lucien was writing a column which was to set a new fashion in +journalism and reveal a fresh and original gift, Lousteau indited an +article of the kind described as _moeurs_--a sketch of contemporary +manners, entitled _The Elderly Beau_. + + +"The buck of the Empire," he wrote, "is invariably long, slender, and +well preserved. He wears a corset and the Cross of the Legion of +Honor. His name was originally Potelet, or something very like it; but +to stand well with the Court, he conferred a _du_ upon himself, and +_du_ Potelet he is until another revolution. A baron of the Empire, a +man of two ends, as his name (_Potelet_, a post) implies, he is paying +his court to the Faubourg Saint-Germain, after a youth gloriously and +usefully spent as the agreeable trainbearer of a sister of the man +whom decency forbids me to mention by name. Du Potelet has forgotten +that he was once in waiting upon Her Imperial Highness; but he still +sings the songs composed for the benefactress who took such a tender +interest in his career," and so forth and so forth. It was a tissue of +personalities, silly enough for the most part, such as they used to +write in those days. Other papers, and notably the _Figaro_, have +brought the art to a curious perfection since. Lousteau compared the +Baron to a heron, and introduced Mme. de Bargeton, to whom he was +paying his court, as a cuttlefish bone, a burlesque absurdity which +amused readers who knew neither of the personages. A tale of the loves +of the Heron, who tried in vain to swallow the Cuttlefish bone, which +broke into three pieces when he dropped it, was irresistibly +ludicrous. Everybody remembers the sensation which the pleasantry made +in the Faubourg Saint-Germain; it was the first of a series of similar +articles, and was one of the thousand and one causes which provoked +the rigorous press legislation of Charles X. + +An hour later, Blondet, Lousteau, and Lucien came back to the +drawing-room, where the other guests were chatting. The Duke was there +and the Minister, the four women, the three merchants, the manager, +and Finot. A printer's devil, with a paper cap on his head, was +waiting even then for copy. + +"The men are just going off, if I have nothing to take them," he said. + +"Stay a bit, here are ten francs, and tell them to wait," said Finot. + +"If I give them the money, sir, they would take to tippleography, and +good-night to the newspaper." + +"That boy's common-sense is appalling to me," remarked Finot; and the +Minister was in the middle of a prediction of a brilliant future for +the urchin, when the three came in. Blondet read aloud an extremely +clever article against the Romantics; Lousteau's paragraph drew +laughter, and by the Duc de Rhetore's advice an indirect eulogium of +Mme. d'Espard was slipped in, lest the whole Faubourg Saint-Germain +should take offence. + +"What have _you_ written?" asked Finot, turning to Lucien. + +And Lucien read, quaking for fear, but the room rang with applause +when he finished; the actresses embraced the neophyte; and the two +merchants, following suit, half choked the breath out of him. There +were tears in du Bruel's eyes as he grasped his critic's hand, and the +manager invited him to dinner. + +"There are no children nowadays," said Blondet. "Since M. de +Chateaubriand called Victor Hugo a 'sublime child,' I can only tell +you quite simply that you have spirit and taste, and write like a +gentleman." + +"He is on the newspaper," said Finot, as he thanked Etienne, and gave +him a shrewd glance. + +"What jokes have you made?" inquired Lousteau, turning to Blondet and +du Bruel. + +"Here are du Bruel's," said Nathan. + + + *** "Now, that M. le Vicomte d'A---- is attracting so much + attention, they will perhaps let _me_ alone," M. le Vicomte + Demosthenes was heard to say yesterday. + + + *** An Ultra, condemning M. Pasquier's speech, said his programme + was only a continuation of Decaze's policy. "Yes," said a lady, + "but he stands on a Monarchical basis, he has just the kind of leg + for a Court suit." + + +"With such a beginning, I don't ask more of you," said Finot; "it will +be all right.--Run round with this," he added, turning to the boy; +"the paper is not exactly a genuine article, but it is our best number +yet," and he turned to the group of writers. Already Lucien's +colleagues were privately taking his measure. + +"That fellow has brains," said Blondet. + +"His article is well written," said Claude Vignon. + +"Supper!" cried Matifat. + +The Duke gave his arm to Florine, Coralie went across to Lucien, and +Tullia went in to supper between Emile Blondet and the German +Minister. + +"I cannot understand why you are making an onslaught on Mme. de +Bargeton and the Baron du Chatelet; they say that he is +prefect-designate of the Charente, and will be Master of Requests +some day." + +"Mme. de Bargeton showed Lucien the door as if he had been an +imposter," said Lousteau. + +"Such a fine young fellow!" exclaimed the Minister. + +Supper, served with new plate, Sevres porcelain, and white damask, was +redolent of opulence. The dishes were from Chevet, the wines from a +celebrated merchant on the Quai Saint-Bernard, a personal friend of +Matifat's. For the first time Lucien beheld the luxury of Paris +displayed; he went from surprise to surprise, but he kept his +astonishment to himself, like a man who had spirit and taste and wrote +like a gentleman, as Blondet had said. + +As they crossed the drawing-room, Coralie bent to Florine, "Make +Camusot so drunk that he will be compelled to stop here all night," +she whispered. + +"So you have hooked your journalist, have you?" returned Florine, +using the idiom of women of her class. + +"No, dear; I love him," said Coralie, with an adorable little shrug of +the shoulders. + +Those words rang in Lucien's ears, borne to them by the fifth deadly +sin. Coralie was perfectly dressed. Every woman possesses some +personal charm in perfection, and Coralie's toilette brought her +characteristic beauty into prominence. Her dress, moreover, like +Florine's, was of some exquisite stuff, unknown as yet to the public, +a _mousseline de soie_, with which Camusot had been supplied a few days +before the rest of the world; for, as owner of the _Golden Cocoon_, he +was a kind of Providence in Paris to the Lyons silkweavers. + +Love and toilet are like color and perfume for a woman, and Coralie in +her happiness looked lovelier than ever. A looked-for delight which +cannot elude the grasp possesses an immense charm for youth; perhaps +in their eyes the secret of the attraction of a house of pleasure lies +in the certainty of gratification; perhaps many a long fidelity is +attributable to the same cause. Love for love's sake, first love +indeed, had blent with one of the strange violent fancies which +sometimes possess these poor creatures; and love and admiration of +Lucien's great beauty taught Coralie to express the thoughts in her +heart. + +"I should love you if you were ill and ugly," she whispered as they +sat down. + +What a saying for a poet! Camusot utterly vanished, Lucien had +forgotten his existence, he saw Coralie, and had eyes for nothing +else. How should he draw back--this creature, all sensation, all +enjoyment of life, tired of the monotony of existence in a country +town, weary of poverty, harassed by enforced continence, impatient of +the claustral life of the Rue de Cluny, of toiling without reward? The +fascination of the under world of Paris was upon him; how should he +rise and leave this brilliant gathering? Lucien stood with one foot in +Coralie's chamber and the other in the quicksands of Journalism. After +so much vain search, and climbing of so many stairs, after standing +about and waiting in the Rue de Sentier, he had found Journalism a +jolly boon companion, joyous over the wine. His wrongs had just been +avenged. There were two for whom he had vainly striven to fill the cup +of humiliation and pain which he had been made to drink to the dregs, +and now to-morrow they should receive a stab in their very hearts. +"Here is a real friend!" he thought, as he looked at Lousteau. It +never crossed his mind that Lousteau already regarded him as a +dangerous rival. He had made a blunder; he had done his very best when +a colorless article would have served him admirably well. Blondet's +remark to Finot that it would be better to come to terms with a man of +that calibre, had counteracted Lousteau's gnawing jealousy. He +reflected that it would be prudent to keep on good terms with Lucien, +and, at the same time, to arrange with Finot to exploit this +formidable newcomer--he must be kept in poverty. The decision was made +in a moment, and the bargain made in a few whispered words. + +"He has talent." + +"He will want the more." + +"Ah?" + +"Good!" + +"A supper among French journalists always fills me with dread," said +the German diplomatist, with serene urbanity; he looked as he spoke at +Blondet, whom he had met at the Comtesse de Montcornet's. "It is laid +upon you, gentlemen, to fulfil a prophecy of Blucher's." + +"What prophecy?" asked Nathan. + +"When Blucher and Sacken arrived on the heights of Montmartre in 1814 +(pardon me, gentlemen, for recalling a day unfortunate for France), +Sacken (a rough brute), remarked, 'Now we will set Paris alight!' +--'Take very good care that you don't,' said Blucher. 'France will die +of _that_, nothing else can kill her,' and he waved his hand over the +glowing, seething city, that lay like a huge canker in the valley of +the Seine.--There are no journalists in our country, thank Heaven!" +continued the Minister after a pause. "I have not yet recovered from +the fright that the little fellow gave me, a boy of ten, in a paper +cap, with the sense of an old diplomatist. And to-night I feel as if I +were supping with lions and panthers, who graciously sheathe their +claws in my honor." + +"It is clear," said Blondet, "that we are at liberty to inform Europe +that a serpent dropped from your Excellency's lips this evening, and +that the venomous creature failed to inoculate Mlle. Tullia, the +prettiest dancer in Paris; and to follow up the story with a +commentary on Eve, and the Scriptures, and the first and last +transgression. But have no fear, you are our guest." + +"It would be funny," said Finot. + +"We would begin with a scientific treatise on all the serpents found +in the human heart and human body, and so proceed to the _corps +diplomatique_," said Lousteau. + +"And we could exhibit one in spirits, in a bottle of brandied +cherries," said Vernou. + +"Till you yourself would end by believing in the story," added Vignon, +looking at the diplomatist. + +"Gentlemen," cried the Duc de Rhetore, "let sleeping claws lie." + +"The influence and power of the press is only dawning," said Finot. +"Journalism is in its infancy; it will grow. In ten years' time, +everything will be brought into publicity. The light of thought will +be turned on all subjects, and----" + +"The blight of thought will be over it all," corrected Blondet. + +"Here is an apothegm," cried Claude Vignon. + +"Thought will make kings," said Lousteau. + +"And undo monarchs," said the German. + +"And therefore," said Blondet, "if the press did not exist, it would +be necessary to invent it forthwith. But here we have it, and live by +it." + +"You will die of it," returned the German diplomatist. "Can you not +see that if you enlighten the masses, and raise them in the political +scale, you make it all the harder for the individual to rise above +their level? Can you not see that if you sow the seeds of reasoning +among the working-classes, you will reap revolt, and be the first to +fall victims? What do they smash in Paris when a riot begins?" + +"The street-lamps!" said Nathan; "but we are too modest to fear for +ourselves, we only run the risk of cracks." + +"As a nation, you have too much mental activity to allow any +government to run its course without interference. But for that, you +would make the conquest of Europe a second time, and win with the pen +all that you failed to keep with the sword." + +"Journalism is an evil," said Claude Vignon. "The evil may have its +uses, but the present Government is resolved to put it down. There +will be a battle over it. Who will give way? That is the question." + +"The Government will give way," said Blondet. "I keep telling people +that with all my might! Intellectual power is _the_ great power in +France; and the press has more wit than all men of intellect put +together, and the hypocrisy of Tartufe besides." + +"Blondet! Blondet! you are going too far!" called Finot. "Subscribers +are present." + +"You are the proprietor of one of those poison shops; you have reason +to be afraid; but I can laugh at the whole business, even if I live by +it." + +"Blondet is right," said Claude Vignon. "Journalism, so far from being +in the hands of a priesthood, came to be first a party weapon, and +then a commercial speculation, carried on without conscience or +scruple, like other commercial speculations. Every newspaper, as +Blondet says, is a shop to which people come for opinions of the right +shade. If there were a paper for hunchbacks, it would set forth +plainly, morning and evening, in its columns, the beauty, the utility, +and necessity of deformity. A newspaper is not supposed to enlighten +its readers, but to supply them with congenial opinions. Give any +newspaper time enough, and it will be base, hypocritical, shameless, +and treacherous; the periodical press will be the death of ideas, +systems, and individuals; nay, it will flourish upon their decay. It +will take the credit of all creations of the brain; the harm that it +does is done anonymously. We, for instance--I, Claude Vignon; you, +Blondet; you, Lousteau; and you, Finot--we are all Platos, Aristides, +and Catos, Plutarch's men, in short; we are all immaculate; we may +wash our hands of all iniquity. Napoleon's sublime aphorism, suggested +by his study of the Convention, 'No one individual is responsible for +a crime committed collectively,' sums up the whole significance of a +phenomenon, moral or immoral, whichever you please. However shamefully +a newspaper may behave, the disgrace attaches to no one person." + +"The authorities will resort to repressive legislation," interposed du +Bruel. "A law is going to be passed, in fact." + +"Pooh!" retorted Nathan. "What is the law in France against the spirit +in which it is received, the most subtle of all solvents?" + +"Ideas and opinions can only be counteracted by opinions and ideas," +Vignon continued. "By sheer terror and despotism, and by no other +means, can you extinguish the genius of the French nation; for the +language lends itself admirably to allusion and ambiguity. Epigram +breaks out the more for repressive legislation; it is like steam in an +engine without a safety-valve.--The King, for example, does right; if +a newspaper is against him, the Minister gets all the credit of the +measure, and _vice versa_. A newspaper invents a scandalous libel--it +has been misinformed. If the victim complains, the paper gets off with +an apology for taking so great a freedom. If the case is taken into +court, the editor complains that nobody asked him to rectify the +mistake; but ask for redress, and he will laugh in your face and treat +his offence as a mere trifle. The paper scoffs if the victim gains the +day; and if heavy damages are awarded, the plaintiff is held up as an +unpatriotic obscurantist and a menace to the liberties of the country. +In the course of an article purporting to explain that Monsieur +So-and-so is as honest a man as you will find in the kingdom, you are +informed that he is not better than a common thief. The sins of the +press? Pooh! mere trifles; the curtailers of its liberties are +monsters; and give him time enough, the constant reader is persuaded +to believe anything you please. Everything which does not suit the +newspaper will be unpatriotic, and the press will be infallible. One +religion will be played off against another, and the Charter against +the King. The press will hold up the magistracy to scorn for meting +out rigorous justice to the press, and applaud its action when it +serves the cause of party hatred. The most sensational fictions will +be invented to increase the circulation; Journalism will descend to +mountebanks' tricks worthy of Bobeche; Journalism would serve up its +father with the Attic salt of its own wit sooner than fail to interest +or amuse the public; Journalism will outdo the actor who put his son's +ashes into the urn to draw real tears from his eyes, or the mistress +who sacrifices everything to her lover." + +"Journalism is, in fact, the People in folio form," interrupted +Blondet. + +"The people with hypocrisy added and generosity lacking," said Vignon. +"All real ability will be driven out from the ranks of Journalism, as +Aristides was driven into exile by the Athenians. We shall see +newspapers started in the first instance by men of honor, falling +sooner or later into the hands of men of abilities even lower than the +average, but endowed with the resistance of flexibility of +india-rubber, qualities denied to noble genius; nay, perhaps the future +newspaper proprietor will be the tradesman with capital sufficient to +buy venal pens. We see such things already indeed, but in ten years' +time every little youngster that has left school will take himself for +a great man, slash his predecessors from the lofty height of a +newspaper column, drag them down by the feet, and take their place. + +"Napoleon did wisely when he muzzled the press. I would wager that the +Opposition papers would batter down a government of their own setting +up, just as they are battering the present government, if any demand +was refused. The more they have, the more they will want in the way of +concessions. The _parvenu_ journalist will be succeeded by the +starveling hack. There is no salve for this sore. It is a kind of +corruption which grows more and more obtrusive and malignant; the +wider it spreads, the more patiently it will be endured, until the day +comes when newspapers shall so increase and multiply in the earth that +confusion will be the result--a second Babel. We, all of us, such as +we are, have reason to know that crowned kings are less ungrateful +than kings of our profession; that the most sordid man of business is +not so mercenary nor so keen in speculation; that our brains are +consumed to furnish their daily supply of poisonous trash. And yet we, +all of us, shall continue to write, like men who work in quicksilver +mines, knowing that they are doomed to die of their trade. + +"Look there," he continued, "at that young man sitting beside Coralie +--what is his name? Lucien! He has a beautiful face; he is a poet; and +what is more, he is witty--so much the better for him. Well, he will +cross the threshold of one of those dens where a man's intellect is +prostituted; he will put all his best and finest thought into his +work; he will blunt his intellect and sully his soul; he will be +guilty of anonymous meannesses which take the place of stratagem, +pillage, and ratting to the enemy in the warfare of _condottieri_. And +when, like hundreds more, he has squandered his genius in the service +of others who find the capital and do no work, those dealers in +poisons will leave him to starve if he is thirsty, and to die of +thirst if he is starving." + +"Thanks," said Finot. + +"But, dear me," continued Claude Vignon, "_I_ knew all this, yet here +am I in the galleys, and the arrival of another convict gives me +pleasure. We are cleverer, Blondet and I, than Messieurs This and +That, who speculate in our abilities, yet nevertheless we are always +exploited by them. We have a heart somewhere beneath the intellect; we +have NOT the grim qualities of the man who makes others work for him. +We are indolent, we like to look on at the game, we are meditative, +and we are fastidious; they will sweat our brains and blame us for +improvidence." + +"I thought you would be more amusing than this!" said Florine. + +"Florine is right," said Blondet; "let us leave the cure of public +evils to those quacks the statesmen. As Charlet says, 'Quarrel with my +own bread and butter? _Never_!'" + +"Do you know what Vignon puts me in mind of?" said Lousteau. "Of one +of those fat women in the Rue du Pelican telling a schoolboy, 'My boy, +you are too young to come here.'" + +A burst of laughter followed the sally, but it pleased Coralie. The +merchants meanwhile ate and drank and listened. + +"What a nation this is! You see so much good in it and so much evil," +said the Minister, addressing the Duc de Rhetore.--"You are prodigals +who cannot ruin yourselves, gentlemen." + +And so, by the blessing of chance, Lucien, standing on the brink of +the precipice over which he was destined to fall, heard warnings on +all sides. D'Arthez had set him on the right road, had shown him the +noble method of work, and aroused in him the spirit before which all +obstacles disappear. Lousteau himself (partly from selfish motives) +had tried to warn him away by describing Journalism and Literature in +their practical aspects. Lucien had refused to believe that there +could be so much hidden corruption; but now he had heard the +journalists themselves crying woe for their hurt, he had seen them at +their work, had watched them tearing their foster-mother's heart to +read auguries of the future. + +That evening he had seen things as they are. He beheld the very +heart's core of corruption of that Paris which Blucher so aptly +described; and so far from shuddering at the sight, he was intoxicated +with enjoyment of the intellectually stimulating society in which he +found himself. + +These extraordinary men, clad in armor damascened by their vices, +these intellects environed by cold and brilliant analysis, seemed so +far greater in his eyes than the grave and earnest members of the +brotherhood. And besides all this, he was reveling in his first taste +of luxury; he had fallen under the spell. His capricious instincts +awoke; for the first time in his life he drank exquisite wines, this +was his first experience of cookery carried to the pitch of a fine +art. A minister, a duke, and an opera-dancer had joined the party of +journalists, and wondered at their sinister power. Lucien felt a +horrible craving to reign over these kings, and he thought that he had +power to win his kingdom. Finally, there was this Coralie, made happy +by a few words of his. By the bright light of the wax-candles, through +the steam of the dishes and the fumes of wine, she looked sublimely +beautiful to his eyes, so fair had she grown with love. She was the +loveliest, the most beautiful actress in Paris. The brotherhood, the +heaven of noble thoughts, faded away before a temptation that appealed +to every fibre of his nature. How could it have been otherwise? +Lucien's author's vanity had just been gratified by the praises of +those who know; by the appreciation of his future rivals; the success +of his articles and his conquest of Coralie might have turned an older +head than his. + +During the discussion, moreover, every one at table had made a +remarkably good supper, and such wines are not met with every day. +Lousteau, sitting beside Camusot, furtively poured cherry-brandy +several times into his neighbor's wineglass, and challenged him to +drink. And Camusot drank, all unsuspicious, for he thought himself, in +his own way, a match for a journalist. The jokes became more personal +when dessert appeared and the wine began to circulate. The German +Minister, a keen-witted man of the world, made a sign to the Duke and +Tullia, and the three disappeared with the first symptoms of +vociferous nonsense which precede the grotesque scenes of an orgy in +its final stage. Coralie and Lucien had been behaving like children +all the evening; as soon as the wine was uppermost in Camusot's head, +they made good their escape down the staircase and sprang into a cab. +Camusot subsided under the table; Matifat, looking round for him, +thought that he had gone home with Coralie, left his guests to smoke, +laugh, and argue, and followed Florine to her room. Daylight surprised +the party, or more accurately, the first dawn of light discovered one +man still able to speak, and Blondet, that intrepid champion, was +proposing to the assembled sleepers a health to Aurora the +rosy-fingered. + +Lucien was unaccustomed to orgies of this kind. His head was very +tolerably clear as he came down the staircase, but the fresh air was +too much for him; he was horribly drunk. When they reached the +handsome house in the Rue de Vendome, where the actress lived, Coralie +and her waiting-woman were obliged to assist the poet to climb to the +first floor. Lucien was ignominiously sick, and very nearly fainted on +the staircase. + +"Quick, Berenice, some tea! Make some tea," cried Coralie. + +"It is nothing; it is the air," Lucien got out, "and I have never +taken so much before in my life." + +"Poor boy! He is as innocent as a lamb," said Berenice, a stalwart +Norman peasant woman as ugly as Coralie was pretty. Lucien, half +unconscious, was laid at last in bed. Coralie, with Berenice's +assistance, undressed the poet with all a mother's tender care. + +"It is nothing," he murmured again and again. "It is the air. Thank +you, mamma." + +"How charmingly he says 'mamma,'" cried Coralie, putting a kiss on +his hair. + +"What happiness to love such an angel, mademoiselle! Where did you +pick him up? I did not think a man could be as beautiful as you are," +said Berenice, when Lucien lay in bed. He was very drowsy; he knew +nothing and saw nothing; Coralie made him swallow several cups of tea, +and left him to sleep. + +"Did the porter see us? Was there anyone else about?" she asked. + +"No; I was sitting up for you." + +"Does Victoire know anything?" + +"Rather not!" returned Berenice. + +Ten hours later Lucien awoke to meet Coralie's eyes. She had watched +by him as he slept; he knew it, poet that he was. It was almost noon, +but she still wore the delicate dress, abominably stained, which she +meant to lay up as a relic. Lucien understood all the self-sacrifice +and delicacy of love, fain of its reward. He looked into Coralie's +eyes. In a moment she had flung off her clothing and slipped like a +serpent to Lucien's side. + +At five o'clock in the afternoon Lucien was still sleeping, cradled in +this voluptuous paradise. He had caught glimpses of Coralie's chamber, +an exquisite creation of luxury, a world of rose-color and white. He +had admired Florine's apartments, but this surpassed them in its +dainty refinement. + +Coralie had already risen; for if she was to play her part as the +Andalusian, she must be at the theatre by seven o'clock. Yet she had +returned to gaze at the unconscious poet, lulled to sleep in bliss; +she could not drink too deeply of this love that rose to rapture, +drawing close the bond between the heart and the senses, to steep both +in ecstasy. For in that apotheosis of human passion, which of those +that were twain on earth that they might know bliss to the full +creates one soul to rise to love in heaven, lay Coralie's +justification. Who, moreover, would not have found excuse in Lucien's +more than human beauty? To the actress kneeling by the bedside, happy +in love within her, it seemed that she had received love's +consecration. Berenice broke in upon Coralie's rapture. + +"Here comes Camusot!" cried the maid. "And he knows that you are +here." + +Lucien sprang up at once. Innate generosity suggested that he was +doing Coralie an injury. Berenice drew aside a curtain, and he fled +into a dainty dressing-room, whither Coralie and the maid brought his +clothes with magical speed. + +Camusot appeared, and only then did Coralie's eyes alight on Lucien's +boots, warming in the fender. Berenice had privately varnished them, +and put them before the fire to dry; and both mistress and maid alike +forgot that tell-tale witness. Berenice left the room with a scared +glance at Coralie. Coralie flung herself into the depths of a settee, +and bade Camusot seat himself in the _gondole_, a round-backed chair +that stood opposite. But Coralie's adorer, honest soul, dared not look +his mistress in the face; he could not take his eyes off the pair of +boots. + +"Ought I to make a scene and leave Coralie?" he pondered. "Is it worth +while to make a fuss about a trifle? There is a pair of boots wherever +you go. These would be more in place in a shop window or taking a walk +on the boulevard on somebody's feet; here, however, without a pair of +feet in them, they tell a pretty plain tale. I am fifty years old, and +that is the truth; I ought to be as blind as Cupid himself." + +There was no excuse for this mean-spirited monologue. The boots were +not the high-lows at present in vogue, which an unobservant man may be +allowed to disregard up to a certain point. They were the +unmistakable, uncompromising hessians then prescribed by fashion, a +pair of extremely elegant betasseled boots, which shone in glistening +contrast against tight-fitting trousers invariably of some light +color, and reflected their surroundings like a mirror. The boots +stared the honest silk-mercer out of countenance, and, it must be +added, they pained his heart. + +"What is it?" asked Coralie. + +"Nothing." + +"Ring the bell," said Coralie, smiling to herself at Camusot's want of +spirit.--"Berenice," she said, when the Norman handmaid appeared, +"just bring me a button-hook, for I must put on these confounded boots +again. Don't forget to bring them to my dressing-room to-night." + +"What? . . . _your_ boots?" . . . faltered out Camusot, breathing more +freely. + +"And whose should they be?" she demanded haughtily. "Were you +beginning to believe?--great stupid! Oh! and he would believe it too," +she went on, addressing Berenice.--"I have a man's part in +What's-his-name's piece, and I have never worn a man's clothes in my +life before. The bootmaker for the theatre brought me these things to +try if I could walk in them, until a pair can be made to measure. He +put them on, but they hurt me so much that I have taken them off, and +after all I must wear them." + +"Don't put them on again if they are uncomfortable," said Camusot. +(The boots had made him feel so very uncomfortable himself.) + +"Mademoiselle would do better to have a pair made of very thin +morocco, sir, instead of torturing herself as she did just now; but +the management is so stingy. She was crying, sir; if I was a man and +loved a woman, I wouldn't let her shed a tear, I know. You ought to +order a pair for her----" + +"Yes, yes," said Camusot. "Are you just getting up, Coralie?" + +"Just this moment; I only came in at six o'clock after looking for you +everywhere. I was obliged to keep the cab for seven hours. So much for +your care of me; you forget me for a wine-bottle. I ought to take care +of myself now when I am to play every night so long as the _Alcalde_ +draws. I don't want to fall off after that young man's notice of me." + +"That is a handsome boy," said Camusot. + +"Do you think so? I don't admire men of that sort; they are too much +like women; and they do not understand how to love like you stupid old +business men. You are so bored with your own society." + +"Is monsieur dining with madame?" inquired Berenice. + +"No, my mouth is clammy." + +"You were nicely screwed yesterday. Ah! Papa Camusot, I don't like men +who drink, I tell you at once----" + +"You will give that young man a present, I suppose?" interrupted +Camusot. + +"Oh! yes. I would rather do that than pay as Florine does. There, go +away with you, good-for-nothing that one loves; or give me a carriage +to save time in future." + +"You shall go in your own carriage to-morrow to your manager's dinner +at the _Rocher de Cancale_. The new piece will not be given next +Sunday." + +"Come, I am just going to dine," said Coralie, hurrying Camusot out of +the room. + +An hour later Berenice came to release Lucien. Berenice, Coralie's +companion since her childhood, had a keen and subtle brain in her +unwieldy frame. + +"Stay here," she said. "Coralie is coming back alone; she even talked +of getting rid of Camusot if he is in your way; but you are too much +of an angel to ruin her, her heart's darling as you are. She wants to +clear out of this, she says; to leave this paradise and go and live in +your garret. Oh! there are those that are jealous and envious of you, +and they have told her that you haven't a brass farthing, and live in +the Latin Quarter; and I should go, too, you see, to do the +house-work.--But I have just been comforting her, poor child! I have +been telling her that you were too clever to do anything so silly. I +was right, wasn't I, sir? Oh! you will see that you are her darling, her +love, the god to whom she gives her soul; yonder old fool has nothing +but the body.--If you only knew how nice she is when I hear her say +her part over! My Coralie, my little pet, she is! She deserved that +God in heaven should send her one of His angels. She was sick of the +life.--She was so unhappy with her mother that used to beat her, and +sold her. Yes, sir, sold her own child! If I had a daughter, I would +wait on her hand and foot as I wait on Coralie; she is like my own +child to me.--These are the first good times she has seen since I have +been with her; the first time that she has been really applauded. You +have written something, it seems, and they have got up a famous _claque_ +for the second performance. Braulard has been going through the play +with her while you were asleep." + +"Who? Braulard?" asked Lucien; it seemed to him that he had heard the +name before. + +"He is the head of the _claqueurs_, and she was arranging with him the +places where she wished him to look after her. Florine might try to +play her some shabby trick, and take all for herself, for all she +calls herself her friend. There is such a talk about your article on +the Boulevards.--Isn't it a bed fit for a prince," she said, smoothing +the lace bed-spread. + +She lighted the wax-candles, and to Lucien's bewildered fancy, the +house seemed to be some palace in the _Cabinet des Fees_. Camusot had +chosen the richest stuffs from the _Golden Cocoon_ for the hangings and +window-curtains. A carpet fit for a king's palace was spread upon the +floor. The carving of the rosewood furniture caught and imprisoned the +light that rippled over its surface. Priceless trifles gleamed from +the white marble chimney-piece. The rug beside the bed was of swan's +skins bordered with sable. A pair of little, black velvet slippers +lined with purple silk told of happiness awaiting the poet of _The +Marguerites_. A dainty lamp hung from the ceiling draped with silk. The +room was full of flowering plants, delicate white heaths and scentless +camellias, in stands marvelously wrought. Everything called up +associations of innocence. How was it possible in these rooms to see +the life that Coralie led in its true colors? Berenice noticed +Lucien's bewildered expression. + +"Isn't it nice?" she said coaxingly. "You would be more comfortable +here, wouldn't you, than in a garret?--You won't let her do anything +rash?" she continued, setting a costly stand before him, covered with +dishes abstracted from her mistress' dinner-table, lest the cook +should suspect that her mistress had a lover in the house. + +Lucien made a good dinner. Berenice waiting on him, the dishes were of +wrought silver, the painted porcelain plates had cost a louis d'or +apiece. The luxury was producing exactly the same effect upon him that +the sight of a girl walking the pavement, with her bare flaunting +throat and neat ankles, produces upon a schoolboy. + +"How lucky Camusot is!" cried he. + +"Lucky?" repeated Berenice. "He would willingly give all that he is +worth to be in your place; he would be glad to barter his gray hair +for your golden head." + +She gave Lucien the richest wine that Bordeaux keeps for the +wealthiest English purchaser, and persuaded Lucien to go to bed to +take a preliminary nap; and Lucien, in truth, was quite willing to +sleep on the couch that he had been admiring. Berenice had read his +wish, and felt glad for her mistress. + +At half-past ten that night Lucien awoke to look into eyes brimming +over with love. There stood Coralie in most luxurious night attire. +Lucien had been sleeping; Lucien was intoxicated with love, and not +with wine. Berenice left the room with the inquiry, "What time +to-morrow morning?" + +"At eleven o'clock. We will have breakfast in bed. I am not at home to +anybody before two o'clock." + +At two o'clock in the afternoon Coralie and her lover were sitting +together. The poet to all appearance had come to pay a call. Lucien +had been bathed and combed and dressed. Coralie had sent to +Colliau's for a dozen fine shirts, a dozen cravats and a dozen +pocket-handkerchiefs for him, as well as twelve pairs of gloves in +a cedar-wood box. When a carriage stopped at the door, they both +rushed to the window, and watched Camusot alight from a handsome +coupe. + +"I would not have believed that one could so hate a man and +luxury----" + +"I am too poor to allow you to ruin yourself for me," he replied. And +thus Lucien passed under the Caudine Forks. + +"Poor pet," said Coralie, holding him tightly to her, "do you love me +so much?--I persuaded this gentleman to call on me this morning," she +continued, indicating Lucien to Camusot, who entered the room. "I +thought that we might take a drive in the Champs Elysees to try the +carriage." + +"Go without me," said Camusot in a melancholy voice; "I shall not dine +with you. It is my wife's birthday, I had forgotten that." + +"Poor Musot, how badly bored you will be!" she said, putting her arms +about his neck. + +She was wild with joy at the thought that she and Lucien would handsel +this gift together; she would drive with him in the new carriage; and +in her happiness, she seemed to love Camusot, she lavished caresses +upon him. + +"If only I could give you a carriage every day!" said the poor fellow. + +"Now, sir, it is two o'clock," she said, turning to Lucien, who stood +in distress and confusion, but she comforted him with an adorable +gesture. + +Down the stairs she went, several steps at a time, drawing Lucien +after her; the elderly merchant following in their wake like a seal on +land, and quite unable to catch them up. + +Lucien enjoyed the most intoxicating of pleasures; happiness had +increased Coralie's loveliness to the highest possible degree; she +appeared before all eyes an exquisite vision in her dainty toilette. +All Paris in the Champs Elysees beheld the lovers. + +In an avenue of the Bois de Boulogne they met a caleche; Mme. d'Espard +and Mme. de Bargeton looked in surprise at Lucien, and met a scornful +glance from the poet. He saw glimpses of a great future before him, +and was about to make his power felt. He could fling them back in a +glance some of the revengeful thoughts which had gnawed his heart ever +since they planted them there. That moment was one of the sweetest in +his life, and perhaps decided his fate. Once again the Furies seized +on Lucien at the bidding of Pride. He would reappear in the world of +Paris; he would take a signal revenge; all the social pettiness +hitherto trodden under foot by the worker, the member of the +brotherhood, sprang up again afresh in his soul. + +Now he understood all that Lousteau's attack had meant. Lousteau had +served his passions; while the brotherhood, that collective mentor, +had seemed to mortify them in the interests of tiresome virtues and +work which began to look useless and hopeless in Lucien's eyes. Work! +What is it but death to an eager pleasure-loving nature? And how easy +it is for the man of letters to slide into a _far niente_ existence of +self-indulgence, into the luxurious ways of actresses and women of +easy virtues! Lucien felt an overmastering desire to continue the +reckless life of the last two days. + +The dinner at the _Rocher de Cancale_ was exquisite. All Florine's +supper guests were there except the Minister, the Duke, and the +dancer; Camusot, too, was absent; but these gaps were filled by two +famous actors and Hector Merlin and his mistress. This charming woman, +who chose to be known as Mme. du Val-Noble, was the handsomest and +most fashionable of the class of women now euphemistically styled +_lorettes_. + +Lucien had spent the forty-eight hours since the success of his +article in paradise. He was feted and envied; he gained +self-possession; his talk sparkled; he was the brilliant Lucien de +Rubempre who shone for a few months in the world of letters and art. +Finot, with his infallible instinct for discovering ability, scenting +it afar as an ogre might scent human flesh, cajoled Lucien, and did +his best to secure a recruit for the squadron under his command. And +Coralie watched the manoeuvres of this purveyor of brains, saw that +Lucien was nibbling at the bait, and tried to put him on his guard. + +"Don't make any engagement, dear boy; wait. They want to exploit you; +we will talk of it to-night." + +"Pshaw!" said Lucien. "I am sure I am quite as sharp and shrewd as +they can be." + +Finot and Hector Merlin evidently had not fallen out over that affair +of the white lines and spaces in the columns, for it was Finot who +introduced Lucien to the journalist. Coralie and Mme. du Val-Noble +were overwhelmingly amiable and polite to each other, and Mme. du +Val-Noble asked Lucien and Coralie to dine with her. + +Hector Merlin, short and thin, with lips always tightly compressed, +was the most dangerous journalist present. Unbounded ambition and +jealousy smouldered within him; he took pleasure in the pain of +others, and fomented strife to turn it to his own account. His +abilities were but slender, and he had little force of character, but +the natural instinct which draws the upstart towards money and power +served him as well as fixity of purpose. Lucien and Merlin at once +took a dislike to one another, for reasons not far to seek. Merlin, +unfortunately, proclaimed aloud the thoughts that Lucien kept to +himself. By the time the dessert was put on the table, the most +touching friendship appeared to prevail among the men, each one of +whom in his heart thought himself a cleverer fellow than the rest; and +Lucien as the newcomer was made much of by them all. They chatted +frankly and unrestrainedly. Hector Merlin, alone, did not join in the +laughter. Lucien asked the reason of his reserve. + +"You are just entering the world of letters, I can see," he said. "You +are a journalist with all your illusions left. You believe in +friendship. Here we are friends or foes, as it happens; we strike down +a friend with the weapon which by rights should only be turned against +an enemy. You will find out, before very long, that fine sentiments +will do nothing for you. If you are naturally kindly, learn to be +ill-natured, to be consistently spiteful. If you have never heard this +golden rule before, I give it you now in confidence, and it is no +small secret. If you have a mind to be loved, never leave your +mistress until you have made her shed a tear or two; and if you mean +to make your way in literature, let other people continually feel your +teeth; make no exception even of your friends; wound their +susceptibilities, and everybody will fawn upon you." + +Hector Merlin watched Lucien as he spoke, saw that his words went to +the neophyte's heart like a stab, and Hector Merlin was glad. Play +followed, Lucien lost all his money, and Coralie brought him away; and +he forgot for a while, in the delights of love, the fierce excitement +of the gambler, which was to gain so strong a hold upon him. + +When he left Coralie in the morning and returned to the Latin Quarter, +he took out his purse and found the money he had lost. At first he +felt miserable over the discovery, and thought of going back at once +to return a gift which humiliated him; but--he had already come as far +as the Rue de la Harpe; he would not return now that he had almost +reached the Hotel de Cluny. He pondered over Coralie's forethought as +he went, till he saw in it a proof of the maternal love which is +blended with passion in women of her stamp. For Coralie and her like, +passion includes every human affection. Lucien went from thought to +thought, and argued himself into accepting the gift. "I love her," he +said; "we shall live together as husband and wife; I will never +forsake her!" + +What mortal, short of a Diogenes, could fail to understand Lucien's +feelings as he climbed the dirty, fetid staircase to his lodging, +turned the key that grated in the lock, and entered and looked round +at the unswept brick floor, at the cheerless grate, at the ugly +poverty and bareness of the room. + +A package of manuscript was lying on the table. It was his novel; a +note from Daniel d'Arthez lay beside it:-- + + + "Our friends are almost satisfied with your work, dear poet," + d'Arthez wrote. "You will be able to present it with more + confidence now, they say, to friends and enemies. We saw your + charming article on the Panorama-Dramatique; you are sure to + excite as much jealousy in the profession as regret among your + friends here. DANIEL." + + +"Regrets! What does he mean?" exclaimed Lucien. The polite tone of the +note astonished him. Was he to be henceforth a stranger to the +brotherhood? He had learned to set a higher value on the good opinion +and the friendship of the circle in the Rue des Quatre-Vents since he +had tasted of the delicious fruits offered to him by the Eve of the +theatrical underworld. For some moments he stood in deep thought; he +saw his present in the garret, and foresaw his future in Coralie's +rooms. Honorable resolution struggled with temptation and swayed him +now this way, now that. He sat down and began to look through his +manuscript, to see in what condition his friends had returned it to +him. What was his amazement, as he read chapter after chapter, to find +his poverty transmuted into riches by the cunning of the pen, and the +devotion of the unknown great men, his friends of the brotherhood. +Dialogue, closely packed, nervous, pregnant, terse, and full of the +spirit of the age, replaced his conversations, which seemed poor and +pointless prattle in comparison. His characters, a little uncertain in +the drawing, now stood out in vigorous contrast of color and relief; +physiological observations, due no doubt to Horace Bianchon, supplied +links of interpretations between human character and the curious +phenomena of human life--subtle touches which made his men and women +live. His wordy passages of description were condensed and vivid. The +misshapen, ill-clad child of his brain had returned to him as a lovely +maiden, with white robes and rosy-hued girdle and scarf--an entrancing +creation. Night fell and took him by surprise, reading through rising +tears, stricken to earth by such greatness of soul, feeling the worth +of such a lesson, admiring the alterations, which taught him more of +literature and art than all his four years' apprenticeship of study +and reading and comparison. A master's correction of a line made upon +the study always teaches more than all the theories and criticisms in +the world. + +"What friends are these! What hearts! How fortunate I am!" he cried, +grasping his manuscript tightly. + +With the quick impulsiveness of a poetic and mobile temperament, he +rushed off to Daniel's lodging. As he climbed the stairs, and thought +of these friends, who refused to leave the path of honor, he felt +conscious that he was less worthy of them than before. A voice spoke +within him, telling him that if d'Arthez had loved Coralie, he would +have had her break with Camusot. And, besides this, he knew that the +brotherhood held journalism in utter abhorrence, and that he himself +was already, to some small extent, a journalist. All of them, except +Meyraux, who had just gone out, were in d'Arthez's room when he +entered it, and saw that all their faces were full of sorrow and +despair. + +"What is it?" he cried. + +"We have just heard news of a dreadful catastrophe; the greatest +thinker of the age, our most loved friend, who was like a light among +us for two years----" + +"Louis Lambert!" + +"Has fallen a victim to catalepsy. There is no hope for him," said +Bianchon. + +"He will die, his soul wandering in the skies, his body unconscious on +earth," said Michel Chrestien solemnly. + +"He will die as he lived," said d'Arthez. + +"Love fell like a firebrand in the vast empire of his brain and burned +him away," said Leon Giraud. + +"Yes," said Joseph Bridau, "he has reached a height that we cannot so +much as see." + +"_We_ are to be pitied, not Louis," said Fulgence Ridal. + +"Perhaps he will recover," exclaimed Lucien. + +"From what Meyraux has been telling us, recovery seems impossible," +answered Bianchon. "Medicine has no power over the change that is +working in his brain." + +"Yet there are physical means," said d'Arthez. + +"Yes," said Bianchon; "we might produce imbecility instead of +catalepsy." + +"Is there no way of offering another head to the spirit of evil? I +would give mine to save him!" cried Michel Chrestien. + +"And what would become of European federation?" asked d'Arthez. + +"Ah! true," replied Michel Chrestien. "Our duty to Humanity comes +first; to one man afterwards." + +"I came here with a heart full of gratitude to you all," said Lucien. +"You have changed my alloy into golden coin." + +"Gratitude! For what do you take us?" asked Bianchon. + +"We had the pleasure," added Fulgence. + +"Well, so you are a journalist, are you?" asked Leon Giraud. "The fame +of your first appearance has reached even the Latin Quarter." + +"I am not a journalist yet," returned Lucien. + +"Aha! So much the better," said Michel Chrestien. + +"I told you so!" said d'Arthez. "Lucien knows the value of a clean +conscience. When you can say to yourself as you lay your head on the +pillow at night, 'I have not sat in judgment on another man's work; I +have given pain to no one; I have not used the edge of my wit to deal +a stab to some harmless soul; I have sacrificed no one's success to a +jest; I have not even troubled the happiness of imbecility; I have not +added to the burdens of genius; I have scorned the easy triumphs of +epigram; in short, I have not acted against my convictions,' is not +this a viaticum that gives one daily strength?" + +"But one can say all this, surely, and yet work on a newspaper," said +Lucien. "If I had absolutely no other way of earning a living, I +should certainly come to this." + +"Oh! oh! oh!" cried Fulgence, his voice rising a note each time; "we +are capitulating, are we?" + +"He will turn journalist," Leon Giraud said gravely. "Oh, Lucien, if +you would only stay and work with us! We are about to bring out a +periodical in which justice and truth shall never be violated; we will +spread doctrines that, perhaps, will be of real service to +mankind----" + +"You will not have a single subscriber," Lucien broke in with +Machiavellian wisdom. + +"There will be five hundred of them," asserted Michel Chrestien, "but +they will be worth five hundred thousand." + +"You will need a lot of capital," continued Lucien. + +"No, only devotion," said d'Arthez. + +"Anybody might take him for a perfumer's assistant," burst out Michel +Chrestien, looking at Lucien's head, and sniffing comically. "You were +seen driving about in a very smart turnout with a pair of +thoroughbreds, and a mistress for a prince, Coralie herself." + +"Well, and is there any harm in it?" + +"You would not say that if you thought that there was no harm in it," +said Bianchon. + +"I could have wished Lucien a Beatrice," said d'Arthez, "a noble +woman, who would have been a help to him in life----" + +"But, Daniel," asked Lucien, "love is love wherever you find it, is it +not?" + +"Ah!" said the republican member, "on that one point I am an +aristocrat. I could not bring myself to love a woman who must rub +shoulders with all sorts of people in the green-room; whom an actor +kisses on stage; she must lower herself before the public, smile on +every one, lift her skirts as she dances, and dress like a man, that +all the world may see what none should see save I alone. Or if I loved +such a woman, she should leave the stage, and my love should cleanse +her from the stain of it." + +"And if she would not leave the stage?" + +"I should die of mortification, jealousy, and all sorts of pain. You +cannot pluck love out of your heart as you draw a tooth." + +Lucien's face grew dark and thoughtful. + +"When they find out that I am tolerating Camusot, how they will +despise me," he thought. + +"Look here," said the fierce republican, with humorous fierceness, +"you can be a great writer, but a little play-actor you shall never +be," and he took up his hat and went out. + +"He is hard, is Michel Chrestien," commented Lucien. + +"Hard and salutary, like the dentist's pincers," said Bianchon. +"Michel foresees your future; perhaps in the street, at this moment, +he is thinking of you with tears in his eyes." + +D'Arthez was kind, and talked comfortingly, and tried to cheer Lucien. +The poet spent an hour with his friends, then he went, but his +conscience treated him hardly, crying to him, "You will be a +journalist--a journalist!" as the witch cried to Macbeth that he +should be king hereafter! + +Out in the street, he looked up at d'Arthez's windows, and saw a faint +light shining in them, and his heart sank. A dim foreboding told him +that he had bidden his friends good-bye for the last time. + +As he turned out of the Place de la Sorbonne into the Rue de Cluny, he +saw a carriage at the door of his lodging. Coralie had driven all the +way from the Boulevard du Temple for the sake of a moment with her +lover and a "good-night." Lucien found her sobbing in his garret. She +would be as wretchedly poor as her poet, she wept, as she arranged his +shirts and gloves and handkerchiefs in the crazy chest of drawers. Her +distress was so real and so great, that Lucien, but even now chidden +for his connection with an actress, saw Coralie as a saint ready to +assume the hair-shirt of poverty. The adorable girl's excuse for her +visit was an announcement that the firm of Camusot, Coralie, and +Lucien meant to invite Matifat, Florine, and Lousteau (the second +trio) to supper; had Lucien any invitations to issue to people who +might be useful to him? Lucien said that he would take counsel of +Lousteau. + +A few moments were spent together, and Coralie hurried away. She +spared Lucien the knowledge that Camusot was waiting for her below. + +Next morning, at eight o'clock, Lucien went to Etienne Lousteau's +room, found it empty, and hurried away to Florine. Lousteau and +Florine, settled into possession of their new quarters like a married +couple, received their friend in the pretty bedroom, and all three +breakfasted sumptuously together. + +"Why, I should advise you, my boy, to come with me to see Felicien +Vernou," said Lousteau, when they sat at table, and Lucien had +mentioned Coralie's projected supper; "ask him to be of the party, and +keep well with him, if you can keep well with such a rascal. Felicien +Vernou does a _feuilleton_ for a political paper; he might perhaps +introduce you, and you could blossom out into leaders in it at your +ease. It is a Liberal paper, like ours; you will be a Liberal, that is +the popular party; and besides, if you mean to go over to the +Ministerialists, you would do better for yourself if they had reason +to be afraid of you. Then there is Hector Merlin and his Mme. du +Val-Noble; you meet great people at their house--dukes and dandies and +millionaires; didn't they ask you and Coralie to dine with them?" + +"Yes," replied Lucien; "you are going too, and so is Florine." Lucien +and Etienne were now on familiar terms after Friday's debauch and the +dinner at the _Rocher de Cancale_. + +"Very well, Merlin is on the paper; we shall come across him pretty +often; he is the chap to follow close on Finot's heels. You would do +well to pay him attention; ask him and Mme. du Val-Noble to supper. He +may be useful to you before long; for rancorous people are always in +need of others, and he may do you a good turn if he can reckon on your +pen." + +"Your beginning has made enough sensation to smooth your way," said +Florine; "take advantage of it at once, or you will soon be +forgotten." + +"The bargain, the great business, is concluded," Lousteau continued. +"That Finot, without a spark of talent in him, is to be editor of +Dauriat's weekly paper, with a salary of six hundred francs per month, +and owner of a sixth share, for which he has not paid one penny. And +I, my dear fellow, am now editor of our little paper. Everything went +off as I expected; Florine managed superbly, she could give points to +Tallyrand himself." + +"We have a hold on men through their pleasures," said Florine, "while +a diplomatist only works on their self-love. A diplomatist sees a man +made up for the occasion; we know him in his moments of folly, so our +power is greater." + +"And when the thing was settled, Matifat made the first and last joke +of his whole druggist's career," put in Lousteau. "He said, 'This +affair is quite in my line; I am supplying drugs to the public.'" + +"I suspect that Florine put him up to it," cried Lucien. + +"And by these means, my little dear, your foot is in the stirrup," +continued Lousteau. + +"You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth," remarked Florine. +"What lots of young fellows wait for years, wait till they are sick of +waiting, for a chance to get an article into a paper! You will do like +Emile Blondet. In six months' time you will be giving yourself high +and mighty airs," she added, with a mocking smile, in the language of +her class. + +"Haven't I been in Paris for three years?" said Lousteau, "and only +yesterday Finot began to pay me a fixed monthly salary of three +hundred francs, and a hundred francs per sheet for his paper." + +"Well; you are saying nothing!" exclaimed Florine, with her eyes +turned on Lucien. + +"We shall see," said Lucien. + +"My dear boy, if you had been my brother, I could not have done more +for you," retorted Lousteau, somewhat nettled, "but I won't answer for +Finot. Scores of sharp fellows will besiege Finot for the next two +days with offers to work for low pay. I have promised for you, but you +can draw back if you like.--You little know how lucky you are," he +added after a pause. "All those in our set combine to attack an enemy +in various papers, and lend each other a helping hand all round." + +"Let us go in the first place to Felicien Vernou," said Lucien. He was +eager to conclude an alliance with such formidable birds of prey. + +Lousteau sent for a cab, and the pair of friends drove to Vernou's +house on the second floor up an alley in the Rue Mandar. To Lucien's +great astonishment, the harsh, fastidious, and severe critic's +surroundings were vulgar to the last degree. A marbled paper, cheap +and shabby, with a meaningless pattern repeated at regular intervals, +covered the walls, and a series of aqua tints in gilt frames decorated +the apartment, where Vernou sat at table with a woman so plain that +she could only be the legitimate mistress of the house, and two very +small children perched on high chairs with a bar in front to prevent +the infants from tumbling out. Felicien Vernou, in a cotton +dressing-gown contrived out of the remains of one of his wife's +dresses, was not over well pleased by this invasion. + +"Have you breakfasted, Lousteau?" he asked, placing a chair for +Lucien. + +"We have just left Florine; we have been breakfasting with her." + +Lucien could not take his eyes off Mme. Vernou. She looked like a +stout, homely cook, with a tolerably fair complexion, but commonplace +to the last degree. The lady wore a bandana tied over her night-cap, +the strings of the latter article of dress being tied so tightly under +the chin that her puffy cheeks stood out on either side. A shapeless, +beltless garment, fastened by a single button at the throat, enveloped +her from head to foot in such a fashion that a comparison to a +milestone at once suggested itself. Her health left no room for hope; +her cheeks were almost purple; her fingers looked like sausages. In a +moment it dawned upon Lucien how it was that Vernou was always so ill +at ease in society; here was the living explanation of his +misanthropy. Sick of his marriage, unable to bring himself to abandon +his wife and family, he had yet sufficient of the artistic temper to +suffer continually from their presence; Vernou was an actor by nature +bound never to pardon the success of another, condemned to chronic +discontent because he was never content with himself. Lucien began to +understand the sour look which seemed to add to the bleak expression +of envy on Vernou's face; the acerbity of the epigrams with which his +conversation was sown, the journalist's pungent phrases, keen and +elaborately wrought as a stiletto, were at once explained. + +"Let us go into my study," Vernou said, rising from the table; "you +have come on business, no doubt." + +"Yes and no," replied Etienne Lousteau. "It is a supper, old chap." + +"I have brought a message from Coralie," said Lucien (Mme. Vernou +looked up at once at the name), "to ask you to supper to-night at her +house to meet the same company as before at Florine's, and a few more +besides--Hector Merlin and Mme. du Val-Noble and some others. There +will be play afterwards." + +"But we are engaged to Mme. Mahoudeau this evening, dear," put in the +wife. + +"What does that matter?" returned Vernou. + +"She will take offence if we don't go; and you are very glad of her +when you have a bill to discount." + +"This wife of mine, my dear boy, can never be made to understand that +a supper engagement for twelve o'clock does not prevent you from going +to an evening party that comes to an end at eleven. She is always with +me while I work," he added. + +"You have so much imagination!" said Lucien, and thereby made a mortal +enemy of Vernou. + +"Well," continued Lousteau, "you are coming; but that is not all. M. +de Rubempre is about to be one of us, so you must push him in your +paper. Give him out for a chap that will make a name for himself in +literature, so that he can put in at least a couple of articles every +month." + +"Yes, if he means to be one of us, and will attack our enemies, as we +will attack his, I will say a word for him at the Opera to-night," +replied Vernou. + +"Very well--good-bye till to-morrow, my boy," said Lousteau, shaking +hands with every sign of cordiality. "When is your book coming out?" + +"That depends on Dauriat; it is ready," said Vernou _pater-familias_. + +"Are you satisfied?" + +"Yes and no----" + +"We will get up a success," said Lousteau, and he rose with a bow to +his colleague's wife. + +The abrupt departure was necessary indeed; for the two infants, +engaged in a noisy quarrel, were fighting with their spoons, and +flinging the pap in each other's faces. + +"That, my boy, is a woman who all unconsciously will work great havoc +in contemporary literature," said Etienne, when they came away. "Poor +Vernou cannot forgive us for his wife. He ought to be relieved of her +in the interests of the public; and a deluge of blood-thirsty reviews +and stinging sarcasms against successful men of every sort would be +averted. What is to become of a man with such a wife and that pair of +abominable brats? Have you seen Rigaudin in Picard's _La Maison en +Loterie_? You have? Well, like Rigaudin, Vernou will not fight himself, +but he will set others fighting; he would give an eye to put out both +eyes in the head of the best friend he has. You will see him using the +bodies of the slain for a stepping-stone, rejoicing over every one's +misfortunes, attacking princes, dukes, marquises, and nobles, because +he himself is a commoner; reviling the work of unmarried men because +he forsooth has a wife; and everlastingly preaching morality, the joys +of domestic life, and the duties of the citizen. In short, this very +moral critic will spare no one, not even infants of tender age. He +lives in the Rue Mandar with a wife who might be the _Mamamouchi_ of the +_Bourgeois gentilhomme_ and a couple of little Vernous as ugly as sin. +He tries to sneer at the Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he will never +set foot, and makes his duchesses talk like his wife. That is the sort +of man to raise a howl at the Jesuits, insult the Court, and credit +the Court party with the design of restoring feudal rights and the +right of primogeniture--just the one to preach a crusade for Equality, +he that thinks himself the equal of no one. If he were a bachelor, he +would go into society; if he were in a fair way to be a Royalist poet +with a pension and the Cross of the Legion of Honor, he would be an +optimist, and journalism offers starting-points by the hundred. +Journalism is the giant catapult set in motion by pigmy hatreds. Have +you any wish to marry after this? Vernou has none of the milk of human +kindness in him, it is all turned to gall; and he is emphatically the +Journalist, a tiger with two hands that tears everything to pieces, as +if his pen had the hydrophobia." + +"It is a case of gunophobia," said Lucien. "Has he ability?" + +"He is witty, he is a writer of articles. He incubates articles; he +does that all his life and nothing else. The most dogged industry +would fail to graft a book on his prose. Felicien is incapable of +conceiving a work on a large scale, of broad effects, of fitting +characters harmoniously in a plot which develops till it reaches a +climax. He has ideas, but he has no knowledge of facts; his heroes are +utopian creatures, philosophical or Liberal notions masquerading. He +is at pains to write an original style, but his inflated periods would +collapse at a pin-prick from a critic; and therefore he goes in terror +of reviews, like every one else who can only keep his head above water +with the bladders of newspaper puffs." + +"What an article you are making out of him!" + +"That particular kind, my boy, must be spoken, and never written." + +"You are turning editor," said Lucien. + +"Where shall I put you down?" + +"At Coralie's." + +"Ah! we are infatuated," said Lousteau. "What a mistake! Do as I do +with Florine, let Coralie be your housekeeper, and take your fling." + +"You would send a saint to perdition," laughed Lucien. + +"Well, there is no damning a devil," retorted Lousteau. + +The flippant tone, the brilliant talk of this new friend, his views of +life, his paradoxes, the axioms of Parisian Machiavelism,--all these +things impressed Lucien unawares. Theoretically the poet knew that +such thoughts were perilous; but he believed them practically useful. + +Arrived in the Boulevard du Temple, the friends agreed to meet at the +office between four and five o'clock. Hector Merlin would doubtless be +there. Lousteau was right. The infatuation of desire was upon Lucien; +for the courtesan who loves knows how to grapple her lover to her by +every weakness in his nature, fashioning herself with incredible +flexibility to his every wish, encouraging the soft, effeminate habits +which strengthen her hold. Lucien was thirsting already for enjoyment; +he was in love with the easy, luxurious, and expensive life which the +actress led. + +He found Coralie and Camusot intoxicated with joy. The Gymnase offered +Coralie an engagement after Easter on terms for which she had never +dared to hope. + +"And this great success is owing to you," said Camusot. + +"Yes, surely. _The Alcalde_ would have fallen flat but for him," cried +Coralie; "if there had been no article, I should have been in for +another six years of the Boulevard theatres." + +She danced up to Lucien and flung her arms round him, putting an +indescribable silken softness and sweetness into her enthusiasm. Love +had come to Coralie. And Camusot? his eyes fell. Looking down after +the wont of mankind in moments of sharp pain, he saw the seam of +Lucien's boots, a deep yellow thread used by the best bootmakers of +that time, in strong contrast with the glistening leather. The color +of that seam had tinged his thoughts during a previous conversation +with himself, as he sought to explain the presence of a mysterious +pair of hessians in Coralie's fender. He remembered now that he had +seen the name of "Gay, Rue de la Michodiere," printed in black letters +on the soft white kid lining. + +"You have a handsome pair of boots, sir," he said. + +"Like everything else about him," said Coralie. + +"I should be very glad of your bootmaker's address." + +"Oh, how like the Rue des Bourdonnais to ask for a tradesman's +address," cried Coralie. "Do _you_ intend to patronize a young man's +bootmaker? A nice young man you would make! Do keep to your own +top-boots; they are the kind for a steady-going man with a wife and +family and a mistress." + +"Indeed, if you would take off one of your boots, sir, I should be +very much obliged," persisted Camusot. + +"I could not get it on again without a button-hook," said Lucien, +flushing up. + +"Berenice will fetch you one; we can do with some here," jeered +Camusot. + +"Papa Camusot!" said Coralie, looking at him with cruel scorn, "have +the courage of your pitiful baseness. Come, speak out! You think that +this gentleman's boots are very like mine, do you not?--I forbid you +to take off your boots," she added, turning to Lucien.--"Yes, M. +Camusot. Yes, you saw some boots lying about in the fender here the +other day, and that is the identical pair, and this gentleman was +hiding in my dressing-room at the time, waiting for them; and he had +passed the night here. That was what you were thinking, _hein_? Think +so; I would rather you did. It is the simple truth. I am deceiving +you. And if I am? I do it to please myself." + +She sat down. There was no anger in her face, no embarrassment; she +looked from Camusot to Lucien. The two men avoided each other's eyes. + +"I will believe nothing that you do not wish me to believe," said +Camusot. "Don't play with me, Coralie; I was wrong----" + +"I am either a shameless baggage that has taken a sudden fancy; or a +poor, unhappy girl who feels what love really is for the first time, +the love that all women long for. And whichever way it is, you must +leave me or take me as I am," she said, with a queenly gesture that +crushed Camusot. + +"Is it really true?" he asked, seeing from their faces that this was +no jest, yet begging to be deceived. + +"I love mademoiselle," Lucien faltered out. + +At that word, Coralie sprang to her poet and held him tightly to her; +then, with her arms still about him, she turned to the silk-mercer, as +if to bid him see the beautiful picture made by two young lovers. + +"Poor Musot, take all that you gave to me back again; I do not want to +keep anything of yours; for I love this boy here madly, not for his +intellect, but for his beauty. I would rather starve with him than +have millions with you." + +Camusot sank into a low chair, hid his face in his hands, and said not +a word. + +"Would you like us to go away?" she asked. There was a note of +ferocity in her voice which no words can describe. + +Cold chills ran down Lucien's spine; he beheld himself burdened with a +woman, an actress, and a household. + +"Stay here, Coralie; keep it all," the old tradesman said at last, in +a faint, unsteady voice that came from his heart; "I don't want +anything back. There is the worth of sixty thousand francs here in the +furniture; but I could not bear to think of my Coralie in want. And +yet, it will not be long before you come to want. However great this +gentleman's talent may be, he can't afford to keep you. We old fellows +must expect this sort of thing. Coralie, let me come and see you +sometimes; I may be of use to you. And--I confess it; I cannot live +without you." + +The poor man's gentleness, stripped as he was of his happiness just as +happiness had reached its height, touched Lucien deeply. Coralie was +quite unsoftened by it. + +"Come as often as you wish, poor Musot," she said; "I shall like you +all the better when I don't pretend to love you." + +Camusot seemed to be resigned to his fate so long as he was not driven +out of the earthly paradise, in which his life could not have been all +joy; he trusted to the chances of life in Paris and to the temptations +that would beset Lucien's path; he would wait a while, and all that +had been his should be his again. Sooner or later, thought the wily +tradesman, this handsome young fellow would be unfaithful; he would +keep a watch on him; and the better to do this and use his opportunity +with Coralie, he would be their friend. The persistent passion that +could consent to such humiliation terrified Lucien. Camusot's proposal +of a dinner at Very's in the Palais Royal was accepted. + +"What joy!" cried Coralie, as soon as Camusot had departed. "You will +not go back now to your garret in the Latin Quarter; you will live +here. We shall always be together. You can take a room in the Rue +Charlot for the sake of appearances, and _vogue le galere_!" + +She began to dance her Spanish dance, with an excited eagerness that +revealed the strength of the passion in her heart. + +"If I work hard I may make five hundred francs a month," Lucien said. + +"And I shall make as much again at the theatre, without counting +extras. Camusot will pay for my dresses as before. He is fond of me! +We can live like Croesus on fifteen hundred francs a month." + +"And the horses? and the coachman? and the footman?" inquired +Berenice. + +"I will get into debt," said Coralie. And she began to dance with +Lucien. + +"I must close with Finot after this," Lucien exclaimed. + +"There!" said Coralie, "I will dress and take you to your office. I +will wait outside in the boulevard for you with the carriage." + +Lucien sat down on the sofa and made some very sober reflections as he +watched Coralie at her toilet. It would have been wiser to leave +Coralie free than to start all at once with such an establishment; but +Coralie was there before his eyes, and Coralie was so lovely, so +graceful, so bewitching, that the more picturesque aspects of bohemia +were in evidence; and he flung down the gauntlet to fortune. + +Berenice was ordered to superintend Lucien's removal and installation; +and Coralie, triumphant, radiant, and happy, carried off her love, her +poet, and must needs go all over Paris on the way to the Rue +Saint-Fiacre. Lucien sprang lightly up the staircase, and entered the +office with an air of being quite at home. Coloquinte was there with +the stamped paper still on his head; and old Giroudeau told him again, +hypocritically enough, that no one had yet come in. + +"But the editor and contributors _must_ meet somewhere or other to +arrange about the journal," said Lucien. + +"Very likely; but I have nothing to do with the writing of the paper," +said the Emperor's captain, resuming his occupation of checking off +wrappers with his eternal broum! broum! + +Was it lucky or unlucky? Finot chanced to come in at that very moment +to announce his sham abdication and to bid Giroudeau watch over his +interests. + +"No shilly-shally with this gentleman; he is on the staff," Finot +added for his uncle's benefit, as he grasped Lucien by the hand. + +"Oh! is he on the paper?" exclaimed Giroudeau, much surprised at this +friendliness. "Well, sir, you came on without much difficulty." + +"I want to make things snug for you here, lest Etienne should +bamboozle you," continued Finot, looking knowingly at Lucien. "This +gentleman will be paid three francs per column all round, including +theatres." + +"You have never taken any one on such terms before," said Giroudeau, +opening his eyes. + +"And he will take the four Boulevard theatres. See that nobody sneaks +his boxes, and that he gets his share of tickets.--I should advise +you, nevertheless, to have them sent to your address," he added, +turning to Lucien.--"And he agrees to write besides ten miscellaneous +articles of two columns each, for fifty francs per month, for one +year. Does that suit you?" + +"Yes," said Lucien. Circumstances had forced his hand. + +"Draw up the agreement, uncle, and we will sign it when we come +downstairs." + +"Who is the gentleman?" inquired Giroudeau, rising and taking off his +black silk skull-cap. + +"M. Lucien de Rubempre, who wrote the article on _The Alcalde_." + +"Young man, you have a gold mine _there_," said the old soldier, tapping +Lucien on the forehead. "I am not literary myself, but I read that +article of yours, and I liked it. That is the kind of thing! There's +gaiety for you! 'That will bring us new subscribers,' says I to +myself. And so it did. We sold fifty more numbers." + +"Is my agreement with Lousteau made out in duplicate and ready to +sign?" asked Finot, speaking aside. + +"Yes." + +"Then ante-date this gentleman's agreement by one day, so that +Lousteau will be bound by the previous contract." + +Finot took his new contributor's arm with a friendliness that charmed +Lucien, and drew him out on the landing to say:-- + +"Your position is made for you. I will introduce you to _my_ staff +myself, and to-night Lousteau will go round with you to the theatres. +You can make a hundred and fifty francs per month on this little paper +of ours with Lousteau as its editor, so try to keep well with him. The +rogue bears a grudge against me as it is, for tying his hands so far +as you are concerned; but you have ability, and I don't choose that +you shall be subjected to the whims of the editor. You might let me +have a couple of sheets every month for my review, and I will pay you +two hundred francs. This is between ourselves, don't mention it to +anybody else; I should be laid open to the spite of every one whose +vanity is mortified by your good fortune. Write four articles, fill +your two sheets, sign two with your own name, and two with a +pseudonym, so that you may not seem to be taking the bread out of +anybody else's mouth. You owe your position to Blondet and Vignon; +they think that you have a future before you. So keep out of scrapes, +and, above all things, be on your guard against your friends. As for +me, we shall always get on well together, you and I. Help me, and I +will help you. You have forty francs' worth of boxes and tickets to +sell, and sixty francs' worth of books to convert into cash. With that +and your work on the paper, you will be making four hundred and fifty +francs every month. If you use your wits, you will find ways of making +another two hundred francs at least among the publishers; they will +pay you for reviews and prospectuses. But you are mine, are you not? I +can count upon you." + +Lucien squeezed Finot's hand in transports of joy which no words can +express. + +"Don't let any one see that anything has passed between us," said +Finot in his ear, and he flung open a door of a room in the roof at +the end of a long passage on the fifth floor. + +A table covered with a green cloth was drawn up to a blazing fire, and +seated in various chairs and lounges Lucien discovered Lousteau, +Felicien Vernou, Hector Merlin, and two others unknown to him, all +laughing or smoking. A real inkstand, full of ink this time, stood on +the table among a great litter of papers; while a collection of pens, +the worse for wear, but still serviceable for journalists, told the +new contributor very plainly that the mighty enterprise was carried on +in this apartment. + +"Gentlemen," said Finot, "the object of this gathering is the +installation of our friend Lousteau in my place as editor of the +newspaper which I am compelled to relinquish. But although my opinions +will necessarily undergo a transformation when I accept the editorship +of a review of which the politics are known to you, my _convictions_ +remain the same, and we shall be friends as before. I am quite at your +service, and you likewise will be ready to do anything for me. +Circumstances change; principles are fixed. Principles are the pivot +on which the hands of the political barometer turn." + +There was an instant shout of laughter. + +"Who put that into your mouth?" asked Lousteau. + +"Blondet!" said Finot. + +"Windy, showery, stormy, settled fair," said Merlin; "we will all row +in the same boat." + +"In short," continued Finot, "not to muddle our wits with metaphors, +any one who has an article or two for me will always find Finot.--This +gentleman," turning to Lucien, "will be one of you.--I have arranged +with him, Lousteau." + +Every one congratulated Finot on his advance and new prospects. + +"So there you are, mounted on our shoulders," said a contributor +whom Lucien did not know. "You will be the Janus of Journal----" + +"So long as he isn't the Janot," put in Vernou. + +"Are you going to allow us to make attacks on our _betes noires_?" + +"Any one you like." + +"Ah, yes!" said Lousteau; "but the paper must keep on its lines. M. +Chatelet is very wroth; we shall not let him off for a week yet." + +"What has happened?" asked Lucien. + +"He came here to ask for an explanation," said Vernou. "The Imperial +buck found old Giroudeau at home; and old Giroudeau told him, with all +the coolness in the world, that Philippe Bridau wrote the article. +Philippe asked the Baron to mention the time and the weapons, and +there it ended. We are engaged at this moment in offering excuses to +the Baron in to-morrow's issue. Every phrase is a stab for him." + +"Keep your teeth in him and he will come round to me," said Finot; +"and it will look as if I were obliging him by appeasing you. He can +say a word to the Ministry, and we can get something or other out of +him--an assistant schoolmaster's place, or a tobacconist's license. It +is a lucky thing for us that we flicked him on the raw. Does anybody +here care to take a serious article on Nathan for my new paper?" + +"Give it to Lucien," said Lousteau. "Hector and Vernou will write +articles in their papers at the same time." + +"Good-day, gentlemen; we shall meet each other face to face at +Barbin's," said Finot, laughing. + +Lucien received some congratulations on his admission to the mighty +army of journalists, and Lousteau explained that they could be sure of +him. "Lucien wants you all to sup in a body at the house of the fair +Coralie." + +"Coralie is going on at the Gymnase," said Lucien. + +"Very well, gentlemen; it is understood that we push Coralie, eh? Put +a few lines about her new engagement in your papers, and say something +about her talent. Credit the management of the Gymnase with tack and +discernment; will it do to say intelligence?" + +"Yes, say intelligence," said Merlin; "Frederic has something of +Scribe's." + +"Oh! Well, then, the manager of the Gymnase is the most perspicacious +and far-sighted of men of business," said Vernou. + +"Look here! don't write your articles on Nathan until we have come to +an understanding; you shall hear why," said Etienne Lousteau. "We +ought to do something for our new comrade. Lucien here has two books +to bring out--a volume of sonnets and a novel. The power of the +paragraph should make him a great poet due in three months; and we +will make use of his sonnets (_Marguerites_ is the title) to run down +odes, ballads, and reveries, and all the Romantic poetry." + +"It would be a droll thing if the sonnets were no good after all," +said Vernou.--"What do you yourself think of your sonnets, Lucien?" + +"Yes, what do you think of them?" asked one of the two whom Lucien did +not know. + +"They are all right, gentlemen; I give you my word," said Lousteau. + +"Very well, that will do for me," said Vernou; "I will heave your book +at the poets of the sacristy; I am tired of them." + +"If Dauriat declines to take the _Marguerites_ this evening, we will +attack him by pitching into Nathan." + +"But what will Nathan say?" cried Lucien. + +His five colleagues burst out laughing. + +"Oh! he will be delighted," said Vernou. "You will see how we manage +these things." + +"So he is one of us?" said one of the two journalists. + +"Yes, yes, Frederic; no tricks.--We are all working for you, Lucien, +you see; you must stand by us when your turn comes. We are all friends +of Nathan's, and we are attacking him. Now, let us divide Alexander's +empire.--Frederic, will you take the Francais and the Odeon?" + +"If these gentlemen are willing," returned the person addressed as +Frederic. The others nodded assent, but Lucien saw a gleam of jealousy +here and there. + +"I am keeping the Opera, the Italiens, and the Opera-Comique," put in +Vernou. + +"And how about me? Am I to have no theatres at all?" asked the second +stranger. + +"Oh well, Hector can let you have the Varietes, and Lucien can spare +you the Porte Saint-Martin.--Let him have the Porte Saint-Martin, +Lucien, he is wild about Fanny Beaupre; and you can take the +Cirque-Olympique in exchange. I shall have Bobino and the Funambules +and Madame Saqui. Now, what have we for to-morrow?" + +"Nothing." + +"Nothing?" + +"Nothing." + +"Gentlemen, be brilliant for my first number. The Baron du Chatelet +and his cuttlefish bone will not last for a week, and the writer of _Le +Solitaire_ is worn out." + +"And 'Sosthenes-Demosthenes' is stale too," said Vernou; "everybody +has taken it up." + +"The fact is, we want a new set of ninepins," said Frederic. + +"Suppose that we take the virtuous representatives of the Right?" +suggested Lousteau. "We might say that M. de Bonald has sweaty feet." + +"Let us begin a series of sketches of Ministerialist orators," +suggested Hector Merlin. + +"You do that, youngster; you know them; they are your own party," said +Lousteau; "you could indulge any little private grudges of your own. +Pitch into Beugnot and Syrieys de Mayrinhac and the rest. You might +have the sketches ready in advance, and we shall have something to +fall back upon." + +"How if we invented one or two cases of refusal of burial with +aggravating circumstances?" asked Hector. + +"Do not follow in the tracks of the big Constitutional papers; they +have pigeon-holes full of ecclesiastical _canards_," retorted Vernou. + +"_Canards_?" repeated Lucien. + +"That is our word for a scrap of fiction told for true, put in to +enliven the column of morning news when it is flat. We owe the +discovery to Benjamin Franklin, the inventor of the lightning +conductor and the republic. That journalist completely deceived the +Encyclopaedists by his transatlantic _canards_. Raynal gives two of them +for facts in his _Histoire philosophique des Indes_." + +"I did not know that," said Vernou. "What were the stories?" + +"One was a tale about an Englishman and a negress who helped him to +escape; he sold the woman for a slave after getting her with child +himself to enhance her value. The other was the eloquent defence of a +young woman brought before the authorities for bearing a child out of +wedlock. Franklin owned to the fraud in Necker's house when he came to +Paris, much to the confusion of French philosophism. Behold how the +New World twice set a bad example to the Old!" + +"In journalism," said Lousteau, "everything that is probable is true. +That is an axiom." + +"Criminal procedure is based on the same rule," said Vernou. + +"Very well, we meet here at nine o'clock," and with that they rose, +and the sitting broke up with the most affecting demonstrations of +intimacy and good-will. + +"What have you done to Finot, Lucien, that he should make a special +arrangement with you? You are the only one that he has bound to +himself," said Etienne Lousteau, as they came downstairs. + +"I? Nothing. It was his own proposal," said Lucien. + +"As a matter of fact, if you should make your own terms with him, I +should be delighted; we should, both of us, be the better for it." + +On the ground floor they found Finot. He stepped across to Lousteau +and asked him into the so-called private office. Giroudeau immediately +put a couple of stamped agreements before Lucien. + +"Sign your agreement," he said, "and the new editor will think the +whole thing was arranged yesterday." + +Lucien, reading the document, overheard fragments of a tolerably warm +dispute within as to the line of conduct and profits of the paper. +Etienne Lousteau wanted his share of the blackmail levied by +Giroudeau; and, in all probability, the matter was compromised, for +the pair came out perfectly good friends. + +"We will meet at Dauriat's, Lucien, in the Wooden Galleries at eight +o'clock," said Etienne Lousteau. + +A young man appeared, meanwhile, in search of employment, wearing the +same nervous shy look with which Lucien himself had come to the office +so short a while ago; and in his secret soul Lucien felt amused as he +watched Giroudeau playing off the same tactics with which the old +campaigner had previously foiled him. Self-interest opened his eyes to +the necessity of the manoeuvres which raised well-nigh insurmountable +barriers between beginners and the upper room where the elect were +gathered together. + +"Contributors don't get very much as it is," he said, addressing +Giroudeau. + +"If there were more of you, there would be so much less," retorted the +captain. "So there!" + +The old campaigner swung his loaded cane, and went down coughing as +usual. Out in the street he was amazed to see a handsome carriage +waiting on the boulevard for Lucien. + +"_You_ are the army nowadays," he said, "and we are the civilians." + +"Upon my word," said Lucien, as he drove away with Coralie, "these +young writers seem to me to be the best fellows alive. Here am I a +journalist, sure of making six hundred francs a month if I work like a +horse. But I shall find a publisher for my two books, and I will write +others; for my friends will insure a success. And so, Coralie, '_vogue +le galere_!' as you say." + +"You will make your way, dear boy; but you must not be as good-natured +as you are good-looking; it would be the ruin of you. Be ill-natured, +that is the proper thing." + +Coralie and Lucien drove in the Bois de Boulogne, and again they met +the Marquise d'Espard, Mme. de Bargeton and the Baron du Chatelet. +Mme. de Bargeton gave Lucien a languishing glance which might be taken +as a greeting. Camusot had ordered the best possible dinner; and +Coralie, feeling that she was rid of her adorer, was more charming to +the poor silk-mercer than she had ever been in the fourteen months +during which their connection lasted; he had never seen her so kindly, +so enchantingly lovely. + +"Come," he thought, "let us keep near her anyhow!" + +In consequence, Camusot made secret overtures. He promised Coralie an +income of six thousand livres; he would transfer the stock in the +funds into her name (his wife knew nothing about the investment) if +only she would consent to be his mistress still. He would shut his +eyes to her lover. + +"And betray such an angel? . . . Why, just look at him, you old +fossil, and look at yourself!" and her eyes turned to her poet. +Camusot had pressed Lucien to drink till the poet's head was rather +cloudy. + +There was no help for it; Camusot made up his mind to wait till sheer +want should give him this woman a second time. + +"Then I can only be your friend," he said, as he kissed her on the +forehead. + +Lucien went from Coralie and Camusot to the Wooden Galleries. What a +change had been wrought in his mind by his initiation into Journalism! +He mixed fearlessly now with the crowd which surged to and fro in the +buildings; he even swaggered a little because he had a mistress; and +he walked into Dauriat's shop in an offhand manner because he was a +journalist. + +He found himself among distinguished men; gave a hand to Blondet and +Nathan and Finot, and to all the coterie with whom he had been +fraternizing for a week. He was a personage, he thought, and he +flattered himself that he surpassed his comrades. That little flick of +the wine did him admirable service; he was witty, he showed that he +could "howl with the wolves." + +And yet, the tacit approval, the praises spoken and unspoken on which +he had counted, were not forthcoming. He noticed the first stirrings +of jealousy among a group, less curious, perhaps, than anxious to know +the place which this newcomer might take, and the exact portion of the +sum-total of profits which he would probably secure and swallow. +Lucien only saw smiles on two faces--Finot, who regarded him as a mine +to be exploited, and Lousteau, who considered that he had proprietary +rights in the poet, looked glad to see him. Lousteau had begun already +to assume the airs of an editor; he tapped sharply on the window-panes +of Dauriat's private office. + +"One moment, my friend," cried a voice within as the publisher's face +appeared above the green curtains. + +The moment lasted an hour, and finally Lucien and Etienne were +admitted into the sanctum. + +"Well, have you thought over our friend's proposal?" asked Etienne +Lousteau, now an editor. + +"To be sure," said Dauriat, lolling like a sultan in his chair. "I +have read the volume. And I submitted it to a man of taste, a good +judge; for I don't pretend to understand these things myself. I +myself, my friend, buy reputations ready-made, as the Englishman +bought his love affairs.--You are as great as a poet as you are +handsome as a man, my boy," pronounced Dauriat. "Upon my word and +honor (I don't tell you that as a publisher, mind), your sonnets are +magnificent; no sign of effort about them, as is natural when a man +writes with inspiration and verve. You know your craft, in fact, one +of the good points of the new school. Your volume of _Marguerites_ is a +fine book, but there is no business in it, and it is not worth my +while to meddle with anything but a very big affair. In conscience, I +won't take your sonnets. It would be impossible to push them; there is +not enough in the thing to pay the expenses of a big success. You will +not keep to poetry besides; this book of yours will be your first and +last attempt of the kind. You are young; you bring me the everlasting +volume of early verse which every man of letters writes when he leaves +school, he thinks a lot of it at the time, and laughs at it later on. +Lousteau, your friend, has a poem put away somewhere among his old +socks, I'll warrant. Haven't you a poem that you thought a good deal +of once, Lousteau?" inquired Dauriat, with a knowing glance at the +other. + +"How should I be writing prose otherwise, eh?" asked Lousteau. + +"There, you see! He has never said a word to me about it, for our +friend understands business and the trade," continued Dauriat. "For me +the question is not whether you are a great poet, I know that," he +added, stroking down Lucien's pride; "you have a great deal, a very +great deal of merit; if I were only just starting in business, I +should make the mistake of publishing your book. But in the first +place, my sleeping partners and those at the back of me are cutting +off my supplies; I dropped twenty thousand francs over poetry last +year, and that is enough for them; they will not hear of any more just +now, and they are my masters. Nevertheless, that is not the question. +I admit that you may be a great poet, but will you be a prolific +writer? Will you hatch sonnets regularly? Will you run into ten +volumes? Is there business in it? Of course not. You will be a +delightful prose writer; you have too much sense to spoil your style +with tagging rhymes together. You have a chance to make thirty +thousand francs per annum by writing for the papers, and you will not +exchange that chance for three thousand francs made with difficulty by +your hemistiches and strophes and tomfoolery----" + +"You know that he is on the paper, Dauriat?" put in Lousteau. + +"Yes," Dauriat answered. "Yes, I saw his article, and in his own +interests I decline the _Marguerites_. Yes, sir, in six months' time I +shall have paid you more money for the articles that I shall ask you +to write than for your poetry that will not sell." + +"And fame?" said Lucien. + +Dauriat and Lousteau laughed. + +"Oh dear!" said Lousteau, "there be illusions left." + +"Fame means ten years of sticking to work, and a hundred thousand +francs lost or made in the publishing trade. If you find anybody mad +enough to print your poetry for you, you will feel some respect for me +in another twelvemonth, when you have had time to see the outcome of +the transaction" + +"Have you the manuscript here?" Lucien asked coldly. + +"Here it is, my friend," said Dauriat. The publisher's manner towards +Lucien had sweetened singularly. + +Lucien took up the roll without looking at the string, so sure he felt +that Dauriat had read his _Marguerites_. He went out with Lousteau, +seemingly neither disconcerted nor dissatisfied. Dauriat went with +them into the shop, talking of his newspaper and Lousteau's daily, +while Lucien played with the manuscript of the _Marguerites_. + +"Do you suppose that Dauriat has read your sonnets or sent them to any +one else?" Etienne Lousteau snatched an opportunity to whisper. + +"Yes," said Lucien. + +"Look at the string." Lucien looked down at the blot of ink, and saw +that the mark on the string still coincided; he turned white with +rage. + +"Which of the sonnets was it that you particularly liked?" he asked, +turning to the publisher. + +"They are all of them remarkable, my friend; but the sonnet on the +_Marguerite_ is delightful, the closing thought is fine, and exquisitely +expressed. I felt sure from that sonnet that your prose work would +command a success, and I spoke to Finot about you at once. Write +articles for us, and we will pay you well for them. Fame is a very +fine thing, you see, but don't forget the practical and solid, and +take every chance that turns up. When you have made money, you can +write poetry." + +The poet dashed out of the shop to avoid an explosion. He was furious. +Lousteau followed. + +"Well, my boy, pray keep cool. Take men as they are--for means to an +end. Do you wish for revenge?" + +"At any price," muttered the poet. + +"Here is a copy of Nathan's book. Dauriat has just given it to me. The +second edition is coming out to-morrow; read the book again, and knock +off an article demolishing it. Felicien Vernou cannot endure Nathan, +for he thinks that Nathan's success will injure his own forthcoming +book. It is a craze with these little minds to fancy that there is not +room for two successes under the sun; so he will see that your article +finds a place in the big paper for which he writes." + +"But what is there to be said against the book; it is good work!" +cried Lucien. + +"Oh, I say! you must learn your trade," said Lousteau, laughing. +"Given that the book was a masterpiece, under the stroke of your pen +it must turn to dull trash, dangerous and unwholesome stuff." + +"But how?" + +"You turn all the good points into bad ones." + +"I am incapable of such a juggler's feat." + +"My dear boy, a journalist is a juggler; a man must make up his mind +to the drawbacks of the calling. Look here! I am not a bad fellow; +this is the way _I_ should set to work myself. Attention! You might +begin by praising the book, and amuse yourself a while by saying what +you really think. 'Good,' says the reader, 'this critic is not +jealous; he will be impartial, no doubt,' and from that point your +public will think that your criticism is a piece of conscientious +work. Then, when you have won your reader's confidence, you will +regret that you must blame the tendency and influence of such work +upon French literature. 'Does not France,' you will say, 'sway the +whole intellectual world? French writers have kept Europe in the path +of analysis and philosophical criticism from age to age by their +powerful style and the original turn given by them to ideas.' Here, +for the benefit of the philistine, insert a panegyric on Voltaire, +Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu, and Buffon. Hold forth upon the +inexorable French language; show how it spreads a varnish, as it were, +over thought. Let fall a few aphorisms, such as--'A great writer in +France is invariably a great man; he writes in a language which +compels him to think; it is otherwise in other countries'--and so on, +and so on. Then, to prove your case, draw a comparison between +Rabener, the German satirical moralist, and La Bruyere. Nothing gives +a critic such an air as an apparent familiarity with foreign +literature. Kant is Cousin's pedestal. + +"Once on that ground you bring out a word which sums up the French men +of genius of the eighteenth century for the benefit of simpletons--you +call that literature the 'literature of ideas.' Armed with this +expression, you fling all the mighty dead at the heads of the +illustrious living. You explain that in the present day a new form of +literature has sprung up; that dialogue (the easiest form of writing) +is overdone, and description dispenses with any need for thinking on +the part of the author or reader. You bring up the fiction of +Voltaire, Diderot, Sterne, and Le Sage, so trenchant, so compact of +the stuff of life; and turn from them to the modern novel, composed of +scenery and word-pictures and metaphor and the dramatic situations, of +which Scott is full. Invention may be displayed in such work, but +there is no room for anything else. 'The romance after the manner of +Scott is a mere passing fashion in literature,' you will say, and +fulminate against the fatal way in which ideas are diluted and beaten +thin; cry out against a style within the reach of any intellect, for +any one can commence author at small expense in a way of literature, +which you can nickname the 'literature of imagery.' + +"Then you fall upon Nathan with your argument, and establish it +beyound cavil that he is a mere imitator with an appearance of genius. +The concise grand style of the eighteenth century is lacking; you show +that the author substitutes events for sentiments. Action and stir is +not life; he gives you pictures, but no ideas. + +"Come out with such phrases, and people will take them up.--In spite +of the merits of the work, it seems to you to be a dangerous, nay, a +fatal precedent. It throws open the gates of the temple of Fame to the +crowd; and in the distance you descry a legion of petty authors +hastening to imitate this novel and easy style of writing. + +"Here you launch out into resounding lamentations over the decadence +and decline of taste, and slip in eulogies of Messieurs Etienne Jouy, +Tissot, Gosse, Duval, Jay, Benjamin Constant, Aignan, Baour-Lormian, +Villemain, and the whole Liberal-Bonapartist chorus who patronize +Vernou's paper. Next you draw a picture of that glorious phalanx of +writers repelling the invasion of the Romantics; these are the +upholders of ideas and style as against metaphor and balderdash; the +modern representatives of the school of Voltaire as opposed to the +English and German schools, even as the seventeen heroic deputies of +the Left fought the battle for the nation against the Ultras of the +Right. + +"And then, under cover of names respected by the immense majority of +Frenchmen (who will always be against the Government), you can crush +Nathan; for although his work is far above the average, it confirms +the bourgeois taste for literature without ideas. And after that, you +understand, it is no longer a question of Nathan and his book, but of +France and the glory of France. It is the duty of all honest and +courageous pens to make strenuous opposition to these foreign +importations. And with that you flatter your readers. Shrewd French +mother-wit is not easily caught napping. If publishers, by ways which +you do not choose to specify, have stolen a success, the reading +public very soon judges for itself, and corrects the mistakes made by +some five hundred fools, who always rush to the fore. + +"Say that the publisher who sold a first edition of the book is +audacious indeed to issue a second, and express regret that so clever +a man does not know the taste of the country better. There is the gist +of it. Just a sprinkle of the salt of wit and a dash of vinegar to +bring out the flavor, and Dauriat will be done to a turn. But mind +that you end with seeming to pity Nathan for a mistake, and speak of +him as of a man from whom contemporary literature may look for great +things if he renounces these ways." + +Lucien was amazed at this talk from Lousteau. As the journalist spoke, +the scales fell from his eyes; he beheld new truths of which he had +never before caught so much as a glimpse. + +"But all this that you are saying is quite true and just," said he. + +"If it were not, how could you make it tell against Nathan's book?" +asked Lousteau. "That is the first manner of demolishing a book, my +boy; it is the pickaxe style of criticism. But there are plenty of +other ways. Your education will complete itself in time. When you are +absolutely obliged to speak of a man whom you do not like, for +proprietors and editors are sometimes under compulsion, you bring out +a neutral special article. You put the title of the book at the head +of it, and begin with general remarks, on the Greeks and the Romans if +you like, and wind up with--'and this brings us to Mr. So-and-so's +book, which will form the subject of a second article.' The second +article never appears, and in this way you snuff out the book between +two promises. But in this case you are writing down, not Nathan, but +Dauriat; he needs the pickaxe style. If the book is really good, the +pickaxe does no harm; but it goes to the core of it if it is bad. In +the first case, no one but the publisher is any the worse; in the +second, you do the public a service. Both methods, moreover, are +equally serviceable in political criticism." + +Etienne Lousteau's cruel lesson opened up possibilities for Lucien's +imagination. He understood this craft to admiration. + +"Let us go to the office," said Lousteau; "we shall find our friends +there, and we will agree among ourselves to charge at Nathan; they +will laugh, you will see." + +Arrived in the Rue Saint-Fiacre, they went up to the room in the roof +where the paper was made up, and Lucien was surprised and gratified no +less to see the alacrity with which his comrades proceeded to demolish +Nathan's book. Hector Merlin took up a piece of paper and wrote a few +lines for his own newspaper.-- + + + "A second edition of M. Nathan's book is announced. We had + intended to keep silence with regard to that work, but its + apparent success obliges us to publish an article, not so much + upon the book itself as upon certain tendencies of the new school + of literature." + + +At the head of the "Facetiae" in the morning's paper, Lousteau +inserted the following note:-- + + + "M. Dauriat is bringing out a second edition of M. Nathan's book. + Evidently he does not know the legal maxim, _Non bis in idem_. All + honor to rash courage." + + +Lousteau's words had been like a torch for burning; Lucien's hot +desire to be revenged on Dauriat took the place of conscience and +inspiration. For three days he never left Coralie's room; he sat at +work by the fire, waited upon by Berenice; petted, in moments of +weariness, by the silent and attentive Coralie; till, at the end of +that time, he had made a fair copy of about three columns of +criticism, and an astonishingly good piece of work. + +It was nine o'clock in the evening when he ran round to the office, +found his associates, and read over his work to an attentive audience. +Felicien said not a syllable. He took up the manuscript, and made off +with it pell-mell down the staircase. + +"What has come to him?" cried Lucien. + +"He has taken your article straight to the printer," said Hector +Merlin. "'Tis a masterpiece; not a line to add, nor a word to take +out." + +"There was no need to do more than show you the way," said Lousteau. + +"I should like to see Nathan's face when he reads this to-morrow," +said another contributor, beaming with gentle satisfaction. + +"It is as well to have you for a friend," remarked Hector Merlin. + +"Then it will do?" Lucien asked quickly. + +"Blondet and Vignon will feel bad," said Lousteau. + +"Here is a short article which I have knocked together for you," began +Lucien; "if it takes, I could write you a series." + +"Read it over," said Lousteau, and Lucien read the first of the +delightful short papers which made the fortune of the little +newspaper; a series of sketches of Paris life, a portrait, a type, an +ordinary event, or some of the oddities of the great city. This +specimen--"The Man in the Street"--was written in a way that was fresh +and original; the thoughts were struck out by the shock of the words, +the sounding ring of the adverbs and adjectives caught the reader's +ear. The paper was as different from the serious and profound article +on Nathan as the _Lettres persanes_ from the _Esprit des lois_. + +"You are a born journalist," said Lousteau. "It shall go in to-morrow. +Do as much of this sort of thing as you like." + +"Ah, by the by," said Merlin, "Dauriat is furious about those two +bombshells hurled into his magazine. I have just come from him. He was +hurling imprecations, and in such a rage with Finot, who told him that +he had sold his paper to you. As for me, I took him aside and just +said a word in his ear. 'The _Marguerites_ will cost you dear,' I told +him. 'A man of talent comes to you, you turn the cold shoulder on him, +and send him into the arms of the newspapers.'" + +"Dauriat will be dumfounded by the article on Nathan," said Lousteau. +"Do you see now what journalism is, Lucien? Your revenge is beginning +to tell. The Baron Chatelet came here this morning for your address. +There was a cutting article upon him in this morning's issue; he is a +weakling, that buck of the Empire, and he has lost his head. Have you +seen the paper? It is a funny article. Look, 'Funeral of the Heron, +and the Cuttlefish-bone's lament.' Mme. de Bargeton is called the +Cuttlefish-bone now, and no mistake, and Chatelet is known everywhere +as Baron Heron." + +Lucien took up the paper, and could not help laughing at Vernou's +extremely clever skit. + +"They will capitulate soon," said Hector Merlin. + +Lucien merrily assisted at the manufacture of epigrams and jokes at +the end of the paper; and the associates smoked and chatted over the +day's adventures, over the foibles of some among their number, or some +new bit of personal gossip. From their witty, malicious, bantering +talk, Lucien gained a knowledge of the inner life of literature, and +of the manners and customs of the craft. + +"While they are setting up the paper, I will go round with you and +introduce you to the managers of your theatres, and take you behind +the scenes," said Lousteau. "And then we will go to the +Panorama-Dramatique, and have a frolic in their dressing-rooms." + +Arm-in-arm, they went from theatre to theatre. Lucien was introduced +to this one and that, and enthroned as a dramatic critic. Managers +complimented him, actresses flung him side glances; for every one of +them knew that this was the critic who, by a single article, had +gained an engagement at the Gymnase, with twelve thousand francs a +year, for Coralie, and another for Florine at the Panorama-Dramatique +with eight thousand francs. Lucien was a man of importance. The little +ovations raised Lucien in his own eyes, and taught him to know his +power. At eleven o'clock the pair arrived at the Panorama-Dramatique; +Lucien with a careless air that worked wonders. Nathan was there. +Nathan held out a hand, which Lucien squeezed. + +"Ah! my masters, so you have a mind to floor me, have you?" said +Nathan, looking from one to the other. + +"Just you wait till to-morrow, my dear fellow, and you shall see how +Lucien has taken you in hand. Upon my word, you will be pleased. A +piece of serious criticism like that is sure to do a book good." + +Lucien reddened with confusion. + +"Is it severe?" inquired Nathan. + +"It is serious," said Lousteau. + +"Then there is no harm done," Nathan rejoined. "Hector Merlin in the +greenroom of the Vaudeville was saying that I had been cut up." + +"Let him talk, and wait," cried Lucien, and took refuge in Coralie's +dressing-room. Coralie, in her alluring costume, had just come off the +stage. + + + +Next morning, as Lucien and Coralie sat at breakfast, a carriage drove +along the Rue de Vendome. The street was quiet enough, so that they +could hear the light sound made by an elegant cabriolet; and there was +that in the pace of the horse, and the manner of pulling up at the +door, which tells unmistakably of a thoroughbred. Lucien went to the +window, and there, in fact, beheld a splendid English horse, and no +less a person than Dauriat flinging the reins to his man as he stepped +down. + +"'Tis the publisher, Coralie," said Lucien. + +"Let him wait, Berenice," Coralie said at once. + +Lucien smiled at her presence of mind, and kissed her with a great +rush of tenderness. This mere girl had made his interests hers in a +wonderful way; she was quick-witted where he was concerned. The +apparition of the insolent publisher, the sudden and complete collapse +of that prince of charlatans, was due to circumstances almost entirely +forgotten, so utterly has the book trade changed during the last +fifteen years. + +From 1816 to 1827, when newspaper reading-rooms were only just +beginning to lend new books, the fiscal law pressed more heavily than +ever upon periodical publications, and necessity created the invention +of advertisements. Paragraphs and articles in the newspapers were the +only means of advertisement known in those days; and French newspapers +before the year 1822 were so small, that the largest sheet of those +times was not so large as the smallest daily paper of ours. Dauriat +and Ladvocat, the first publishers to make a stand against the tyranny +of journalists, were also the first to use the placards which caught +the attention of Paris by strange type, striking colors, vignettes, +and (at a later time) by lithograph illustrations, till a placard +became a fairy-tale for the eyes, and not unfrequently a snare for the +purse of the amateur. So much originality indeed was expended on +placards in Paris, that one of that peculiar kind of maniacs, known as +a collector, possesses a complete series. + +At first the placard was confined to the shop-windows and stalls upon +the Boulevards in Paris; afterwards it spread all over France, till it +was supplanted to some extent by a return to advertisements in the +newspapers. But the placard, nevertheless, which continues to strike +the eye, after the advertisement and the book which is advertised are +both forgotten, will always be among us; it took a new lease of life +when walls were plastered with posters. + +Newspaper advertising, the offspring of heavy stamp duties, a high +rate of postage, and the heavy deposits of caution-money required by +the government as security for good behavior, is within the reach of +all who care to pay for it, and has turned the fourth page of every +journal into a harvest field alike for the speculator and the Inland +Revenue Department. The press restrictions were invented in the time +of M. de Villele, who had a chance, if he had but known it, of +destroying the power of journalism by allowing newspapers to multiply +till no one took any notice of them; but he missed his opportunity, +and a sort of privilege was created, as it were, by the almost +insuperable difficulties put in the way of starting a new venture. So, +in 1821, the periodical press might be said to have power of life and +death over the creations of the brain and the publishing trade. A few +lines among the items of news cost a fearful amount. Intrigues were +multiplied in newspaper offices; and of a night when the columns were +divided up, and this or that article was put in or left out to suit +the space, the printing-room became a sort of battlefield; so much so, +that the largest publishing firms had writers in their pay to insert +short articles in which many ideas are put in little space. Obscure +journalists of this stamp were only paid after the insertion of the +items, and not unfrequently spent the night in the printing-office to +make sure that their contributions were not omitted; sometimes putting +in a long article, obtained heaven knows how, sometimes a few lines of +a puff. + +The manners and customs of journalism and of the publishing houses +have since changed so much, that many people nowadays will not believe +what immense efforts were made by writers and publishers of books to +secure a newspaper puff; the martyrs of glory, and all those who are +condemned to the penal servitude of a life-long success, were reduced +to such shifts, and stooped to depths of bribery and corruption as +seem fabulous to-day. Every kind of persuasion was brought to bear on +journalists--dinners, flattery, and presents. The following story will +throw more light on the close connection between the critic and the +publisher than any quantity of flat assertions. + +There was once upon a time an editor of an important paper, a clever +writer with a prospect of becoming a statesman; he was young in those +days, and fond of pleasure, and he became the favorite of a well-known +publishing house. One Sunday the wealthy head of the firm was +entertaining several of the foremost journalists of the time in the +country, and the mistress of the house, then a young and pretty woman, +went to walk in her park with the illustrious visitor. The head-clerk +of the firm, a cool, steady, methodical German with nothing but +business in his head, was discussing a project with one of the +journalists, and as they chatted they walked on into the woods beyond +the park. In among the thickets the German thought he caught a glimpse +of his hostess, put up his eyeglass, made a sign to his young +companion to be silent, and turned back, stepping softly.--"What did +you see?" asked the journalist.--"Nothing particular," said the clerk. +"Our affair of the long article is settled. To-morrow we shall have at +least three columns in the _Debats_." + +Another anecdote will show the influence of a single article. + +A book of M. de Chateaubriand's on the last of the Stuarts was for +some time a "nightingale" on the bookseller's shelves. A single +article in the _Journal des Debats_ sold the work in a week. In those +days, when there were no lending libraries, a publisher would sell an +edition of ten thousand copies of a book by a Liberal if it was well +reviewed by the Opposition papers; but then the Belgian pirated +editions were not as yet. + +The preparatory attacks made by Lucien's friends, followed up by his +article on Nathan, proved efficacious; they stopped the sale of his +book. Nathan escaped with the mortification; he had been paid; he had +nothing to lose; but Dauriat was like to lose thirty thousand francs. +The trade in new books may, in fact, be summed up much on this wise. A +ream of blank paper costs fifteen francs, a ream of printed paper is +worth anything between a hundred sous and a hundred crowns, according +to its success; a favorable or unfavorable review at a critical time +often decides the question; and Dauriat having five hundred reams of +printed paper on hand, hurried to make terms with Lucien. The sultan +was now the slave. + +After waiting for some time, fidgeting and making as much noise as he +could while parleying with Berenice, he at last obtained speech of +Lucien; and, arrogant publisher though he was, he came in with the +radiant air of a courtier in the royal presence, mingled, however, +with a certain self-sufficiency and easy good humor. + +"Don't disturb yourselves, my little dears! How nice they look, just +like a pair of turtle-doves! Who would think now, mademoiselle, that +he, with that girl's face of his, could be a tiger with claws of +steel, ready to tear a reputation to rags, just as he tears your +wrappers, I'll be bound, when you are not quick enough to unfasten +them," and he laughed before he had finished his jest. + +"My dear boy----" he began, sitting down beside Lucien. +--"Mademoiselle, I am Dauriat," he said, interrupting himself. He +judged it expedient to fire his name at her like a pistol shot, for +he considered that Coralie was less cordial than she should have been. + +"Have you breakfasted, monsieur; will you keep us company?" asked +Coralie. + +"Why, yes; it is easier to talk at table," said Dauriat. "Besides, by +accepting your invitation I shall have a right to expect you to dine +with my friend Lucien here, for we must be close friends now, hand and +glove!" + +"Berenice! Bring oysters, lemons, fresh butter, and champagne," said +Coralie. + +"You are too clever not to know what has brought me here," said +Dauriat, fixing his eyes on Lucien. + +"You have come to buy my sonnets." + +"Precisely. First of all, let us lay down our arms on both sides." As +he spoke he took out a neat pocketbook, drew from it three bills for a +thousand francs each, and laid them before Lucien with a suppliant +air. "Is monsieur content?" asked he. + +"Yes," said the poet. A sense of beatitude, for which no words exist, +flooded his soul at the sight of that unhoped wealth. He controlled +himself, but he longed to sing aloud, to jump for joy; he was ready to +believe in Aladdin's lamp and in enchantment; he believed in his own +genius, in short. + +"Then the _Marguerites_ are mine," continued Dauriat; "but you will +undertake not to attack my publications, won't you?" + +"The _Marguerites_ are yours, but I cannot pledge my pen; it is at the +service of my friends, as theirs are mine." + +"But you are one of my authors now. All my authors are my friends. So +you won't spoil my business without warning me beforehand, so that I +am prepared, will you?" + +"I agree to that." + +"To your fame!" and Dauriat raised his glass. + +"I see that you have read the _Marguerites_," said Lucien. + +Dauriat was not disconcerted. + +"My boy, a publisher cannot pay a greater compliment than by buying +your _Marguerites_ unread. In six months' time you will be a great poet. +You will be written up; people are afraid of you; I shall have no +difficulty in selling your book. I am the same man of business that I +was four days ago. It is not I who have changed; it is _you_. Last week +your sonnets were so many cabbage leaves for me; to-day your position +has ranked them beside Delavigne." + +"Ah well," said Lucien, "if you have not read my sonnets, you have +read my article." With the sultan's pleasure of possessing a fair +mistress, and the certainty of success, he had grown satirical and +adorably impertinent of late. + +"Yes, my friend; do you think I should have come here in such a hurry +but for that? That terrible article of yours is very well written, +worse luck. Oh! you have a very great gift, my boy. Take my advice and +make the most of your vogue," he added, with good humor, which masked +the extreme insolence of the speech. "But have you yourself a copy of +the paper? Have you seen your article in print?" + +"Not yet," said Lucien, "though this is the first long piece of prose +which I have published; but Hector will have sent a copy to my address +in the Rue Charlot." + +"Here--read!" . . . cried Dauriat, copying Talma's gesture in _Manlius_. + +Lucien took the paper but Coralie snatched it from him. + +"The first-fruits of your pen belong to me, as you well know," she +laughed. + +Dauriat was unwontedly courtier-like and complimentary. He was afraid +of Lucien, and therefore he asked him to a great dinner which he was +giving to a party of journalists towards the end of the week, and +Coralie was included in the invitation. He took the _Marguerites_ away +with him when he went, asking _his_ poet to look in when he pleased in +the Wooden Galleries, and the agreement should be ready for his +signature. Dauriat never forgot the royal airs with which he +endeavored to overawe superficial observers, and to impress them with +the notion that he was a Maecenas rather than a publisher; at this +moment he left the three thousand francs, waving away in lordly +fashion the receipt which Lucien offered, kissed Coralie's hand, and +took his departure. + +"Well, dear love, would you have seen many of these bits of paper if +you had stopped in your hole in the Rue de Cluny, prowling about among +the musty old books in the Bibliotheque de Sainte-Genevieve?" asked +Coralie, for she knew the whole story of Lucien's life by this time. +"Those little friends of yours in the Rue des Quatre-Vents are great +ninnies, it seems to me." + +His brothers of the _cenacle_! And Lucien could hear the verdict and +laugh. + +He had seen himself in print; he had just experienced the ineffable +joy of the author, that first pleasurable thrill of gratified vanity +which comes but once. The full import and bearing of his article +became apparent to him as he read and re-read it. The garb of print is +to manuscript as the stage is to women; it brings beauties and defects +to light, killing and giving life; the fine thoughts and the faults +alike stare you in the face. + +Lucien, in his excitement and rapture, gave not another thought to +Nathan. Nathan was a stepping-stone for him--that was all; and he +(Lucien) was happy exceedingly--he thought himself rich. The money +brought by Dauriat was a very Potosi for the lad who used to go about +unnoticed through the streets of Angouleme and down the steep path +into L'Houmeau to Postel's garret, where his whole family had lived +upon an income of twelve hundred francs. The pleasures of his life in +Paris must inevitably dim the memories of those days; but so keen were +they, that, as yet, he seemed to be back again in the Place du Murier. +He thought of Eve, his beautiful, noble sister, of David his friend, +and of his poor mother, and he sent Berenice out to change one of the +notes. While she went he wrote a few lines to his family, and on the +maid's return he sent her to the coach-office with a packet of five +hundred francs addressed to his mother. He could not trust himself; he +wanted to sent the money at once; later he might not be able to do it. +Both Lucien and Coralie looked upon this restitution as a meritorious +action. Coralie put her arms about her lover and kissed him, and +thought him a model son and brother; she could not make enough of him, +for generosity is a trait of character which delights these kindly +creatures, who always carry their hearts in their hands. + +"We have a dinner now every day for a week," she said; "we will make a +little carnival; you have worked quite hard enough." + + + +Coralie, fain to delight in the beauty of a man whom all other women +should envy her, took Lucien back to Staub. He was not dressed finely +enough for her. Thence the lovers went to drive in the Bois de +Boulogne, and came back to dine at Mme. du Val-Noble's. Rastignac, +Bixiou, des Lupeaulx, Finot, Blondet, Vignon, the Baron de Nucingen, +Beaudenord, Philippe Bridau, Conti, the great musician, all the +artists and speculators, all the men who seek for violent sensations +as a relief from immense labors, gave Lucien a welcome among them. And +Lucien had gained confidence; he gave himself out in talk as though he +had not to live by his wit, and was pronounced to be a "clever fellow" +in the slang of the coterie of semi-comrades. + +"Oh! we must wait and see what he has in him," said Theodore Gaillard, +a poet patronized by the Court, who thought of starting a Royalist +paper to be entitled the _Reveil_ at a later day. + +After dinner, Merlin and Lucien, Coralie and Mme. du Val-Noble, went +to the Opera, where Merlin had a box. The whole party adjourned +thither, and Lucien triumphant reappeared upon the scene of his first +serious check. + +He walked in the lobby, arm in arm with Merlin and Blondet, looking +the dandies who had once made merry at his expense between the eyes. +Chatelet was under his feet. He clashed glances with de Marsay, +Vandenesse, and Manerville, the bucks of that day. And indeed Lucien, +beautiful and elegantly arrayed, had caused a discussion in the +Marquise d'Espard's box; Rastignac had paid a long visit, and the +Marquise and Mme. de Bargeton put up their opera-glasses at Coralie. +Did the sight of Lucien send a pang of regret through Mme. de +Bargeton's heart? This thought was uppermost in the poet's mind. The +longing for revenge aroused in him by the sight of the Corinne of +Angouleme was as fierce as on that day when the lady and her cousin +had cut him in the Champs-Elysees. + +"Did you bring an amulet with you from the provinces?"--It was Blondet +who made this inquiry some few days later, when he called at eleven +o'clock in the morning and found that Lucien was not yet risen.--"His +good looks are making ravages from cellar to garret, high and low," +continued Blondet, kissing Coralie on the forehead. "I have come to +enlist you, dear fellow," he continued, grasping Lucien by the hand. +"Yesterday, at the Italiens, the Comtesse de Montcornet asked me to +bring you to her house. You will not give a refusal to a charming +woman? You meet people of the first fashion there." + +"If Lucien is nice, he will not go to see your Countess," put in +Coralie. "What call is there for him to show his face in fine society? +He would only be bored there." + +"Have you a vested interest in him? Are you jealous of fine ladies?" + +"Yes," cried Coralie. "They are worse than we are." + +"How do you know that, my pet?" asked Blondet. + +"From their husbands," retorted she. "You are forgetting that I once +had six months of de Marsay." + +"Do you suppose, child, that _I_ am particularly anxious to take such +a handsome fellow as your poet to Mme. de Montcornet's house? If you +object, let us consider that nothing has been said. But I don't fancy +that the women are so much in question as a poor devil that Lucien +pilloried in his newspaper; he is begging for mercy and peace. The +Baron du Chatelet is imbecile enough to take the thing seriously. The +Marquise d'Espard, Mme. de Bargeton, and Mme. de Montcornet's set have +taken up the Heron's cause; and I have undertaken to reconcile +Petrarch and his Laura--Mme. de Bargeton and Lucien." + +"Aha!" cried Lucien, the glow of the intoxication of revenge throbbing +full-pulsed through every vein. "Aha! so my foot is on their necks! +You make me adore my pen, worship my friends, bow down to the +fate-dispensing power of the press. I have not written a single +sentence as yet upon the Heron and the Cuttlefish-bone.--I will go with +you, my boy," he cried, catching Blondet by the waist; "yes, I will go; +but first, the couple shall feel the weight of _this_, for so light as +it is." He flourished the pen which had written the article upon Nathan. + +"To-morrow," he cried, "I will hurl a couple of columns at their +heads. Then, we shall see. Don't be frightened, Coralie, it is not +love but revenge; revenge! And I will have it to the full!" + +"What a man it is!" said Blondet. "If you but knew, Lucien, how rare +such explosions are in this jaded Paris, you might appreciate +yourself. You will be a precious scamp" (the actual expression was a +trifle stronger); "you are in a fair way to be a power in the land." + +"He will get on," said Coralie. + +"Well, he has come a good way already in six weeks." + +"And if he should climb so high that he can reach a sceptre by +treading over a corpse, he shall have Coralie's body for a +stepping-stone," said the girl. + +"You are a pair of lovers of the Golden Age," said Blondet.--"I +congratulate you on your big article," he added, turning to Lucien. +"There were a lot of new things in it. You are past master!" + +Lousteau called with Hector Merlin and Vernou. Lucien was immensely +flattered by this attention. Felicien Vernou brought a hundred francs +for Lucien's article; it was felt that such a contributor must be well +paid to attach him to the paper. + +Coralie, looking round at the chapter of journalists, ordered in a +breakfast from the _Cadran bleu_, the nearest restaurant, and asked her +visitors to adjourn to her handsomely furnished dining-room when +Berenice announced that the meal was ready. In the middle of the +repast, when the champagne had gone to all heads, the motive of the +visit came out. + +"You do not mean to make an enemy of Nathan, do you?" asked Lousteau. +"Nathan is a journalist, and he has friends; he might play you an ugly +trick with your first book. You have your _Archer of Charles IX._ to +sell, have you not? We went round to Nathan this morning; he is in a +terrible way. But you will set about another article, and puff praise +in his face." + +"What! After my article against his book, would you have me say----" +began Lucien. + +The whole party cut him short with a shout of laughter. + +"Did you ask him to supper here the day after to-morrow?" asked +Blondet. + +"You article was not signed," added Lousteau. "Felicien, not being +quite such a new hand as you are, was careful to put an initial C at +the bottom. You can do that now with all your articles in his paper, +which is pure unadulterated Left. We are all of us in the Opposition. +Felicien was tactful enough not to compromise your future opinions. +Hector's shop is Right Centre; you might sign your work on it with an +L. If you cut a man up, you do it anonymously; if you praise him, it +is just as well to put your name to your article." + +"It is not the signatures that trouble me," returned Lucien, "but I +cannot see anything to be said in favor of the book." + +"Then did you really think as you wrote?" asked Hector. + +"Yes." + +"Oh! I thought you were cleverer than that, youngster," said Blondet. +"No. Upon my word, as I looked at that forehead of yours, I credited +you with the omnipotence of the great mind--the power of seeing both +sides of everything. In literature, my boy, every idea is reversible, +and no man can take upon himself to decide which is the right or wrong +side. Everything is bi-lateral in the domain of thought. Ideas are +binary. Janus is a fable signifying criticism and the symbol of +Genius. The Almighty alone is triform. What raises Moliere and +Corneille above the rest of us but the faculty of saying one thing +with an Alceste or an Octave, and another with a Philinte or a Cinna? +Rousseau wrote a letter against dueling in the _Nouvelle_ Heloise, and +another in favor of it. Which of the two represented his own opinion? +will you venture to take it upon yourself to decide? Which of us could +give judgement for Clarissa or Lovelace, Hector or Achilles? Who was +Homer's hero? What did Richardson himself think? It is the function of +criticism to look at a man's work in all its aspects. We draw up our +case, in short." + +"Do you really stick to your written opinions?" asked Vernou, with a +satirical expression. "Why, we are retailers of phrases; that is how +we make a livelihood. When you try to do a good piece of work--to +write a book, in short--you can put your thoughts, yourself into it, +and cling to it, and fight for it; but as for newspaper articles, read +to-day and forgotten to-morrow, they are worth nothing in my eyes but +the money that is paid for them. If you attach any importance to such +drivel, you might as well make the sign of the Cross and invoke heaven +when you sit down to write a tradesman's circular." + +Every one apparently was astonished at Lucien's scruples. The last +rags of the boyish conscience were torn away, and he was invested with +the _toga virilis_ of journalism. + +"Do you know what Nathan said by way of comforting himself after your +criticism?" asked Lousteau. + +"How should I know?" + +"Nathan exclaimed, 'Paragraphs pass away; but a great work lives!' He +will be here to supper in two days, and he will be sure to fall flat +at your feet, and kiss your claws, and swear that you are a great +man." + +"That would be a funny thing," was Lucien's comment. + +"_Funny_" repeated Blondet. "He can't help himself." + +"I am quite willing, my friends," said Lucien, on whom the wine had +begun to take effect. "But what am I to say?" + +"Oh well, refute yourself in three good columns in Merlin's paper. We +have been enjoying the sight of Nathan's wrath; we have just been +telling him that he owes us no little gratitude for getting up a hot +controversy that will sell his second edition in a week. In his eyes +at this present moment you are a spy, a scoundrel, a caitiff wretch; +the day after to-morrow you will be a genius, an uncommonly clever +fellow, one of Plutarch's men. Nathan will hug you and call you his +best friend. Dauriat has been to see you; you have your three thousand +francs; you have worked the trick! Now you want Nathan's respect and +esteem. Nobody ought to be let in except the publisher. We must not +immolate any one but an enemy. We should not talk like this if it were +a question of some outsider, some inconvenient person who had made a +name for himself without us and was not wanted; but Nathan is one of +us. Blondet got some one to attack him in the _Mercure_ for the pleasure +of replying in the _Debats_. For which reason the first edition went off +at once." + +"My friends, upon my word and honor, I cannot write two words in +praise of that book----" + +"You will have another hundred francs," interrupted Merlin. "Nathan +will have brought you in ten louis d'or, to say nothing of an article +that you might put in Finot's paper; you would get a hundred francs +for writing that, and another hundred francs from Dauriat--total, +twenty louis." + +"But what am I to say?" + +"Here is your way out of the difficulty," said Blondet, after some +thought. "Say that the envy that fastens on all good work, like wasps +on ripe fruit, has attempted to set its fangs in this production. The +captious critic, trying his best to find fault, has been obliged to +invent theories for that purpose, and has drawn a distinction between +two kinds of literature--'the literature of ideas and the literature +of imagery,' as he calls them. On the heads of that, youngster, say +that to give expression to ideas through imagery is the highest form +of art. Try to show that all poetry is summed up in that, and lament +that there is so little poetry in French; quote foreign criticisms on +the unimaginative precision of our style, and then extol M. de Canalis +and Nathan for the services they have done France by infusing a less +prosaic spirit into the language. Knock your previous argument to +pieces by calling attention to the fact that we have made progress +since the eighteenth century. (Discover the 'progress,' a beautiful +word to mystify the bourgeois public.) Say that the new methods in +literature concentrate all styles, comedy and tragedy, description, +character-drawing and dialogues, in a series of pictures set in the +brilliant frame of a plot which holds the reader's interest. The +Novel, which demands sentiment, style, and imagery, is the greatest +creation of modern days; it is the successor of stage comedy grown +obsolete with its restrictions. Facts and ideas are all within the +province of fiction. The intellect of an incisive moralist, like La +Bruyere, the power of treating character as Moliere could treat it, +the grand machinery of a Shakespeare, together with the portrayal of +the most subtle shades of passion (the one treasury left untouched by +our predecessors)--for all this the modern novel affords free scope. +How far superior is all this to the cut-and-dried logic-chopping, the +cold analysis to the eighteenth century!--'The Novel,' say +sententiously, 'is the Epic grown amusing.' Instance _Corinne_, bring +Mme. de Stael up to support your argument. The eighteenth century +called all things in question; it is the task of the nineteenth to +conclude and speak the last word; and the last word of the nineteenth +century has been for realities--realities which live however and move. +Passion, in short, an element unknown in Voltaire's philosophy, has +been brought into play. Here a diatribe against Voltaire, and as for +Rousseau, his characters are polemics and systems masquerading. Julie +and Claire are entelechies--informing spirit awaiting flesh and bones. + +"You might slip off on a side issue at this, and say that we owe a new +and original literature to the Peace and the Restoration of the +Bourbons, for you are writing for a Right Centre paper. + +"Scoff at Founders of Systems. And cry with a glow of fine enthusiasm, +'Here are errors and misleading statements in abundance in our +contemporary's work, and to what end? To depreciate a fine work, to +deceive the public, and to arrive at this conclusion--"A book that +sells, does not sell."' _Proh pudor_! (Mind you put _Proh pudor_! 'tis a +harmless expletive that stimulates the reader's interest.) Foresee the +approaching decadence of criticism, in fact. Moral--'There is but one +kind of literature, the literature which aims to please. Nathan has +started upon a new way; he understands his epoch and fulfils the +requirements of his age--the demand for drama, the natural demand of a +century in which the political stage has become a permanent puppet +show. Have we not seen four dramas in a score of years--the +Revolution, the Directory, the Empire, and the Restoration?' With +that, wallow in dithyramb and eulogy, and the second edition shall +vanish like smoke. This is the way to do it. Next Saturday put a +review in our magazine, and sign it 'de Rubempre,' out in full. + +"In that final article say that 'fine work always brings about +abundant controversy. This week such and such a paper contained such +and such an article on Nathan's book, and such another paper made a +vigorous reply.' Then you criticise the critics 'C' and 'L'; pay me a +passing compliment on the first article in the _Debats_, and end by +averring that Nathan's work is the great book of the epoch; which is +all as if you said nothing at all; they say the same of everything +that comes out. + +"And so," continued Blondet, "you will have made four hundred francs +in a week, to say nothing of the pleasure of now and again saying what +you really think. A discerning public will maintain that either C or L +or Rubempre is in the right of it, or mayhap all the three. Mythology, +beyond doubt one of the grandest inventions of the human brain, places +Truth at the bottom of a well; and what are we to do without buckets? +You will have supplied the public with three for one. There you are, +my boy, Go ahead!" + +Lucien's head was swimming with bewilderment. Blondet kissed him on +both cheeks. + +"I am going to my shop," said he. And every man likewise departed to +his shop. For these "_hommes forts_," a newspaper office was nothing but +a shop. + +They were to meet again in the evening at the Wooden Galleries, and +Lucien would sign his treaty of peace with Dauriat. Florine and +Lousteau, Lucien and Coralie, Blondet and Finot, were to dine at the +Palais-Royal; du Bruel was giving the manager of the +Panorama-Dramatique a dinner. + +"They are right," exclaimed Lucien, when he was alone with Coralie. +"Men are made to be tools in the hands of stronger spirits. Four +hundred francs for three articles! Doguereau would scarcely give me as +much for a book which cost me two years of work." + +"Write criticism," said Coralie, "have a good time! Look at me, I am +an Andalusian girl to-night, to-morrow I may be a gypsy, and a man the +night after. Do as I do, give them grimaces for their money, and let +us live happily." + +Lucien, smitten with love of Paradox, set himself to mount and ride +that unruly hybrid product of Pegasus and Balaam's ass; started out at +a gallop over the fields of thought while he took a turn in the Bois, +and discovered new possibilities in Blondet's outline. + +He dined as happy people dine, and signed away all his rights in the +_Marguerites_. It never occurred to him that any trouble might arise +from that transaction in the future. He took a turn of work at the +office, wrote off a couple of columns, and came back to the Rue de +Vendome. Next morning he found the germs of yesterday's ideas had +sprung up and developed in his brain, as ideas develop while the +intellect is yet unjaded and the sap is rising; and thoroughly did he +enjoy the projection of this new article. He threw himself into it +with enthusiasm. At the summons of the spirit of contradiction, new +charms met beneath his pen. He was witty and satirical, he rose to yet +new views of sentiment, of ideas and imagery in literature. With +subtle ingenuity, he went back to his own first impressions of +Nathan's work, when he read it in the newsroom of the Cour du +Commerce; and the ruthless, bloodthirsty critic, the lively mocker, +became a poet in the final phrases which rose and fell with majestic +rhythm like the swaying censer before the altar. + +"One hundred francs, Coralie!" cried he, holding up eight sheets of +paper covered with writing while she dressed. + +The mood was upon him; he went on to indite, stroke by stroke, the +promised terrible article on Chatelet and Mme. de Bargeton. That +morning he experienced one of the keenest personal pleasures of +journalism; he knew what it was to forge the epigram, to whet and +polish the cold blade to be sheathed in a victim's heart, to make of +the hilt a cunning piece of workmanship for the reader to admire. For +the public admires the handle, the delicate work of the brain, while +the cruelty is not apparent; how should the public know that the steel +of the epigram, tempered in the fire of revenge, has been plunged +deftly, to rankle in the very quick of a victim's vanity, and is +reeking from wounds innumerable which it has inflicted? It is a +hideous joy, that grim, solitary pleasure, relished without witnesses; +it is like a duel with an absent enemy, slain at a distance by a +quill; a journalist might really possess the magical power of +talismans in Eastern tales. Epigram is distilled rancor, the +quintessence of a hate derived from all the worst passions of man, +even as love concentrates all that is best in human nature. The man +does not exist who cannot be witty to avenge himself; and, by the same +rule, there is not one to whom love does not bring delight. Cheap and +easy as this kind of wit may be in France, it is always relished. +Lucien's article was destined to raise the previous reputation of the +paper for venomous spite and evil-speaking. His article probed two +hearts to the depths; it dealt a grievous wound to Mme. de Bargeton, +his Laura of old days, as well as to his rival, the Baron du Chatelet. + +"Well, let us go for a drive in the Bois," said Coralie, "the horses +are fidgeting. There is no need to kill yourself." + +"We will take the article on Nathan to Hector. Journalism is really +very much like Achilles' lance, it salves the wounds that it makes," +said Lucien, correcting a phrase here and there. + +The lovers started forth in splendor to show themselves to the Paris +which had but lately given Lucien the cold shoulder, and now was +beginning to talk about him. To have Paris talking of you! and this +after you have learned how large the great city is, how hard it is to +be anybody there--it was this thought that turned Lucien's head with +exultation. + +"Let us go by way of your tailor's, dear boy, and tell him to be quick +with your clothes, or try them on if they are ready. If you are going +to your fine ladies' houses, you shall eclipse that monster of a de +Marsay and young Rastignac and any Ajuda-Pinto or Maxime de Trailles +or Vandenesse of them all. Remember that your mistress is Coralie! But +you will not play me any tricks, eh?" + +Two days afterwards, on the eve of the supper-party at Coralie's +house, there was a new play at the Ambigu, and it fell to Lucien to +write the dramatic criticism. Lucien and Coralie walked together after +dinner from the Rue de Vendome to the Panorama-Dramatique, going along +the Cafe Turc side of the Boulevard du Temple, a lounge much +frequented at that time. People wondered at his luck, and praised +Coralie's beauty. Chance remarks reached his ears; some said that +Coralie was the finest woman in Paris, others that Lucien was a match +for her. The romantic youth felt that he was in his atmosphere. This +was the life for him. The brotherhood was so far away that it was +almost out of sight. Only two months ago, how he had looked up to +those lofty great natures; now he asked himself if they were not just +a trifle ridiculous with their notions and their Puritanism. Coralie's +careless words had lodged in Lucien's mind, and begun already to bear +fruit. He took Coralie to her dressing-room, and strolled about like a +sultan behind the scenes; the actresses gave him burning glances and +flattering speeches. + +"I must go to the Ambigu and attend to business," said he. + +At the Ambigu the house was full; there was not a seat left for him. +Indignant complaints behind the scenes brought no redress; the +box-office keeper, who did not know him as yet, said that they had sent +orders for two boxes to his paper, and sent him about his business. + +"I shall speak of the play as I find it," said Lucien, nettled at +this. + +"What a dunce you are!" said the leading lady, addressing the +box-office keeper, "that is Coralie's adorer." + +The box-office keeper turned round immediately at this. "I will speak +to the manager at once, sir," he said. + +In all these small details Lucien saw the immense power wielded by the +press. His vanity was gratified. The manager appeared to say that the +Duc de Rhetore and Tullia the opera-dancer were in the stage-box, and +they had consented to allow Lucien to join them. + +"You have driven two people to distraction," remarked the young Duke, +mentioning the names of the Baron du Chatelet and Mme. de Bargeton. + +"Distraction? What will it be to-morrow?" said Lucien. "So far, my +friends have been mere skirmishers, but I have given them red-hot shot +to-night. To-morrow you will know why we are making game of 'Potelet.' +The article is called 'Potelet from 1811 to 1821.' Chatelet will be a +byword, a name for the type of courtiers who deny their benefactor and +rally to the Bourbons. When I have done with him, I am going to Mme. +de Montcornet's." + +Lucien's talk was sparkling. He was eager that this great personage +should see how gross a mistake Mesdames d'Espard and de Bargeton had +made when they slighted Lucien de Rubempre. But he showed the tip of +his ear when he asserted his right to bear the name of Rubempre, the +Duc de Rhetore having purposely addressed him as Chardon. + +"You should go over to the Royalists," said the Duke. "You have proved +yourself a man of ability; now show your good sense. The one way of +obtaining a patent of nobility and the right to bear the title of your +mother's family, is by asking for it in return for services to be +rendered to the Court. The Liberals will never make a count of you. +The Restoration will get the better of the press, you see, in the long +run, and the press is the only formidable power. They have borne with +it too long as it is; the press is sure to be muzzled. Take advantage +of the last moments of liberty to make yourself formidable, and you +will have everything--intellect, nobility, and good looks; nothing +will be out of your reach. So if you are a Liberal, let it be simply +for the moment, so that you can make a better bargain for your +Royalism." + +With that the Duke entreated Lucien to accept an invitation to dinner, +which the German Minister (of Florine's supper-party) was about to +send. Lucien fell under the charm of the noble peer's arguments; the +salons from which he had been exiled for ever, as he thought, but a +few months ago, would shortly open their doors for him! He was +delighted. He marveled at the power of the press; Intellect and the +Press, these then were the real powers in society. Another thought +shaped itself in his mind--Was Etienne Lousteau sorry that he had +opened the gate of the temple to a newcomer? Even now he (Lucien) felt +on his own account that it was strongly advisable to put difficulties +in the way of eager and ambitious recruits from the provinces. If a +poet should come to him as he had flung himself into Etienne's arms, +he dared not think of the reception that he would give him. + +The youthful Duke meanwhile saw that Lucien was deep in thought, and +made a pretty good guess at the matter of his meditations. He himself +had opened out wide horizons of public life before an ambitious poet, +with a vacillating will, it is true, but not without aspirations; and +the journalists had already shown the neophyte, from a pinnacle of the +temple, all the kingdoms of the world of letters and its riches. + +Lucien himself had no suspicion of a little plot that was being woven, +nor did he imagine that M. de Rhetore had a hand in it. M. de Rhetore +had spoken of Lucien's cleverness, and Mme. d'Espard's set had taken +alarm. Mme. de Bargeton had commissioned the Duke to sound Lucien, and +with that object in view, the noble youth had come to the +Ambigu-Comique. + +Do not believe in stories of elaborate treachery. Neither the great +world nor the world of journalists laid any deep schemes; definite +plans are not made by either; their Machiavelism lives from hand to +mouth, so to speak, and consists, for the most part, in being always +on the spot, always on the alert to turn everything to account, always +on the watch for the moment when a man's ruling passion shall deliver +him into the hands of his enemies. The young Duke had seen through +Lucien at Florine's supper-party; he had just touched his vain +susceptibilities; and now he was trying his first efforts in diplomacy +upon the living subject. + +Lucien hurried to the Rue Saint-Fiacre after the play to write his +article. It was a piece of savage and bitter criticism, written in +pure wantonness; he was amusing himself by trying his power. The +melodrama, as a matter of fact, was a better piece than the _Alcalde_; +but Lucien wished to see whether he could damn a good play and send +everybody to see a bad one, as his associates had said. + +He unfolded the sheet at breakfast next morning, telling Coralie as he +did so that he had cut up the Ambigu-Comique; and not a little +astonished was he to find below his paper on Mme. de Bargeton and +Chatelet a notice of the Ambigu, so mellowed and softened in the +course of the night, that although the witty analysis was still +preserved, the judgment was favorable. The article was more likely to +fill the house than to empty it. No words can describe his wrath. He +determined to have a word or two with Lousteau. He had already begun +to think himself an indespensable man, and he vowed that he would not +submit to be tyrannized over and treated like a fool. To establish his +power beyond cavil, he wrote the article for Dauriat's review, summing +up and weighing all the various opinions concerning Nathan's book; and +while he was in the humor, he hit off another of his short sketches +for Lousteau's newspaper. Inexperienced journalists, in the first +effervescence of youth, make a labor of love of ephemeral work, and +lavish their best thought unthriftily thereon. + +The manager of the Panorama-Dramatique gave a first performance of a +vaudeville that night, so that Florine and Coralie might be free for +the evening. There were to be cards before supper. Lousteau came for +the short notice of the vaudeville; it had been written beforehand +after the general rehearsal, for Etienne wished to have the paper off +his mind. Lucien read over one of the charming sketches of Parisian +whimsicalities which made the fortune of the paper, and Lousteau +kissed him on both eyelids, and called him the providence of +journalism. + +"Then why do you amuse yourself by turning my article inside out?" +asked Lucien. He had written his brilliant sketch simply and solely to +give emphasis to his grievance. + +"_I_?" exclaimed Lousteau. + +"Well, who else can have altered my article?" + +"You do not know all the ins and outs yet, dear fellow. The Ambigu +pays for thirty copies, and only takes nine for the manager and box +office-keeper and their mistresses, and for the three lessees of the +theatre. Every one of the Boulevard theatres pays eight hundred francs +in this way to the paper; and there is quite as much again in boxes +and orders for Finot, to say nothing of the contributions of the +company. And if the minor theatres do this, you may imagine what the +big ones do! Now you understand? We are bound to show a good deal of +indulgence." + +"I understand this, that I am not at liberty to write as I think----" + +"Eh! what does that matter, so long as you turn an honest penny?" +cried Lousteau. "Besides, my boy, what grudge had you against the +theatre? You must have had some reason for it, or you would not have +cut up the play as you did. If you slash for the sake of slashing, the +paper will get into trouble, and when there is good reason for hitting +hard it will not tell. Did the manager leave you out in the cold?" + +"He had not kept a place for me." + +"Good," said Lousteau. "I shall let him see your article, and tell him +that I softened it down; you will find it serves you better than if it +had appeared in print. Go and ask him for tickets to-morrow, and he +will sign forty blank orders every month. I know a man who can get rid +of them for you; I will introduce you to him, and he will buy them all +up at half-price. There is a trade done in theatre tickets, just as +Barbet trades in reviewers' copies. This is another Barbet, the leader +of the _claque_. He lives near by; come and see him, there is time +enough." + +"But, my dear fellow, it is a scandalous thing that Finot should levy +blackmail in matters intellectual. Sooner or later----" + +"Really!" cried Lousteau, "where do you come from? For what do you +take Finot? Beneath his pretence of good-nature, his ignorance and +stupidity, and those Turcaret's airs of his, there is all the cunning +of his father the hatter. Did you notice an old soldier of the Empire +in the den at the office? That is Finot's uncle. The uncle is not only +one of the right sort, he has the luck to be taken for a fool; and he +takes all that kind of business upon his shoulders. An ambitious man +in Paris is well off indeed if he has a willing scapegoat at hand. In +public life, as in journalism, there are hosts of emergencies in which +the chiefs cannot afford to appear. If Finot should enter on a +political career, his uncle would be his secretary, and receive all +the contributions levied in his department on big affairs. Anybody +would take Giroudeau for a fool at first sight, but he has just enough +shrewdness to be an inscrutable old file. He is on picket duty; he +sees that we are not pestered with hubbub, beginners wanting a job, or +advertisements. No other paper has his equal, I think." + +"He plays his part well," said Lucien; "I saw him at work." + +Etienne and Lucien reached a handsome house in the Rue du +Faubourg-du-Temple. + +"Is M. Braulard in?" Etienne asked of the porter. + +"_Monsieur_?" said Lucien. "Then, is the leader of the _claque_ +'Monsieur'?" + +"My dear boy, Braulard has twenty thousand francs of income. All the +dramatic authors of the Boulevards are in his clutches, and have a +standing account with him as if he were a banker. Orders and +complimentary tickets are sold here. Braulard knows where to get rid +of such merchandise. Now for a turn at statistics, a useful science +enough in its way. At the rate of fifty complimentary tickets every +evening for each theatre, you have two hundred and fifty tickets +daily. Suppose, taking one with another, that they are worth a couple +of francs apiece, Braulard pays a hundred and twenty-five francs daily +for them, and takes his chance of making cent per cent. In this way +authors' tickets alone bring him in about four thousand francs every +month, or forty-eight thousand francs per annum. Allow twenty thousand +francs for loss, for he cannot always place all his tickets----" + +"Why not?" + +"Oh! the people who pay at the door go in with the holders of +complimentary tickets for unreserved seats, and the theatre reserves +the right of admitting those who pay. There are fine warm evenings to +be reckoned with besides, and poor plays. Braulard makes, perhaps, +thirty thousand francs every year in this way, and he has his +_claqueurs_ besides, another industry. Florine and Coralie pay tribute +to him; if they did not, there would be no applause when they come on +or go off." + +Lousteau gave this explanation in a low voice as they went up the +stair. + +"Paris is a queer place," said Lucien; it seemed to him that he saw +self-interest squatting in every corner. + +A smart maid-servant opened the door. At the sight of Etienne +Lousteau, the dealer in orders and tickets rose from a sturdy chair +before a large cylinder desk, and Lucien beheld the leader of the +_claque_, Braulard himself, dressed in a gray molleton jacket, footed +trousers, and red slippers; for all the world like a doctor or a +solicitor. He was a typical self-made man, Lucien thought--a +vulgar-looking face with a pair of exceedingly cunning gray eyes, +hands made for hired applause, a complexion over which hard living +had passed like rain over a roof, grizzled hair, and a somewhat husky +voice. + +"You have come from Mlle. Florine, no doubt, sir, and this gentleman +for Mlle. Coralie," said Braulard; "I know you very well by sight. +Don't trouble yourself, sir," he continued, addressing Lucien; "I am +buying the Gymnase connection, I will look after your lady, and I will +give her notice of any tricks they may try to play on her." + +"That is not an offer to be refused, my dear Braulard, but we have +come about the press orders for the Boulevard theatres--I as editor, +and this gentleman as dramatic critic." + +"Oh!--ah, yes! Finot has sold his paper. I heard about it. He is +getting on, is Finot. I have asked him to dine with me at the end of +the week; if you will do me the honor and pleasure of coming, you may +bring your ladies, and there will be a grand jollification. Adele +Dupuis is coming, and Ducange, and Frederic du Petit-Mere, and Mlle. +Millot, my mistress. We shall have good fun and better liquor." + +"Ducange must be in difficulties. He has lost his lawsuit." + +"I have lent him ten thousand francs; if _Calas_ succeeds, it will repay +the loan, so I have been organizing a success. Ducange is a clever +man; he has brains----" + +Lucien fancied that he must be dreaming when he heard a _claqueur_ +appraising a writer's value. + +"Coralie has improved," continued Braulard, with the air of a +competent critic. "If she is a good girl, I will take her part, for +they have got up a cabal against her at the Gymnase. This is how I +mean to do it. I will have a few well-dressed men in the balconies to +smile and make a little murmur, and the applause will follow. That is +a dodge which makes a position for an actress. I have a liking for +Coralie, and you ought to be satisfied, for she has feeling. Aha! I +can hiss any one on the stage if I like." + +"But let us settle this business about the tickets," put in Lousteau. + +"Very well, I will come to this gentleman's lodging for them at the +beginning of the month. He is a friend of yours, and I will treat him +as I do you. You have five theatres; you will get thirty tickets--that +will be something like seventy-five francs a month. Perhaps you will +be wanting an advance?" added Braulard, lifting a cash-box full of +coin out of his desk. + +"No, no," said Lousteau; "we will keep that shift against a rainy +day." + +"I will work with Coralie, sir, and we will come to an understanding," +said Braulard, addressing Lucien, who was looking about him, not +without profound astonishment. There was a bookcase in Braulard's +study, there were framed engravings and good furniture; and as they +passed through the drawing room, he noticed that the fittings were +neither too luxurious nor yet mean. The dining-room seemed to be the +best ordered room, he remarked on this jokingly. + +"But Braulard is an epicure," said Lousteau; "his dinners are famous +in dramatic literature, and they are what you might expect from his +cash-box." + +"I have good wine," Braulard replied modestly.--"Ah! here are my +lamplighters," he added, as a sound of hoarse voices and strange +footsteps came up from the staircase. + +Lucien on his way down saw a march past of _claqueurs_ and retailers of +tickets. It was an ill smelling squad, attired in caps, seedy +trousers, and threadbare overcoats; a flock of gallows-birds with +bluish and greenish tints in their faces, neglected beards, and a +strange mixture of savagery and subservience in their eyes. A horrible +population lives and swarms upon the Paris boulevards; selling watch +guards and brass jewelry in the streets by day, applauding under the +chandeliers of the theatre at night, and ready to lend themselves to +any dirty business in the great city. + +"Behold the Romans!" laughed Lousteau; "behold fame incarnate for +actresses and dramatic authors. It is no prettier than our own when +you come to look at it close." + +"It is difficult to keep illusions on any subject in Paris," answered +Lucien as they turned in at his door. "There is a tax upon everything +--everything has its price, and anything can be made to order--even +success." + +Thirty guests were assembled that evening in Coralie's rooms, her +dining room would not hold more. Lucien had asked Dauriat and the +manager of the Panorama-Dramatique, Matifat and Florine, Camusot, +Lousteau, Finot, Nathan, Hector Merlin and Mme. du Val-Noble, Felicien +Vernou, Blondet, Vignon, Philippe Bridau, Mariette, Giroudeau, Cardot +and Florentine, and Bixiou. He had also asked all his friends of the +Rue des Quatre-Vents. Tullia the dancer, who was not unkind, said +gossip, to du Bruel, had come without her duke. The proprietors of the +newspapers, for whom most of the journalists wrote, were also of the +party. + +At eight o'clock, when the lights of the candles in the chandeliers +shone over the furniture, the hangings, and the flowers, the rooms +wore the festal air that gives to Parisian luxury the appearance of a +dream; and Lucien felt indefinable stirrings of hope and gratified +vanity and pleasure at the thought that he was the master of the +house. But how and by whom the magic wand had been waved he no longer +sought to remember. Florine and Coralie, dressed with the fanciful +extravagance and magnificent artistic effect of the stage, smiled on +the poet like two fairies at the gates of the Palace of Dreams. And +Lucien was almost in a dream. + +His life had been changed so suddenly during the last few months; he +had gone so swiftly from the depths of penury to the last extreme of +luxury, that at moments he felt as uncomfortable as a dreaming man who +knows that he is asleep. And yet, he looked round at the fair reality +about him with a confidence to which envious minds might have given +the name of fatuity. + +Lucien himself had changed. He had grown paler during these days of +continual enjoyment; languor had lent a humid look to his eyes; in +short, to use Mme. d'Espard's expression, he looked like a man who is +loved. He was the handsomer for it. Consciousness of his powers and +his strength was visible in his face, enlightened as it was by love +and experience. Looking out over the world of letters and of men, it +seemed to him that he might go to and fro as lord of it all. Sober +reflection never entered his romantic head unless it was driven in by +the pressure of adversity, and just now the present held not a care +for him. The breath of praise swelled the sails of his skiff; all the +instruments of success lay there to his hand; he had an establishment, +a mistress whom all Paris envied him, a carriage, and untold wealth in +his inkstand. Heart and soul and brain were alike transformed within +him; why should he care to be over nice about the means, when the +great results were visibly there before his eyes. + +As such a style of living will seem, and with good reason, to be +anything but secure to economists who have any experience of Paris, it +will not be superfluous to give a glance to the foundation, uncertain +as it was, upon which the prosperity of the pair was based. + +Camusot had given Coralie's tradesmen instructions to grant her credit +for three months at least, and this had been done without her +knowledge. During those three months, therefore, horses and servants, +like everything else, waited as if by enchantment at the bidding of +two children, eager for enjoyment, and enjoying to their hearts' +content. + +Coralie had taken Lucien's hand and given him a glimpse of the +transformation scene in the dining-room, of the splendidly appointed +table, of chandeliers, each fitted with forty wax-lights, of the +royally luxurious dessert, and a menu of Chevet's. Lucien kissed her +on the forehead and held her closely to his heart. + +"I shall succeed, child," he said, "and then I will repay you for such +love and devotion." + +"Pshaw!" said Coralie. "Are you satisfied?" + +"I should be very hard to please if I were not." + +"Very well, then, that smile of yours pays for everything," she said, +and with a serpentine movement she raised her head and laid her lips +against his. + +When they went back to the others, Florine, Lousteau, Matifat, and +Camusot were setting out the card-tables. Lucien's friends began to +arrive, for already these folk began to call themselves "Lucien's +friends"; and they sat over the cards from nine o'clock till midnight. +Lucien was unacquainted with a single game, but Lousteau lost a +thousand francs, and Lucien could not refuse to lend him the money +when he asked for it. + +Michel, Fulgence, and Joseph appeared about ten o'clock; and Lucien, +chatting with them in a corner, saw that they looked sober and serious +enough, not to say ill at ease. D'Arthez could not come, he was +finishing his book; Leon Giraud was busy with the first number of his +review; so the brotherhood had sent three artists among their number, +thinking that they would feel less out of their element in an +uproarious supper party than the rest. + +"Well, my dear fellows," said Lucien, assuming a slightly patronizing +tone, "the 'comical fellow' may become a great public character yet, +you see." + +"I wish I may be mistaken; I don't ask better," said Michel. + +"Are you living with Coralie until you can do better?" asked Fulgence. + +"Yes," said Lucien, trying to look unconscious. "Coralie had an +elderly adorer, a merchant, and she showed him the door, poor fellow. +I am better off than your brother Philippe," he added, addressing +Joseph Bridau; "he does not know how to manage Mariette." + +"You are a man like another now; in short, you will make your way," +said Fulgence. + +"A man that will always be the same for you, under all circumstances," +returned Lucien. + +Michel and Fulgence exchanged incredulous scornful smiles at this. +Lucien saw the absurdity of his remark. + +"Coralie is wonderfully beautiful," exclaimed Joseph Bridau. "What a +magnificent portrait she would make!" + +"Beautiful and good," said Lucien; "she is an angel, upon my word. And +you shall paint her portrait; she shall sit to you if you like for +your Venetian lady brought by the old woman to the senator." + +"All women who love are angelic," said Michel Chrestien. + +Just at that moment Raoul Nathan flew upon Lucien, and grasped both +his hands and shook them in a sudden access of violent friendship. + +"Oh, my good friend, you are something more than a great man, you have +a heart," cried he, "a much rarer thing than genius in these days. You +are a devoted friend. I am yours, in short, through thick and thin; I +shall never forget all that you have done for me this week." + +Lucien's joy had reached the highest point; to be thus caressed by a +man of whom everyone was talking! He looked at his three friends of +the brotherhood with something like a superior air. Nathan's +appearance upon the scene was the result of an overture from Merlin, +who sent him a proof of the favorable review to appear in to-morrow's +issue. + +"I only consented to write the attack on condition that I should be +allowed to reply to it myself," Lucien said in Nathan's ear. "I am one +of you." This incident was opportune; it justified the remark which +amused Fulgence. Lucien was radiant. + +"When d'Arthez's book comes out," he said, turning to the three, "I am +in a position to be useful to him. That thought in itself would induce +me to remain a journalist." + +"Can you do as you like?" Michel asked quickly. + +"So far as one can when one is indispensable," said Lucien modestly. + +It was almost midnight when they sat down to supper, and the fun grew +fast and furious. Talk was less restrained in Lucien's house than at +Matifat's, for no one suspected that the representatives of the +brotherhood and the newspaper writers held divergent opinions. Young +intellects, depraved by arguing for either side, now came into +conflict with each other, and fearful axioms of the journalistic +jurisprudence, then in its infancy, hurtled to and fro. Claude Vignon, +upholding the dignity of criticism, inveighed against the tendency of +the smaller newspapers, saying that the writers of personalities +lowered themselves in the end. Lousteau, Merlin, and Finot took up the +cudgels for the system known by the name of _blague_; puffery, gossip, +and humbug, said they, was the test of talent, and set the hall-mark, +as it were, upon it. "Any man who can stand that test has real power," +said Lousteau. + +"Besides," cried Merlin, "when a great man receives ovations, there +ought to be a chorus in insults to balance, as in a Roman triumph." + +"Oho!" put in Lucien; "then every one held up to ridicule in print +will fancy that he has made a success." + +"Any one would think that the question interested you," exclaimed +Finot. + +"And how about our sonnets," said Michel Chrestien; "is that the way +they will win us the fame of a second Petrarch?" + +"Laura already counts for something in his fame," said Dauriat, a pun +[Laure (l'or)] received with acclamations. + +"_Faciamus experimentum in anima vili_," retorted Lucien with a smile. + +"And woe unto him whom reviewers shall spare, flinging him crowns at +his first appearance, for he shall be shelved like the saints in their +shrines, and no man shall pay him the slightest attention," said +Vernou. + +"People will say, 'Look elsewhere, simpleton; you have had your due +already,' as Champcenetz said to the Marquis de Genlis, who was +looking too fondly at his wife," added Blondet. + +"Success is the ruin of a man in France," said Finot. "We are so +jealous of one another that we try to forget, and to make others +forget, the triumphs of yesterday." + +"Contradiction is the life of literature, in fact," said Claude +Vignon. + +"In art as in nature, there are two principles everywhere at strife," +exclaimed Fulgence; "and victory for either means death." + +"So it is with politics," added Michel Chrestien. + +"We have a case in point," said Lousteau. "Dauriat will sell a couple +of thousand copies of Nathan's book in the coming week. And why? +Because the book that was cleverly attacked will be ably defended." + +Merlin took up the proof of to-morrow's paper. "How can such an +article fail to sell an edition?" he asked. + +"Read the article," said Dauriat. "I am a publisher wherever I am, +even at supper." + +Merlin read Lucien's triumphant refutation aloud, and the whole party +applauded. + +"How could that article have been written unless the attack had +preceded it?" asked Lousteau. + +Dauriat drew the proof of the third article from his pocket and read +it over, Finot listening closely; for it was to appear in the second +number of his own review, and as editor he exaggerated his enthusiasm. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "so and not otherwise would Bossuet have written +if he had lived in our day." + +"I am sure of it," said Merlin. "Bossuet would have been a journalist +to-day." + +"To Bossuet the Second!" cried Claude Vignon, raising his glass with +an ironical bow. + +"To my Christopher Columbus!" returned Lucien, drinking a health to +Dauriat. + +"Bravo!" cried Nathan. + +"Is it a nickname?" Merlin inquired, looking maliciously from Finot to +Lucien. + +"If you go on at this pace, you will be quite beyond us," said +Dauriat; "these gentlemen" (indicating Camusot and Matifat) "cannot +follow you as it is. A joke is like a bit of thread; if it is spun too +fine, it breaks, as Bonaparte said." + +"Gentlemen," said Lousteau, "we have been eye-witnesses of a strange, +portentous, unheard-of, and truly surprising phenomenon. Admire the +rapidity with which our friend here has been transformed from a +provincial into a journalist!" + +"He is a born journalist," said Dauriat. + +"Children!" called Finot, rising to his feet, "all of us here present +have encouraged and protected our amphitryon in his entrance upon a +career in which he has already surpassed our hopes. In two months he +has shown us what he can do in a series of excellent articles known to +us all. I propose to baptize him in form as a journalist." + +"A crown of roses! to signalize a double conquest," cried Bixiou, +glancing at Coralie. + +Coralie made a sign to Berenice. That portly handmaid went to +Coralie's dressing-room and brought back a box of tumbled artificial +flowers. The more incapable members of the party were grotesquely +tricked out in these blossoms, and a crown of roses was soon woven. +Finot, as high priest, sprinkled a few drops of champagne on Lucien's +golden curls, pronouncing with delicious gravity the words--"In the +name of the Government Stamp, the Caution-money, and the Fine, I +baptize thee, Journalist. May thy articles sit lightly on thee!" + +"And may they be paid for, including white lines!" cried Merlin. + +Just at that moment Lucien caught sight of three melancholy faces. +Michel Chrestien, Joseph Bridau, and Fulgence Ridal took up their hats +and went out amid a storm of invective. + +"Queer customers!" said Merlin. + +"Fulgence used to be a good fellow," added Lousteau, "before they +perverted his morals." + +"Who are 'they'?" asked Claude Vignon. + +"Some very serious young men," said Blondet, "who meet at a +philosophico-religious symposium in the Rue des Quatre-Vents, and +worry themselves about the meaning of human life----" + +"Oh! oh!" + +"They are trying to find out whether it goes round in a circle, or +makes some progress," continued Blondet. "They were very hard put to +it between the straight line and the curve; the triangle, warranted by +Scripture, seemed to them to be nonsense, when, lo! there arose among +them some prophet or other who declared for the spiral." + +"Men might meet to invent more dangerous nonsense than that!" +exclaimed Lucien, making a faint attempt to champion the brotherhood. + +"You take theories of that sort for idle words," said Felicien Vernou; +"but a time comes when the arguments take the form of gunshot and the +guillotine." + +"They have not come to that yet," said Bixiou; "they have only come as +far as the designs of Providence in the invention of champagne, the +humanitarian significance of breeches, and the blind deity who keeps +the world going. They pick up fallen great men like Vico, Saint-Simon, +and Fourier. I am much afraid that they will turn poor Joseph Bridau's +head among them." + +"Bianchon, my old schoolfellow, gives me the cold shoulder now," said +Lousteau; "it is all their doing----" + +"Do they give lectures on orthopedy and intellectual gymnastics?" +asked Merlin. + +"Very likely," answered Finot, "if Bianchon has any hand in their +theories." + +"Pshaw!" said Lousteau; "he will be a great physician anyhow." + +"Isn't d'Arthez their visible head?" asked Nathan, "a little youngster +that is going to swallow all of us up." + +"He is a genius!" cried Lucien. + +"Genius, is he! Well, give me a glass of sherry!" said Claude Vignon, +smiling. + +Every one, thereupon, began to explain his character for the benefit +of his neighbor; and when a clever man feels a pressing need of +explaining himself, and of unlocking his heart, it is pretty clear +that wine has got the upper hand. An hour later, all the men in the +company were the best friends in the world, addressing each other as +great men and bold spirits, who held the future in their hands. +Lucien, in his quality of host, was sufficiently clearheaded to +apprehend the meaning of the sophistries which impressed him and +completed his demoralization. + +"The Liberal party," announced Finot, "is compelled to stir up +discussion somehow. There is no fault to find with the action of the +Government, and you may imagine what a fix the Opposition is in. Which +of you now cares to write a pamphlet in favor of the system of +primogeniture, and raise a cry against the secret designs of the +Court? The pamphlet will be paid for handsomely." + +"I will write it," said Hector Merlin. "It is my own point of view." + +"Your party will complain that you are compromising them," said Finot. +"Felicien, you must undertake it; Dauriat will bring it out, and we +will keep the secret." + +"How much shall I get?" + +"Six hundred francs. Sign it 'Le Comte C, three stars.'" + +"It's a bargain," said Felicien Vernou. + +"So you are introducing the _canard_ to the political world," remarked +Lousteau. + +"It is simply the Chabot affair carried into the region of abstract +ideas," said Finot. "Fasten intentions on the Government, and then let +loose public opinion." + +"How a Government can leave the control of ideas to such a pack of +scamps as we are, is matter for perpetual and profound astonishment to +me," said Claude Vignon. + +"If the Ministry blunders so far as to come down into the arena, we +can give them a drubbing. If they are nettled by it, the thing will +rankle in people's minds, and the Government will lose its hold on the +masses. The newspaper risks nothing, and the authorities have +everything to lose." + +"France will be a cipher until newspapers are abolished by law," said +Claude Vignon. "You are making progress hourly," he added, addressing +Finot. "You are a modern order of Jesuits, lacking the creed, the +fixed idea, the discipline, and the union." + +They went back to the card-tables; and before long the light of the +candles grew feeble in the dawn. + +"Lucien, your friends from the Rue des Quatre-Vents looked as dismal +as criminals going to be hanged," said Coralie. + +"They were the judges, not the criminals," replied the poet. + +"Judges are more amusing than _that_," said Coralie. + + + +For a month Lucien's whole time was taken up with supper parties, +dinner engagements, breakfasts, and evening parties; he was swept away +by an irresistible current into a vortex of dissipation and easy work. +He no longer thought of the future. The power of calculation amid the +complications of life is the sign of a strong will which poets, +weaklings, and men who live a purely intellectual life can never +counterfeit. Lucien was living from hand to mouth, spending his money +as fast as he made it, like many another journalist; nor did he give +so much as a thought to those periodically recurrent days of reckoning +which chequer the life of the bohemian in Paris so sadly. + +In dress and figure he was a rival for the great dandies of the day. +Coralie, like all zealots, loved to adorn her idol. She ruined herself +to give her beloved poet the accoutrements which had so stirred his +envy in the Garden of the Tuileries. Lucien had wonderful canes, and a +charming eyeglass; he had diamond studs, and scarf-rings, and +signet-rings, besides an assortment of waistcoats marvelous to behold, +and in sufficient number to match every color in a variety of costumes. +His transition to the estate of dandy swiftly followed. When he went to +the German Minister's dinner, all the young men regarded him with +suppressed envy; yet de Marsay, Vandenesse, Ajuda-Pinto, Maxime de +Trailles, Rastignac, Beaudenord, Manerville, and the Duc de +Maufrigneuse gave place to none in the kingdom of fashion. Men of +fashion are as jealous among themselves as women, and in the same way. +Lucien was placed between Mme. de Montcornet and Mme. d'Espard, in +whose honor the dinner was given; both ladies overwhelmed him with +flatteries. + +"Why did you turn your back on society when you would have been so +well received?" asked the Marquise. "Every one was prepared to make +much of you. And I have a quarrel with you too. You owed me a call--I +am still waiting to receive it. I saw you at the Opera the other day, +and you would not deign to come to see me nor to take any notice of +me." + +"Your cousin, madame, so unmistakably dismissed me--" + +"Oh! you do not know women," the Marquise d'Espard broke in upon him. +"You have wounded the most angelic heart, the noblest nature that I +know. You do not know all that Louise was trying to do for you, nor +how tactfully she laid her plans for you.--Oh! and she would have +succeeded," the Marquise continued, replying to Lucien's mute +incredulity. "Her husband is dead now; died, as he was bound to die, +of an indigestion; could you doubt that she would be free sooner or +later? And can you suppose that she would like to be Madame Chardon? +It was worth while to take some trouble to gain the title of Comtesse +de Rubempre. Love, you see, is a great vanity, which requires the +lesser vanities to be in harmony with itself--especially in marriage. +I might love you to madness--which is to say, sufficiently to marry +you--and yet I should find it very unpleasant to be called Madame +Chardon. You can see that. And now that you understand the +difficulties of Paris life, you will know how many roundabout ways you +must take to reach your end; very well, then, you must admit that +Louise was aspiring to an all but impossible piece of Court favor; she +was quite unknown, she is not rich, and therefore she could not afford +to neglect any means of success. + +"You are clever," the Marquise d'Espard continued; "but we women, when +we love, are cleverer than the cleverest man. My cousin tried to make +that absurd Chatelet useful--Oh!" she broke off, "I owe not a little +amusement to you; your articles on Chatelet made me laugh heartily." + +Lucien knew not what to think of all this. Of the treachery and bad +faith of journalism he had had some experience; but in spite of his +perspicacity, he scarcely expected to find bad faith or treachery in +society. There were some sharp lessons in store for him. + +"But, madame," he objected, for her words aroused a lively curiosity, +"is not the Heron under your protection?" + +"One is obliged to be civil to one's worst enemies in society," +protested she; "one may be bored, but one must look as if the talk was +amusing, and not seldom one seems to sacrifice friends the better to +serve them. Are you still a novice? You mean to write, and yet you +know nothing of current deceit? My cousin apparently sacrificed you to +the Heron, but how could she dispense with his influence for you? Our +friend stands well with the present ministry; and we have made him see +that your attacks will do him service--up to a certain point, for we +want you to make it up again some of these days. Chatelet has received +compensations for his troubles; for, as des Lupeaulx said, 'While the +newspapers are making Chatelet ridiculous, they will leave the +Ministry in peace.'" + +There was a pause; the Marquise left Lucien to his own reflections. + +"M. Blondet led me to hope that I should have the pleasure of seeing +you in my house," said the Comtesse de Montcornet. "You will meet a +few artists and men of letters, and some one else who has the keenest +desire to become acquainted with you--Mlle. des Touches, the owner of +talents rare among our sex. You will go to her house, no doubt. Mlle. +de Touches (or Camille Maupin, if you prefer it) is prodigiously rich, +and presides over one of the most remarkable salons in Paris. She has +heard that you are as handsome as you are clever, and is dying to meet +you." + +Lucien could only pour out incoherent thanks and glance enviously at +Emile Blondet. There was as great a difference between a great lady +like Mme. de Montcornet and Coralie as between Coralie and a girl out +of the streets. The Countess was young and witty and beautiful, with +the very white fairness of women of the north. Her mother was the +Princess Scherbellof, and the Minister before dinner had paid her the +most respectful attention. + +By this time the Marquise had made an end of trifling disdainfully +with the wing of a chicken. + +"My poor Louise felt so much affection for you," she said. "She took +me into her confidence; I knew her dreams of a great career for you. +She would have borne a great deal, but what scorn you showed her when +you sent back her letters! Cruelty we can forgive; those who hurt us +must have still some faith in us; but indifference! Indifference is +like polar snows, it extinguishes all life. So, you must see that you +have lost a precious affection through your own fault. Why break with +her? Even if she had scorned you, you had your way to make, had you +not?--your name to win back? Louise thought of all that." + +"Then why was she silent?" + +"_Eh! mon Dieu!_" cried the Marquise, "it was I myself who advised her +not to take you into her confidence. Between ourselves, you know, you +seemed so little used to the ways of the world, that I took alarm. I +was afraid that your inexperience and rash ardor might wreck our +carefully-made schemes. Can you recollect yourself as you were then? +You must admit that if you could see your double to-day, you would say +the same yourself. You are not like the same man. That was our +mistake. But would one man in a thousand combine such intellectual +gifts with such wonderful aptitude for taking the tone of society? I +did not think that you would be such an astonishing exception. You +were transformed so quickly, you acquired the manner of Paris so +easily, that I did not recognize you in the Bois de Boulogne a month +ago." + +Lucien heard the great lady with inexpressible pleasure; the +flatteries were spoken with such a petulant, childlike, confiding air, +and she seemed to take such a deep interest in him, that he thought of +his first evening at the Panorama-Dramatique, and began to fancy that +some such miracle was about to take place a second time. Everything +had smiled upon him since that happy evening; his youth, he thought, +was the talisman that worked this change. He would prove this great +lady; she should not take him unawares. + +"Then, what were these schemes which have turned to chimeras, madame?" +asked he. + +"Louise meant to obtain a royal patent permitting you to bear the name +and title of Rubempre. She wished to put Chardon out of sight. Your +opinions have put that out of the question now, but _then_ it would not +have been so hard to manage, and a title would mean a fortune for you. + +"You will look on these things as trifles and visionary ideas," she +continued; "but we know something of life, and we know, too, all the +solid advantages of a Count's title when it is borne by a fashionable +and extremely charming young man. Announce 'M. Chardon' and 'M. le +Comte de Rubempre' before heiresses or English girls with a million to +their fortune, and note the difference of the effect. The Count might +be in debt, but he would find open hearts; his good looks, brought +into relief by his title, would be like a diamond in a rich setting; +M. Chardon would not be so much as noticed. WE have not invented these +notions; they are everywhere in the world, even among the burgeois. +You are turning your back on fortune at this minute. Do you see that +good-looking young man? He is the Vicomte Felix de Vandenesse, one of +the King's private secretaries. The King is fond enough of young men +of talent, and Vandenesse came from the provinces with baggage nearly +as light as yours. You are a thousand times cleverer than he; but do +you belong to a great family, have you a name? You know des Lupeaulx; +his name is very much like yours, for he was born a Chardin; well, he +would not sell his little farm of Lupeaulx for a million, he will be +Comte des Lupeaulx some day, and perhaps his grandson may be a duke. +--You have made a false start; and if you continue in that way, it will +be all over with you. See how much wiser M. Emile Blondet has been! He +is engaged on a Government newspaper; he is well looked on by those in +authority; he can afford to mix with Liberals, for he holds sound +opinions; and soon or later he will succeed. But then he understood +how to choose his opinions and his protectors. + +"Your charming neighbor" (Mme. d'Espard glanced at Mme. de Montcornet) +"was a Troisville; there are two peers of France in the family and two +deputies. She made a wealthy marriage with her name; she sees a great +deal of society at her house; she has influence, she will move the +political world for young M. Blondet. Where will a Coralie take you? +In a few years' time you will be hopelessly in debt and weary of +pleasure. You have chosen badly in love, and you are arranging your +life ill. The woman whom you delight to wound was at the Opera the +other night, and this was how she spoke of you. She deplored the way +in which you were throwing away your talent and the prime of youth; +she was thinking of you, and not of herself, all the while." + +"Ah! if you were only telling me the truth, madame!" cried Lucien. + +"What object should I have in telling lies?" returned the Marquise, +with a glance of cold disdain which annihilated him. He was so dashed +by it, that the conversation dropped, for the Marquise was offended, +and said no more. + +Lucien was nettled by her silence, but he felt that it was due to his +own clumsiness, and promised himself that he would repair his error. +He turned to Mme. de Montcornet and talked to her of Blondet, +extolling that young writer for her benefit. The Countess was gracious +to him, and asked him (at a sign from Mme. d'Espard) to spend an +evening at her house. It was to be a small and quiet gathering to +which only friends were invited--Mme. de Bargeton would be there in +spite of her mourning; Lucien would be pleased, she was sure, to meet +Mme. de Bargeton. + +"Mme. la Marquise says that all the wrong is on my side," said Lucien; +"so surely it rests with her cousin, does it not, to decide whether +she will meet me?" + +"Put an end to those ridiculous attacks, which only couple her name +with the name of a man for whom she does not care at all, and you will +soon sign a treaty of peace. You thought that she had used you ill, I +am told, but I myself have seen her in sadness because you had +forsaken her. Is it true that she left the provinces on your account?" + +Lucien smiled; he did not venture to make any other reply. + +"Oh! how could you doubt the woman who made such sacrifices for you? +Beautiful and intellectual as she is, she deserves besides to be loved +for her own sake; and Mme. de Bargeton cared less for you than for +your talents. Believe me, women value intellect more than good looks," +added the Countess, stealing a glance at Emile Blondet. + +In the Minister's hotel Lucien could see the differences between the +great world and that other world beyond the pale in which he had +lately been living. There was no sort of resemblance between the two +kinds of splendor, no single point in common. The loftiness and +disposition of the rooms in one of the handsomest houses in the +Faubourg Saint-Germain, the ancient gilding, the breadth of decorative +style, the subdued richness of the accessories, all this was strange +and new to him; but Lucien had learned very quickly to take luxury for +granted, and he showed no surprise. His behavior was as far removed +from assurance or fatuity on the one hand as from complacency and +servility upon the other. His manner was good; he found favor in the +eyes of all who were not prepared to be hostile, like the younger men, +who resented his sudden intrusion into the great world, and felt +jealous of his good looks and his success. + +When they rose from table, he offered his arm to Mme. d'Espard, and +was not refused. Rastignac, watching him, saw that the Marquise was +gracious to Lucien, and came in the character of a fellow-countryman +to remind the poet that they had met once before at Mme. du +Val-Noble's. The young patrician seemed anxious to find an ally in +the great man from his own province, asked Lucien to breakfast with +him some morning, and offered to introduce him to some young men of +fashion. Lucien was nothing loath. + +"The dear Blondet is coming," said Rastignac. + +The two were standing near the Marquis de Ronquerolles, the Duc de +Rhetore, de Marsay, and General Montriveau. The Minister came across +to join the group. + +"Well," said he, addressing Lucien with a bluff German heartiness that +concealed his dangerous subtlety; "well, so you have made your peace +with Mme. d'Espard; she is delighted with you, and we all know," he +added, looking round the group, "how difficult it is to please her." + +"Yes, but she adores intellect," said Rastignac, "and my illustrious +fellow-countryman has wit enough to sell." + +"He will soon find out that he is not doing well for himself," Blondet +put in briskly. "He will come over; he will soon be one of us." + +Those who stood about Lucien rang the changes on this theme; the older +and responsible men laid down the law with one or two profound +remarks; the younger ones made merry at the expense of the Liberals. + +"He simply tossed up head or tails for Right or Left, I am sure," +remarked Blondet, "but now he will choose for himself." + +Lucien burst out laughing; he thought of his talk with Lousteau that +evening in the Luxembourg Gardens. + +"He has taken on a bear-leader," continued Blondet, "one Etienne +Lousteau, a newspaper hack who sees a five-franc piece in a column. +Lousteau's politics consist in a belief that Napoleon will return, and +(and this seems to me to be still more simple) in a confidence in the +gratitude and patriotism of their worships the gentlemen of the Left. +As a Rubempre, Lucien's sympathies should lean towards the +aristocracy; as a journalist, he ought to be for authority, or he will +never be either Rubempre or a secretary-general." + +The Minister now asked Lucien to take a hand at whist; but, to the +great astonishment of those present, he declared that he did not know +the game. + +"Come early to me on the day of that breakfast affair," Rastignac +whispered, "and I will teach you to play. You are a discredit to the +royal city of Angouleme; and, to repeat M. de Talleyrand's saying, you +are laying up an unhappy old age for yourself." + +Des Lupeaulx was announced. He remembered Lucien, whom he had met at +Mme. du Val-Noble's, and bowed with a semblance of friendliness which +the poet could not doubt. Des Lupeaulx was in favor, he was a Master +of Requests, and did the Ministry secret services; he was, moreover, +cunning and ambitious, slipping himself in everywhere; he was +everybody's friend, for he never knew whom he might need. He saw +plainly that this was a young journalist whose social success would +probably equal his success in literature; saw, too, that the poet was +ambitious, and overwhelmed him with protestations and expressions of +friendship and interest, till Lucien felt as if they were old friends +already, and took his promises and speeches for more than their worth. +Des Lupeaulx made a point of knowing a man thoroughly well if he +wanted to get rid of him or feared him as a rival. So, to all +appearance, Lucien was well received. He knew that much of his success +was owing to the Duc de Rhetore, the Minister, Mme. d'Espard, and Mme. +de Montcornet, and went to spend a few moments with the two ladies +before taking leave, and talked his very best for them. + +"What a coxcomb!" said des Lupeaulx, turning to the Marquise when he +had gone. + +"He will be rotten before he is ripe," de Marsay added, smiling. "You +must have private reasons of your own, madame, for turning his head in +this way." + + + +When Lucien stepped into the carriage in the courtyard, he found +Coralie waiting for him. She had come to fetch him. The little +attention touched him; he told her the history of his evening; and, to +his no small astonishment, the new notions which even now were running +in his head met with Coralie's approval. She strongly advised him to +enlist under the ministerial banner. + +"You have nothing to expect from the Liberals but hard knocks," she +said. "They plot and conspire; they murdered the Duc de Berri. Will +they upset the Government? Never! You will never come to anything +through them, while you will be Comte de Rubempre if you throw in your +lot with the other side. You might render services to the State, and +be a peer of France, and marry an heiress. Be an Ultra. It is the +proper thing besides," she added, this being the last word with her on +all subjects. "I dined with the Val-Noble; she told me that Theodore +Gaillard is really going to start his little Royalist _Revue_, so as to +reply to your witticisms and the jokes in the _Miroir_. To hear them +talk, M. Villele's party will be in office before the year is out. Try +to turn the change to account before they come to power; and say +nothing to Etienne and your friends, for they are quite equal to +playing you some ill turn." + +A week later, Lucien went to Mme. de Montcornet's house, and saw the +woman whom he had so loved, whom later he had stabbed to the heart +with a jest. He felt the most violent agitation at the sight of her, +for Louise also had undergone a transformation. She was the Louise +that she would always have been but for her detention in the provinces +--she was a great lady. There was a grace and refinement in her +mourning dress which told that she was a happy widow; Lucien fancied +that this coquetry was aimed in some degree at him, and he was right; +but, like an ogre, he had tasted flesh, and all that evening he +vacillated between Coralie's warm, voluptuous beauty and the dried-up, +haughty, cruel Louise. He could not make up his mind to sacrifice the +actress to the great lady; and Mme. de Bargeton--all the old feeling +reviving in her at the sight of Lucien, Lucien's beauty, Lucien's +cleverness--was waiting and expecting that sacrifice all evening; and +after all her insinuating speeches and her fascinations, she had her +trouble for her pains. She left the room with a fixed determination to +be revenged. + +"Well, dear Lucien," she had said, and in her kindness there was both +generosity and Parisian grace; "well, dear Lucien, so you, that were +to have been my pride, took me for your first victim; and I forgave +you, my dear, for I felt that in such a revenge there was a trace of +love still left." + +With that speech, and the queenly way in which it was uttered, Mme. de +Bargeton recovered her position. Lucien, convinced that he was a +thousand times in the right, felt that he had been put in the wrong. +Not one word of the causes of the rupture! not one syllable of the +terrible farewell letter! A woman of the world has a wonderful genius +for diminishing her faults by laughing at them; she can obliterate +them all with a smile or a question of feigned surprise, and she knows +this. She remembers nothing, she can explain everything; she is +amazed, asks questions, comments, amplifies, and quarrels with you, +till in the end her sins disappear like stains on the application of a +little soap and water; black as ink you knew them to be; and lo! in a +moment, you behold immaculate white innocence, and lucky are you if +you do not find that you yourself have sinned in some way beyond +redemption. + +In a moment old illusions regained their power over Lucien and Louise; +they talked like friends, as before; but when the lady, with a +hesitating sigh, put the question, "Are you happy?" Lucien was not +ready with a prompt, decided answer; he was intoxicated with gratified +vanity; Coralie, who (let us admit it) had made life easy for him, had +turned his head. A melancholy "No" would have made his fortune, but he +must needs begin to explain his position with regard to Coralie. He +said that he was loved for his own sake; he said a good many foolish +things that a man will say when he is smitten with a tender passion, +and thought the while that he was doing a clever thing. + +Mme. de Bargeton bit her lips. There was no more to be said. Mme. +d'Espard brought Mme. de Montcornet to her cousin, and Lucien became +the hero of the evening, so to speak. He was flattered, petted, and +made much of by the three women; he was entangled with art which no +words can describe. His social success in this fine and brilliant +circle was at least as great as his triumphs in journalism. Beautiful +Mlle. des Touches, so well known as "Camille Maupin," asked him to one +of her Wednesday dinners; his beauty, now so justly famous, seemed to +have made an impression upon her. Lucien exerted himself to show that +his wit equaled his good looks, and Mlle. des Touches expressed her +admiration with a playful outspokenness and a pretty fervor of +friendship which deceives those who do not know life in Paris to its +depths, nor suspect how continual enjoyment whets the appetite for +novelty. + +"If she should like me as much as I like her, we might abridge the +romance," said Lucien, addressing de Marsay and Rastignac. + +"You both of you write romances too well to care to live them," +returned Rastignac. "Can men and women who write ever fall in love +with each other? A time is sure to come when they begin to make little +cutting remarks." + +"It would not be a bad dream for you," laughed de Marsay. "The +charming young lady is thirty years old, it is true, but she has an +income of eighty thousand livres. She is adorably capricious, and her +style of beauty wears well. Coralie is a silly little fool, my dear +boy, well enough for a start, for a young spark must have a mistress; +but unless you make some great conquest in the great world, an actress +will do you harm in the long run. Now, my boy, go and cut out Conti. +Here he is, just about to sing with Camille Maupin. Poetry has taken +precedence of music ever since time began." + +But when Lucien heard Mlle. des Touches' voice blending with Conti's, +his hopes fled. + +"Conti sings too well," he told des Lupeaulx; and he went back to Mme. +de Bargeton, who carried him off to Mme. d'Espard in another room. + +"Well, will you not interest yourself in him?" asked Mme. de Bargeton. + +The Marquise spoke with an air half kindly, half insolent. "Let M. +Chardon first put himself in such a position that he will not +compromise those who take an interest in him," she said. "If he wishes +to drop his patronymic and to bear his mother's name, he should at any +rate be on the right side, should he not?" + +"In less than two months I will arrange everything," said Lucien. + +"Very well," returned Mme. d'Espard. "I will speak to my father and +uncle; they are in waiting, they will speak to the Chancellor for +you." + +The diplomatist and the two women had very soon discovered Lucien's +weak side. The poet's head was turned by the glory of the aristocracy; +every man who entered the rooms bore a sounding name mounted in a +glittering title, and he himself was plain Chardon. Unspeakable +mortification filled him at the sound of it. Wherever he had been +during the last few days, that pang had been constantly present with +him. He felt, moreover, a sensation quite as unpleasant when he went +back to his desk after an evening spent in the great world, in which +he made a tolerable figure, thanks to Coralie's carriage and Coralie's +servants. + +He learned to ride, in order to escort Mme. d'Espard, Mlle. des +Touches, and the Comtesse de Montcornet when they drove in the Bois, a +privilege which he had envied other young men so greatly when he first +came to Paris. Finot was delighted to give his right-hand man an order +for the Opera, so Lucien wasted many an evening there, and +thenceforward he was among the exquisites of the day. + +The poet asked Rastignac and his new associates to a breakfast, and +made the blunder of giving it in Coralie's rooms in the Rue de +Vendome; he was too young, too much of a poet, too self-confident, to +discern certain shades and distinctions in conduct; and how should an +actress, a good-hearted but uneducated girl, teach him life? His +guests were anything but charitably disposed towards him; it was +clearly proven to their minds that Lucien the critic and the actress +were in collusion for their mutual interests, and all of the young men +were jealous of an arrangement which all of them stigmatized. The most +pitiless of those who laughed that evening at Lucien's expense was +Rastignac himself. Rastignac had made and held his position by very +similar means; but so careful had he been of appearances, that he +could afford to treat scandal as slander. + +Lucien proved an apt pupil at whist. Play became a passion with him; +and so far from disapproving, Coralie encouraged his extravagance with +the peculiar short-sightedness of an all-absorbing love, which sees +nothing beyond the moment, and is ready to sacrifice anything, even +the future, to the present enjoyment. Coralie looked on cards as a +safe-guard against rivals. A great love has much in common with +childhood--a child's heedless, careless, spendthrift ways, a child's +laughter and tears. + +In those days there lived and flourished a set of young men, some of +them rich, some poor, and all of them idle, called "free-livers" +(_viveurs_); and, indeed, they lived with incredible insolence +--unabashed and unproductive consumers, and yet more intrepid +drinkers. These spendthrifts mingled the roughest practical jokes with +a life not so much reckless as suicidal; they drew back from no +impossibility, and gloried in pranks which, nevertheless, were +confined within certain limits; and as they showed the most original +wit in their escapades, it was impossible not to pardon them. + +No sign of the times more plainly discovered the helotism to which the +Restoration had condemned the young manhood of the epoch. The younger +men, being at a loss to know what to do with themselves, were +compelled to find other outlets for their superabundant energy besides +journalism, or conspiracy, or art, or letters. They squandered their +strength in the wildest excesses, such sap and luxuriant power was +there in young France. The hard workers among these gilded youths +wanted power and pleasure; the artists wished for money; the idle +sought to stimulate their appetites or wished for excitement; one and +all of them wanted a place, and one and all were shut out from +politics and public life. Nearly all the "free-livers" were men of +unusual mental powers; some held out against the enervating life, +others were ruined by it. The most celebrated and the cleverest among +them was Eugene Rastignac, who entered, with de Marsay's help, upon a +political career, in which he has since distinguished himself. The +practical jokes, in which the set indulged became so famous, that not +a few vaudevilles have been founded upon them. + +Blondet introduced Lucien to this society of prodigals, of which he +became a brilliant ornament, ranking next to Bixiou, one of the most +mischievous and untiring scoffing wits of his time. All through that +winter Lucien's life was one long fit of intoxication, with intervals +of easy work. He continued his series of sketches of contemporary +life, and very occasionally made great efforts to write a few pages of +serious criticism, on which he brought his utmost power of thought to +bear. But study was the exception, not the rule, and only undertaken +at the bidding of necessity; dinners and breakfasts, parties of +pleasure and play, took up most of his time, and Coralie absorbed all +that was left. He would not think of the morrow. He saw besides that +his so-called friends were leading the same life, earning money easily +by writing publishers' prospectuses and articles paid for by +speculators; all of them lived beyond their incomes, none of them +thought seriously of the future. + +Lucien had been admitted into the ranks of journalism and of +literature on terms of equality; he foresaw immense difficulties in +the way if he should try to rise above the rest. Every one was willing +to look upon him as an equal; no one would have him for a superior. +Unconsciously he gave up the idea of winning fame in literature, for +it seemed easier to gain success in politics. + +"Intrigue raises less opposition than talent," du Chatelet had said +one day (for Lucien and the Baron had made up their quarrel); "a plot +below the surface rouses no one's attention. Intrigue, moreover, is +superior to talent, for it makes something out of nothing; while, for +the most part, the immense resources of talent only injure a man." + +So Lucien never lost sight of his principal idea; and though +to-morrow, following close upon the heels of to-day in the midst of an +orgy, never found the promised work accomplished, Lucien was assiduous +in society. He paid court to Mme. de Bargeton, the Marquise d'Espard, +and the Comtesse de Montcornet; he never missed a single party given +by Mlle. des Touches, appearing in society after a dinner given by +authors or publishers, and leaving the salons for a supper given in +consequence of a bet. The demands of conversation and the excitement +of play absorbed all the ideas and energy left by excess. The poet had +lost the lucidity of judgment and coolness of head which must be +preserved if a man is to see all that is going on around him, and +never to lose the exquisite tact which the _parvenu_ needs at every +moment. How should he know how many a time Mme. de Bargeton left him +with wounded susceptibilities, how often she forgave him or added one +more condemnation to the rest? + +Chatelet saw that his rival had still a chance left, so he became +Lucien's friend. He encouraged the poet in dissipation that wasted his +energies. Rastignac, jealous of his fellow-countryman, and thinking, +besides, that Chatelet would be a surer and more useful ally than +Lucien, had taken up the Baron's cause. So, some few days after the +meeting of the Petrarch and Laura of Angouleme, Rastignac brought +about the reconciliation between the poet and the elderly beau at a +sumptuous supper given at the _Rocher de Cancale_. Lucien never returned +home till morning, and rose in the middle of the day; Coralie was +always at his side, he could not forego a single pleasure. Sometimes +he saw his real position, and made good resolutions, but they came to +nothing in his idle, easy life; and the mainspring of will grew slack, +and only responded to the heaviest pressure of necessity. + +Coralie had been glad that Lucien should amuse himself; she had +encouraged him in this reckless expenditure, because she thought that +the cravings which she fostered would bind her lover to her. But +tender-hearted and loving as she was, she found courage to advise +Lucien not to forget his work, and once or twice was obliged to remind +him that he had earned very little during the month. Their debts were +growing frightfully fast. The fifteen hundred francs which remained +from the purchase-money of the _Marguerites_ had been swallowed up at +once, together with Lucien's first five hundred livres. In three +months he had only made a thousand francs, yet he felt as though he +had been working tremendously hard. But by this time Lucien had +adopted the "free-livers" pleasant theory of debts. + +Debts are becoming to a young man, but after the age of +five-and-twenty they are inexcusable. It should be observed that there +are certain natures in which a really poetic temper is united with a +weakened will; and these while absorbed in feeling, that they may +transmute personal experience, sensation, or impression into some +permanent form are essentially deficient in the moral sense which +should accompany all observation. Poets prefer rather to receive their +own impressions than to enter into the souls of others to study the +mechanism of their feelings and thoughts. So Lucien neither asked his +associates what became of those who disappeared from among them, nor +looked into the futures of his so-called friends. Some of them were +heirs to property, others had definite expectations; yet others either +possessed names that were known in the world, or a most robust belief +in their destiny and a fixed resolution to circumvent the law. Lucien, +too, believed in his future on the strength of various profound +axiomatic sayings of Blondet's: "Everything comes out all right at +last--If a man has nothing, his affairs cannot be embarrassed--We have +nothing to lose but the fortune that we seek--Swim with the stream; it +will take you somewhere--A clever man with a footing in society can +make a fortune whenever he pleases." + +That winter, filled as it was with so many pleasures and dissipations, +was a necessary interval employed in finding capital for the new +Royalist paper; Theodore Gaillard and Hector Merlin only brought out +the first number of the _Reveil_ in March 1822. The affair had been +settled at Mme. du Val-Noble's house. Mme. du val-Noble exercised a +certain influence over the great personages, Royalist writers, and +bankers who met in her splendid rooms--"fit for a tale out of the +_Arabian Nights_," as the elegant and clever courtesan herself used to +say--to transact business which could not be arranged elsewhere. The +editorship had been promised to Hector Merlin. Lucien, Merlin's +intimate, was pretty certain to be his right-hand man, and a +_feuilleton_ in a Ministerial paper had been promised to him besides. +All through the dissipations of that winter Lucien had been secretly +making ready for this change of front. Child as he was, he fancied +that he was a deep politician because he concealed the preparation for +the approaching transformation-scene, while he was counting upon +Ministerial largesses to extricate himself from embarrassment and to +lighten Coralie's secret cares. Coralie said nothing of her distress; +she smiled now, as always; but Berenice was bolder, she kept Lucien +informed of their difficulties; and the budding great man, moved, +after the fashion of poets, by the tale of disasters, would vow that +he would begin to work in earnest, and then forget his resolution, and +drown his fleeting cares in excess. One day Coralie saw the poetic +brow overcast, and scolded Berenice, and told her lover that +everything would be settled. + +Mme. d'Espard and Mme. de Bargeton were waiting for Lucien's +profession of his new creed, so they said, before applying through +Chatelet for the patent which should permit Lucien to bear the so-much +desired name. Lucien had proposed to dedicate the _Marguerites_ to Mme. +d'Espard, and the Marquise seemed to be not a little flattered by a +compliment which authors have been somewhat chary of paying since they +became a power in the land; but when Lucien went to Dauriat and asked +after his book, that worthy publisher met him with excellent reasons +for the delay in its appearance. Dauriat had this and that in hand, +which took up all his time; a new volume by Canalis was coming out, +and he did not want the two books to clash; M. de Lamartine's second +series of _Meditations_ was in the press, and two important collections +of poetry ought not to appear together. + +By this time, however, Lucien's needs were so pressing that he had +recourse to Finot, and received an advance on his work. When, at a +supper-party that evening, the poet journalist explained his position +to his friends in the fast set, they drowned his scruples in +champagne, iced with pleasantries. Debts! There was never yet a man of +any power without debts! Debts represented satisfied cravings, +clamorous vices. A man only succeeds under the pressure of the iron +hand of necessity. Debts forsooth! + +"Why, the one pledge of which a great man can be sure, is given him by +his friend the pawnbroker," cried Blondet. + +"If you want everything, you must owe for everything," called Bixiou. + +"No," corrected des Lupeaulx, "if you owe for everything, you have had +everything." + +The party contrived to convince the novice that his debts were a +golden spur to urge on the horses of the chariot of his fortunes. +There is always the stock example of Julius Caesar with his debt of +forty millions, and Friedrich II. on an allowance of one ducat a +month, and a host of other great men whose failings are held up for +the corruption of youth, while not a word is said of their +wide-reaching ideas, their courage equal to all odds. + +Creditors seized Coralie's horses, carriage, and furniture at last, +for an amount of four thousand francs. Lucien went to Lousteau and +asked his friend to meet his bill for the thousand francs lent to pay +gaming debts; but Lousteau showed him certain pieces of stamped paper, +which proved that Florine was in much the same case. Lousteau was +grateful, however, and offered to take the necessary steps for the +sale of Lucien's _Archer of Charles IX._ + +"How came Florine to be in this plight?" asked Lucien. + +"The Matifat took alarm," said Lousteau. "We have lost him; but if +Florine chooses, she can make him pay dear for his treachery. I will +tell you all about it." + +Three days after this bootless errand, Lucien and Coralie were +breakfasting in melancholy spirits beside the fire in their pretty +bedroom. Berenice had cooked a dish of eggs for them over the grate; +for the cook had gone, and the coachman and servants had taken leave. +They could not sell the furniture, for it had been attached; there was +not a single object of any value in the house. A goodly collection of +pawntickets, forming a very instructive octavo volume, represented all +the gold, silver, and jewelry. Berenice had kept back a couple of +spoons and forks, that was all. + +Lousteau's newspaper was of service now to Coralie and Lucien, little +as they suspected it; for the tailor, dressmaker, and milliner were +afraid to meddle with a journalist who was quite capable of writing +down their establishments. + +Etienne Lousteau broke in upon their breakfast with a shout of +"Hurrah! Long live _The Archer of Charles IX._! And I have converted a +hundred francs worth of books into cash, children. We will go halves." + +He handed fifty francs to Coralie, and sent Berenice out in quest of a +more substantial breakfast. + +"Hector Merlin and I went to a booksellers' trade dinner yesterday, +and prepared the way for your romance with cunning insinuations. +Dauriat is in treaty, but Dauriat is haggling over it; he won't give +more than four thousand francs for two thousand copies, and you want +six thousand francs. We made you out twice as great as Sir Walter +Scott! Oh! you have such novels as never were in the inwards of you. +It is not a mere book for sale, it is a big business; you are not +simply the writer of one more or less ingenious novel, you are going +to write a whole series. The word 'series' did it! So, mind you, don't +forget that you have a great historical series on hand--_La Grande +Mademoiselle_, or _The France of Louis Quatorze_; _Cotillon I._, or _The +Early Days of Louis Quinze_; _The Queen and the Cardinal_, or _Paris and +the Fronde_; _The Son of the Concini_, or _Richelieu's Intrigue_. These +novels will be announced on the wrapper of the book. We call this +manoeuvre 'giving a success a toss in the coverlet,' for the titles +are all to appear on the cover, till you will be better known for the +books that you have not written than for the work you have done. And +'In the Press' is a way of gaining credit in advance for work that you +will do. Come, now, let us have a little fun! Here comes the +champagne. You can understand, Lucien, that our men opened eyes as big +as saucers. By the by, I see that you have saucers still left." + +"They are attached," explained Coralie. + +"I understand, and I resume. Show a publisher one manuscript volume +and he will believe in all the rest. A publisher asks to see your +manuscript, and gives you to understand that he is going to read it. +Why disturb his harmless vanity? They never read a manuscript; they +would not publish so many if they did. Well, Hector and I allowed it +to leak out that you might consider an offer of five thousand francs +for three thousand copies, in two editions. Let me have your _Archer_; +the day after to-morrow we are to breakfast with the publishers, and +we will get the upper hand of them." + +"Who are they?" asked Lucien. + +"Two partners named Fendant and Cavalier; they are two good fellows, +pretty straightforward in business. One of them used to be with Vidal +and Porchon, the other is the cleverest hand on the Quai des +Augustins. They only started in business last year, and have lost a +little on translations of English novels; so now my gentlemen have a +mind to exploit the native product. There is a rumor current that +those dealers in spoiled white paper are trading on other people's +capital; but I don't think it matters very much to you who finds the +money, so long as you are paid." + +Two days later, the pair went to a breakfast in the Rue Serpente, in +Lucien's old quarter of Paris. Lousteau still kept his room in the Rue +de la Harpe; and it was in the same state as before, but this time +Lucien felt no surprise; he had been initiated into the life of +journalism; he knew all its ups and downs. Since that evening of his +introduction to the Wooden Galleries, he had been paid for many an +article, and gambled away the money along with the desire to write. He +had filled columns, not once but many times, in the ingenious ways +described by Lousteau on that memorable evening as they went to the +Palais Royal. He was dependent upon Barbet and Braulard; he trafficked +in books and theatre-tickets; he shrank no longer from any attack, +from writing any panegyric; and at this moment he was in some sort +rejoicing to make all he could out of Lousteau before turning his back +on the Liberals. His intimate knowledge of the party would stand him +in good stead in future. And Lousteau, on his side, was privately +receiving five hundred francs of purchase-money, under the name of +commission, from Fendant and Cavalier for introducing the future Sir +Walter Scott to two enterprising tradesmen in search of a French +Author of "Waverley." + +The firm of Fendant and Cavalier had started in business without any +capital whatsoever. A great many publishing houses were established at +that time in the same way, and are likely to be established so long as +papermakers and printers will give credit for the time required to +play some seven or eight of the games of chance called "new +publications." At that time, as at present, the author's copyright was +paid for in bills at six, nine, and twelve months--a method of payment +determined by the custom of the trade, for booksellers settle accounts +between themselves by bills at even longer dates. Papermakers and +printers are paid in the same way, so that in practice the +publisher-bookseller has a dozen or a score of works on sale for a +twelvemonth before he pays for them. Even if only two or three of these +hit the public taste, the profitable speculations pay for the bad, and +the publisher pays his way by grafting, as it were, one book upon +another. But if all of them turn out badly; or if, for his misfortune, +the publisher-bookseller happens to bring out some really good literature +which stays on hand until the right public discovers and appreciates +it; or if it costs too much to discount the paper that he receives, +then, resignedly, he files his schedule, and becomes a bankrupt with +an untroubled mind. He was prepared all along for something of the +kind. So, all the chances being in favor of the publishers, they +staked other people's money, not their own upon the gaming-table of +business speculation. + +This was the case with Fendant and Cavalier. Cavalier brought his +experience, Fendant his industry; the capital was a joint-stock +affair, and very accurately described by that word, for it consisted +in a few thousand francs scraped together with difficulty by the +mistresses of the pair. Out of this fund they allowed each other a +fairly handsome salary, and scrupulously spent it all in dinners to +journalists and authors, or at the theatre, where their business was +transacted, as they said. This questionably honest couple were both +supposed to be clever men of business, but Fendant was more slippery +than Cavalier. Cavalier, true to his name, traveled about, Fendant +looked after business in Paris. A partnership between two publishers +is always more or less of a duel, and so it was with Fendant and +Cavalier. + +They had brought out plenty of romances already, such as the _Tour du +Nord_, _Le Marchand de Benares_, _La Fontaine du Sepulcre_, and _Tekeli_, +translations of the works of Galt, an English novelist who never +attained much popularity in France. The success of translations of +Scott had called the attention of the trade to English novels. The +race of publishers, all agog for a second Norman conquest, were +seeking industriously for a second Scott, just as at a rather later +day every one must needs look for asphalt in stony soil, or bitumen in +marshes, and speculate in projected railways. The stupidity of the +Paris commercial world is conspicuous in these attempts to do the same +thing twice, for success lies in contraries; and in Paris, of all +places in the world, success spoils success. So beneath the title of +_Strelitz, or Russia a Hundred Years Ago_, Fendant and Cavalier rashly +added in big letters the words, "In the style of Scott." + +Fendant and Cavalier were in great need of a success. A single good +book might float their sunken bales, they thought; and there was the +alluring prospect besides of articles in the newspapers, the great way +of promoting sales in those days. A book is very seldom bought and +sold for its just value, and purchases are determined by +considerations quite other than the merits of the work. So Fendant and +Cavalier thought of Lucien as a journalist, and of his book as a +salable article, which would help them to tide over their monthly +settlement. + +The partners occupied the ground floor of one of the great +old-fashioned houses in the Rue Serpente; their private office had +been contrived at the further end of a suite of large drawing-rooms, +now converted into warehouses for books. Lucien and Etienne found the +publishers in their office, the agreement drawn up, and the bills +ready. Lucien wondered at such prompt action. + +Fendant was short and thin, and by no means reassuring of aspect. With +his low, narrow forehead, sunken nose, and hard mouth, he looked like +a Kalmuck Tartar; a pair of small, wide-awake black eyes, the crabbed +irregular outline of his countenance, a voice like a cracked bell--the +man's whole appearance, in fact, combined to give the impression that +this was a consummate rascal. A honeyed tongue compensated for these +disadvantages, and he gained his ends by talk. Cavalier, a stout, +thick-set young fellow, looked more like the driver of a mail coach +than a publisher; he had hair of a sandy color, a fiery red +countenance, and the heavy build and untiring tongue of a commercial +traveler. + +"There is no need to discuss this affair," said Fendant, addressing +Lucien and Lousteau. "I have read the work, it is very literary, and +so exactly the kind of thing we want, that I have sent it off as it is +to the printer. The agreement is drawn on the lines laid down, and +besides, we always make the same stipulations in all cases. The bills +fall due in six, nine, and twelve months respectively; you will meet +with no difficulty in discounting them, and we will refund you the +discount. We have reserved the right of giving a new title to the +book. We don't care for _The Archer of Charles IX._; it doesn't tickle +the reader's curiosity sufficiently; there were several kings of that +name, you see, and there were so many archers in the Middle Ages. If +you had only called it the _Soldier of Napoleon_, now! But _The Archer +of Charles IX._!--why, Cavalier would have to give a course of history +lessons before he could place a copy anywhere in the provinces." + +"If you but knew the class of people that we have to do with!" +exclaimed Cavalier. + +"_Saint Bartholomew_ would suit better," continued Fendant. + +"_Catherine de' Medici, or France under Charles IX._, would sound more +like one of Scott's novels," added Cavalier. + +"We will settle it when the work is printed," said Fendant. + +"Do as you please, so long as I approve your title," said Lucien. + +The agreement was read over, signed in duplicate, and each of the +contracting parties took their copy. Lucien put the bills in his +pocket with unequaled satisfaction, and the four repaired to Fendant's +abode, where they breakfasted on beefsteaks and oysters, kidneys in +champagne, and Brie cheese; but if the fare was something of the +homeliest, the wines were exquisite; Cavalier had an acquaintance a +traveler in the wine trade. Just as they sat down to table the printer +appeared, to Lucien's surprise, with the first two proof-sheets. + +"We want to get on with it," Fendant said; "we are counting on your +book; we want a success confoundedly badly." + +The breakfast, begun at noon, lasted till five o'clock. + +"Where shall we get cash for these things?" asked Lucien as they came +away, somewhat heated and flushed with the wine. + +"We might try Barbet," suggested Etienne, and they turned down to the +Quai des Augustins. + +"Coralie is astonished to the highest degree over Florine's loss. +Florine only told her about it yesterday; she seemed to lay the blame +of it on you, and was so vexed, that she was ready to throw you over." + +"That's true," said Lousteau. Wine had got the better of prudence, and +he unbosomed himself to Lucien, ending up with: "My friend--for you +are my friend, Lucien; you lent me a thousand francs, and you have +only once asked me for the money--shun play! If I had never touched a +card, I should be a happy man. I owe money all round. At this moment I +have the bailiffs at my heels; indeed, when I go to the Palais Royal, +I have dangerous capes to double." + +In the language of the fast set, doubling a cape meant dodging a +creditor, or keeping out of his way. Lucien had not heard the +expression before, but he was familiar with the practice by this time. + +"Are your debts so heavy?" + +"A mere trifle," said Lousteau. "A thousand crowns would pull me +through. I have resolved to turn steady and give up play, and I have +done a little 'chantage' to pay my debts." + +"What is 'chantage'?" asked Lucien. + +"It is an English invention recently imported. A 'chanteur' is a man +who can manage to put a paragraph in the papers--never an editor nor a +responsible man, for they are not supposed to know anything about it, +and there is always a Giroudeau or a Philippe Bridau to be found. A +bravo of this stamp finds up somebody who has his own reasons for not +wanting to be talked about. Plenty of people have a few peccadilloes, +or some more or less original sin, upon their consciences; there are +plenty of fortunes made in ways that would not bear looking into; +sometimes a man has kept the letter of the law, and sometimes he has +not; and in either case, there is a tidbit of tattle for the inquirer, +as, for instance, that tale of Fouche's police surrounding the spies +of the Prefect of Police, who, not being in the secret of the +fabrication of forged English banknotes, were just about to pounce on +the clandestine printers employed by the Minister, or there is the +story of Prince Galathionne's diamonds, the Maubreuile affair, or the +Pombreton will case. The 'chanteur' gets possession of some +compromising letter, asks for an interview; and if the man that made +the money does not buy silence, the 'chanteur' draws a picture of the +press ready to take the matter up and unravel his private affairs. The +rich man is frightened, he comes down with the money, and the trick +succeeds. + +"You are committed to some risky venture, which might easily be +written down in a series of articles; a 'chanteur' waits upon you, and +offers to withdraw the articles--for a consideration. 'Chanteurs' are +sent to men in office, who will bargain that their acts and not their +private characters are to be attacked, or they are heedless of their +characters, and anxious only to shield the woman they love. One of +your acquaintance, that charming Master of Requests des Lupeaulx, is a +kind of agent for affairs of this sort. The rascal has made a position +for himself in the most marvelous way in the very centre of power; he +is the middle-man of the press and the ambassador of the Ministers; he +works upon a man's self-love; he bribes newspapers to pass over a loan +in silence, or to make no comment on a contract which was never put up +for public tender, and the jackals of Liberal bankers get a share out +of it. That was a bit of 'chantage' that you did with Dauriat; he gave +you a thousand crowns to let Nathan alone. In the eighteenth century, +when journalism was still in its infancy, this kind of blackmail was +levied by pamphleteers in the pay of favorites and great lords. The +original inventor was Pietro Aretino, a great Italian. Kings went in +fear of him, as stage-players go in fear of a newspaper to-day." + +"What did you do to the Matifat to make the thousand crowns?" + +"I attacked Florine in half a dozen papers. Florine complained to +Matifat. Matifat went to Braulard to find out what the attacks meant. +I did my 'chantage' for Finot's benefit, and Finot put Braulard on the +wrong scent; Braulard told the man of drugs that _you_ were demolishing +Florine in Coralie's interest. Then Giroudeau went round to Matifat +and told him (in confidence) that the whole business could be +accommodated if he (Matifat) would consent to sell his sixth share in +Finot's review for ten thousand francs. Finot was to give me a +thousand crowns if the dodge succeeded. Well, Matifat was only too +glad to get back ten thousand francs out of the thirty thousand +invested in a risky speculation, as he thought, for Florine had been +telling him for several days past that Finot's review was doing badly; +and, instead of paying a dividend, something was said of calling up +more capital. So Matifat was just about to close with the offer, when +the manager of the Panorama-Dramatique comes to him with some +accommodation bills that he wanted to negotiate before filing his +schedule. To induce Matifat to take them of him, he let out a word of +Finot's trick. Matifat, being a shrewd man of business, took the hint, +held tight to his sixth, and is laughing in his sleeve at us. Finot +and I are howling with despair. We have been so misguided as to attack +a man who has no affection for his mistress, a heartless, soulless +wretch. Unluckily, too, for us, Matifat's business is not amenable to +the jurisdiction of the press, and he cannot be made to smart for it +through his interests. A druggist is not like a hatter or a milliner, +or a theatre or a work of art; he is above criticism; you can't run +down his opium and dyewoods, nor cocoa beans, paint, and pepper. +Florine is at her wits' end; the Panorama closes to-morrow, and what +will become of her she does not know." + +"Coralie's engagement at the Gymnase begins in a few days," said +Lucien; "she might do something for Florine." + +"Not she!" said Lousteau. "Coralie is not clever, but she is not quite +simple enough to help herself to a rival. We are in a mess with a +vengeance. And Finot is in such a hurry to buy back his sixth----" + +"Why?" + +"It is a capital bit of business, my dear fellow. There is a chance of +selling the paper for three hundred thousand francs; Finot would have +one-third, and his partners besides are going to pay him a commission, +which he will share with des Lupeaulx. So I propose to do another turn +of 'chantage.'" + +"'Chantage' seems to mean your money or your life?" + +"It is better than that," said Lousteau; "it is your money or your +character. A short time ago the proprietor of a minor newspaper was +refused credit. The day before yesterday it was announced in his +columns that a gold repeater set with diamonds belonging to a certain +notability had found its way in a curious fashion into the hands of a +private soldier in the Guards; the story promised to the readers might +have come from the _Arabian Nights_. The notability lost no time in +asking that editor to dine with him; the editor was distinctly a +gainer by the transaction, and contemporary history has lost an +anecdote. Whenever the press makes vehement onslaughts upon some one +in power, you may be sure that there is some refusal to do a service +behind it. Blackmailing with regard to private life is the terror of +the richest Englishman, and a great source of wealth to the press in +England, which is infinitely more corrupt than ours. We are children +in comparison! In England they will pay five or six thousand francs +for a compromising letter to sell again." + +"Then how can you lay hold of Matifat?" asked Lucien. + +"My dear boy, that low tradesman wrote the queerest letters to +Florine; the spelling, style, and matter of them is ludicrous to the +last degree. We can strike him in the very midst of his Lares and +Penates, where he feels himself safest, without so much as mentioning +his name; and he cannot complain, for he lives in fear and terror of +his wife. Imagine his wrath when he sees the first number of a little +serial entitled the _Amours of a Druggist_, and is given fair warning +that his love-letters have fallen into the hands of certain +journalists. He talks about the 'little god Cupid,' he tells Florine +that she enables him to cross the desert of life (which looks as if he +took her for a camel), and spells 'never' with two v's. There is +enough in that immensely funny correspondence to bring an influx of +subscribers for a fortnight. He will shake in his shoes lest an +anonymous letter should supply his wife with the key to the riddle. +The question is whether Florine will consent to appear to persecute +Matifat. She has some principles, which is to say, some hopes, still +left. Perhaps she means to keep the letters and make something for +herself out of them. She is cunning, as befits my pupil. But as soon +as she finds out that a bailiff is no laughing matter, or Finot gives +her a suitable present or hopes of an engagement, she will give me the +letters, and I will sell them to Finot. Finot will put the +correspondence in his uncle's hands, and Giroudeau will bring Matifat +to terms." + +These confidences sobered Lucien. His first thought was that he had +some extremely dangerous friends; his second, that it would be +impolitic to break with them; for if Mme. d'Espard, Mme. de Bargeton, +and Chatelet should fail to keep their word with him, he might need +their terrible power yet. By this time Etienne and Lucien had reached +Barbet's miserable bookshop on the Quai. Etienne addressed Barbet: + +"We have five thousand francs' worth of bills at six, nine, and twelve +months, given by Fendant and Cavalier. Are you willing to discount +them for us?" + +"I will give you three thousand francs for them," said Barbet with +imperturbable coolness. + +"Three thousand francs!" echoed Lucien. + +"Nobody else will give you as much," rejoined the bookseller. "The +firm will go bankrupt before three months are out; but I happen to +know that they have some good books that are hanging on hand; they +cannot afford to wait, so I shall buy their stock for cash and pay +them with their own bills, and get the books at a reduction of two +thousand francs. That's how it is." + +"Do you mind losing a couple of thousand francs, Lucien?" asked +Lousteau. + +"Yes!" Lucien answered vehemently. He was dismayed by this first +rebuff. + +"You are making a mistake," said Etienne. + +"You won't find any one that will take their paper," said Barbet. +"Your book is their last stake, sir. The printer will not trust them; +they are obliged to leave the copies in pawn with him. If they make a +hit now, it will only stave off bankruptcy for another six months, +sooner or later they will have to go. They are cleverer at tippling +than at bookselling. In my own case, their bills mean business; and +that being so, I can afford to give more than a professional +discounter who simply looks at the signatures. It is a +bill-discounter's business to know whether the three names on a bill +are each good for thirty per cent in case of bankruptcy. And here at +the outset you only offer two signatures, and neither of them worth +ten per cent." + +The two journalists exchanged glances in surprise. Here was a little +scrub of a bookseller putting the essence of the art and mystery of +bill-discounting in these few words. + +"That will do, Barbet," said Lousteau. "Can you tell us of a +bill-broker that will look at us?" + +"There is Daddy Chaboisseau, on the Quai Saint-Michel, you know. He +tided Fendant over his last monthly settlement. If you won't listen to +my offer, you might go and see what he says to you; but you would only +come back to me, and then I shall offer you two thousand francs +instead of three." + +Etienne and Lucien betook themselves to the Quai Saint-Michel, and +found Chaboisseau in a little house with a passage entry. Chaboisseau, +a bill-discounter, whose dealings were principally with the book +trade, lived in a second-floor lodging furnished in the most eccentric +manner. A brevet-rank banker and millionaire to boot, he had a taste +for the classical style. The cornice was in the classical style; the +bedstead, in the purest classical taste, dated from the time of the +Empire, when such things were in fashion; the purple hangings fell +over the wall like the classic draperies in the background of one of +David's pictures. Chairs and tables, lamps and sconces, and every +least detail had evidently been sought with patient care in furniture +warehouses. There was the elegance of antiquity about the classic +revival as well as its fragile and somewhat arid grace. The man +himself, like his manner of life, was in grotesque contrast with the +airy mythological look of his rooms; and it may be remarked that the +most eccentric characters are found among men who give their whole +energies to money-making. + +Men of this stamp are, in a certain sense, intellectual libertines. +Everything is within their reach, consequently their fancy is jaded, +and they will make immense efforts to shake off their indifference. +The student of human nature can always discover some hobby, some +accessible weakness and sensitive spot in their heart. Chaboisseau +might have entrenched himself in antiquity as in an impregnable camp. + +"The man will be an antique to match, no doubt," said Etienne, +smiling. + +Chaboisseau, a little old person with powdered hair, wore a greenish +coat and snuff-brown waistcoat; he was tricked out besides in black +small-clothes, ribbed stockings, and shoes that creaked as he came +forward to take the bills. After a short scrutiny, he returned them to +Lucien with a serious countenance. + +"MM Fendant and Cavalier are delightful young fellows; they have +plenty of intelligence; but, I have no money," he said blandly. + +"My friend here would be willing to meet you in the matter of +discount----" Etienne began. + +"I would not take the bills on any consideration," returned the little +broker. The words slid down upon Lousteau's suggestion like the blade +of the guillotine on a man's neck. + +The two friends withdrew; but as Chaboisseau went prudently out with +them across the ante-chamber, Lucien noticed a pile of second-hand +books. Chaboisseau had been in the trade, and this was a recent +purchase. Shining conspicuous among them, he noticed a copy of a work +by the architect Ducereau, which gives exceedingly accurate plans of +various royal palaces and chateaux in France. + +"Could you let me have that book?" he asked. + +"Yes," said Chaboisseau, transformed into a bookseller. + +"How much?" + +"Fifty francs." + +"It is dear, but I want it. And I can only pay you with one of the +bills which you refuse to take." + +"You have a bill there for five hundred francs at six months; I will +take that one of you," said Chaboisseau. + +Apparently at the last statement of accounts, there had been a balance +of five hundred francs in favor of Fendant and Cavalier. + +They went back to the classical department. Chaboisseau made out a +little memorandum, interest so much and commission so much, total +deduction thirty francs, then he subtracted fifty francs for +Ducerceau's book; finally, from a cash-box full of coin, he took four +hundred and twenty francs. + +"Look here, though, M. Chaboisseau, the bills are either all of them +good, or all bad alike; why don't you take the rest?" + +"This is not discounting; I am paying myself for a sale," said the old +man. + +Etienne and Lucien were still laughing at Chaboisseau, without +understanding him, when they reached Dauriat's shop, and Etienne asked +Gabusson to give them the name of a bill-broker. Gabusson thus +appealed to gave them a letter of introduction to a broker in the +Boulevard Poissonniere, telling them at the same time that this was +the "oddest and queerest party" (to use his own expression) that he, +Gabusson, had come across. The friends took a cab by the hour, and +went to the address. + +"If Samanon won't take your bills," Gabusson had said, "nobody else +will look at them." + +A second-hand bookseller on the ground floor, a second-hand +clothes-dealer on the first story, and a seller of indecent prints on +the second, Samanon carried on a fourth business--he was a +money-lender into the bargain. No character in Hoffmann's romances, no +sinister-brooding miser of Scott's, can compare with this freak of +human and Parisian nature (always admitting that Samanon was human). +In spite of himself, Lucien shuddered at the sight of the dried-up +little old creature, whose bones seemed to be cutting a leather skin, +spotted with all sorts of little green and yellow patches, like a +portrait by Titian or Veronese when you look at it closely. One of +Samanon's eyes was fixed and glassy, the other lively and bright; he +seemed to keep that dead eye for the bill-discounting part of his +profession, and the other for the trade in the pornographic +curiosities upstairs. A few stray white hairs escaping from under a +small, sleek, rusty black wig, stood erect above a sallow forehead +with a suggestion of menace about it; a hollow trench in either cheek +defined the outline of the jaws; while a set of projecting teeth, +still white, seemed to stretch the skin of the lips with the effect +of an equine yawn. The contrast between the ill-assorted eyes and +grinning mouth gave Samanon a passably ferocious air; and the very +bristles on the man's chin looked stiff and sharp as pins. + +Nor was there the slightest sign about him of any desire to redeem a +sinister appearance by attention to the toilet; his threadbare jacket +was all but dropping to pieces; a cravat, which had once been black, +was frayed by contact with a stubble chin, and left on exhibition a +throat as wrinkled as a turkey-gobbler's. + +This was the individual whom Etienne and Lucien discovered in his +filthy counting-house, busily affixing tickets to the backs of a +parcel of books from a recent sale. In a glance, the friends exchanged +the innumerable questions raised by the existence of such a creature; +then they presented Gabusson's introduction and Fendant and Cavalier's +bills. Samanon was still reading the note when a third comer entered, +the wearer of a short jacket, which seemed in the dimly-lighted shop +to be cut out of a piece of zinc roofing, so solid was it by reason of +alloy with all kinds of foreign matter. Oddly attired as he was, the +man was an artist of no small intellectual power, and ten years later +he was destined to assist in the inauguration of the great but +ill-founded Saint-Simonian system. + +"I want my coat, my black trousers, and satin waistcoat," said this +person, pressing a numbered ticket on Samanon's attention. Samanon +touched the brass button of a bell-pull, and a woman came down from +some upper region, a Normande apparently, to judge by her rich, fresh +complexion. + +"Let the gentleman have his clothes," said Samanon, holding out a hand +to the newcomer. "It's a pleasure to do business with you, sir; but +that youngster whom one of your friends introduced to me took me in +most abominably." + +"Took _him_ in!" chuckled the newcomer, pointing out Samanon to the two +journalists with an extremely comical gesture. The great man dropped +thirty sous into the money-lender's yellow, wrinkled hand; like the +Neapolitan _lazzaroni_, he was taking his best clothes out of pawn for a +state occasion. The coins dropped jingling into the till. + +"What queer business are you up to?" asked Lousteau of the artist, an +opium-eater who dwelt among visions of enchanted palaces till he +either could not or would not create. + +"_He_ lends you a good deal more than an ordinary pawnbroker on anything +you pledge; and, besides, he is so awfully charitable, he allows you +to take your clothes out when you must have something to wear. I am +going to dine with the Kellers and my mistress to-night," he +continued; "and to me it is easier to find thirty sous than two +hundred francs, so I keep my wardrobe here. It has brought the +charitable usurer a hundred francs in the last six months. Samanon has +devoured my library already, volume by volume" (_livre a livre_). + +"And sou by sou," Lousteau said with a laugh. + +"I will let you have fifteen hundred francs," said Samanon, looking +up. + +Lucien started, as if the bill-broker had thrust a red-hot skewer +through his heart. Samanon was subjecting the bills and their dates to +a close scrutiny. + +"And even then," he added, "I must see Fendant first. He ought to +deposit some books with me. You aren't worth much" (turning to +Lucien); "you are living with Coralie, and your furniture has been +attached." + +Lousteau, watching Lucien, saw him take up his bills, and dash out +into the street. "He is the devil himself!" exclaimed the poet. For +several seconds he stood outside gazing at the shop front. The whole +place was so pitiful, that a passer-by could not see it without +smiling at the sight, and wondering what kind of business a man could +do among those mean, dirty shelves of ticketed books. + +A very few moments later, the great man, in incognito, came out, very +well dressed, smiled at his friends, and turned to go with them in the +direction of the Passage des Panoramas, where he meant to complete his +toilet by the polishing of his boots. + +"If you see Samanon in a bookseller's shop, or calling on a +paper-merchant or a printer, you may know that it is all over with +that man," said the artist. "Samanon is the undertaker come to take +the measurements for a coffin." + +"You won't discount your bills now, Lucien," said Etienne. + +"If Samanon will not take them, nobody else will; he is the _ultima +ratio_," said the stranger. "He is one of Gigonnet's lambs, a spy for +Palma, Werbrust, Gobseck, and the rest of those crocodiles who swim in +the Paris money-market. Every man with a fortune to make, or unmake, +is sure to come across one of them sooner or later." + +"If you cannot discount your bills at fifty per cent," remarked +Lousteau, "you must exchange them for hard cash." + +"How?" + +"Give them to Coralie; Camusot will cash them for her.--You are +disgusted," added Lousteau, as Lucien cut him short with a start. +"What nonsense! How can you allow such a silly scruple to turn the +scale, when your future is in the balance?" + +"I shall take this money to Coralie in any case," began Lucien. + +"Here is more folly!" cried Lousteau. "You will not keep your +creditors quiet with four hundred francs when you must have four +thousand. Let us keep a little and get drunk on it, if we lose the +rest at _rouge et noir_." + +"That is sound advice," said the great man. + +Those words, spoken not four paces from Frascati's, were magnetic in +their effect. The friends dismissed their cab and went up to the +gaming-table. + +At the outset they won three thousand francs, then they lost and fell +to five hundred; again they won three thousand seven hundred francs, +and again they lost all but a five-franc piece. After another turn of +luck they staked two thousand francs on an even number to double the +stake at a stroke; an even number had not turned up for five times in +succession, and this was the sixth time. They punted the whole sum, +and an odd number turned up once more. + +After two hours of all-absorbing, frenzied excitement, the two dashed +down the staircase with the hundred francs kept back for the dinner. +Upon the steps, between two pillars which support the little +sheet-iron veranda to which so many eyes have been upturned in longing +or despair, Lousteau stopped and looked into Lucien's flushed, excited +face. + +"Let us just try fifty francs," he said. + +And up the stairs again they went. An hour later they owned a thousand +crowns. Black had turned up for the fifth consecutive time; they +trusted that their previous luck would not repeat itself, and put the +whole sum on the red--black turned up for the sixth time. They had +lost. It was now six o'clock. + +"Let us just try twenty-five francs," said Lucien. + +The new venture was soon made--and lost. The twenty-five francs went +in five stakes. Then Lucien, in a frenzy, flung down his last +twenty-five francs on the number of his age, and won. No words can +describe how his hands trembled as he raked in the coins which the +bank paid him one by one. He handed ten louis to Lousteau. + +"Fly!" he cried; "take it to Very's." + +Lousteau took the hint and went to order dinner. Lucien, left alone, +laid his thirty louis on the red and won. Emboldened by the inner +voice which a gambler always hears, he staked the whole again on the +red, and again he won. He felt as if there were a furnace within him. +Without heeding the voice, he laid a hundred and twenty louis on the +black and lost. Then to the torturing excitement of suspense succeeded +the delicious feeling of relief known to the gambler who has nothing +left to lose, and must perforce leave the palace of fire in which his +dreams melt and vanish. + +He found Lousteau at Very's, and flung himself upon the cookery (to +make use of Lafontaine's expression), and drowned his cares in wine. +By nine o'clock his ideas were so confused that he could not imagine +why the portress in the Rue de Vendome persisted in sending him to the +Rue de la Lune. + +"Mlle. Coralie has gone," said the woman. "She has taken lodgings +elsewhere. She left her address with me on this scrap of paper." + +Lucien was too far gone to be surprised at anything. He went back to +the cab which had brought him, and was driven to the Rue de la Lune, +making puns to himself on the name of the street as he went. + +The news of the failure of the Panorama-Dramatique had come like a +thunder-clap. Coralie, taking alarm, made haste to sell her furniture +(with the consent of her creditors) to little old Cardot, who +installed Florentine in the rooms at once. The tradition of the house +remained unbroken. Coralie paid her creditors and satisfied the +landlord, proceeding with her "washing-day," as she called it, while +Berenice bought the absolutely indispensable necessaries to furnish a +fourth-floor lodging in the Rue de la Lune, a few doors from the +Gymnase. Here Coralie was waiting for Lucien's return. She had brought +her love unsullied out of the shipwreck and twelve hundred francs. + +Lucien, more than half intoxicated, poured out his woes to Coralie and +Berenice. + +"You did quite right, my angel," said Coralie, with her arms about his +neck. "Berenice can easily negotiate your bills with Braulard." + +The next morning Lucien awoke to an enchanted world of happiness made +about him by Coralie. She was more loving and tender in those days +than she had ever been; perhaps she thought that the wealth of love in +her heart should make him amends for the poverty of their lodging. She +looked bewitchingly charming, with the loose hair straying from under +the crushed white silk handkerchief about her head; there was soft +laughter in her eyes; her words were as bright as the first rays of +sunrise that shone in through the windows, pouring a flood of gold +upon such charming poverty. + +Not that the room was squalid. The walls were covered with a sea-green +paper, bordered with red; there was one mirror over the chimney-piece, +and a second above the chest of drawers. The bare boards were covered +with a cheap carpet, which Berenice had bought in spite of Coralie's +orders, and paid for out of her own little store. A wardrobe, with a +glass door and a chest, held the lovers' clothing, the mahogany chairs +were covered with blue cotton stuff, and Berenice had managed to save +a clock and a couple of china vases from the catastrophe, as well as +four spoons and forks and half-a-dozen little spoons. The bedroom was +entered from the dining-room, which might have belonged to a clerk +with an income of twelve hundred francs. The kitchen was next the +landing, and Berenice slept above in an attic. The rent was not more +than a hundred crowns. + +The dismal house boasted a sham carriage entrance, the porter's box +being contrived behind one of the useless leaves of the gate, and +lighted by a peephole through which that personage watched the comings +and goings of seventeen families, for this hive was a "good-paying +property," in auctioneer's phrase. + +Lucien, looking round the room, discovered a desk, an easy-chair, +paper, pens, and ink. The sight of Berenice in high spirits (she was +building hopes on Coralie's _debut_ at the Gymnase), and of Coralie +herself conning her part with a knot of blue ribbon tied about it, +drove all cares and anxieties from the sobered poet's mind. + +"So long as nobody in society hears of this sudden comedown, we shall +pull through," he said. "After all, we have four thousand five hundred +francs before us. I will turn my new position in Royalist journalism +to account. To-morrow we shall start the _Reveil_; I am an old hand now, +and I will make something out." + +And Coralie, seeing nothing but love in the words, kissed the lips +that uttered them. By this time Berenice had set the table near the +fire and served a modest breakfast of scrambled eggs, a couple of +cutlets, coffee, and cream. Just then there came a knock at the door, +and Lucien, to his astonishment, beheld three of his loyal friends of +old days--d'Arthez, Leon Giraud, and Michel Chrestien. He was deeply +touched, and asked them to share the breakfast. + +"No; we have come on more serious business than condolence," said +d'Arthez; "we know the whole story, we have just come from the Rue de +Vendome. You know my opinions, Lucien. Under any other circumstances I +should be glad to hear that you had adopted my political convictions; +but situated as you are with regard to the Liberal Press, it is +impossible for you to go over to the Ultras. Your life will be +sullied, your character blighted for ever. We have come to entreat you +in the name of our friendship, weakened though it may be, not to soil +yourself in this way. You have been prominent in attacking the +Romantics, the Right, and the Government; you cannot now declare for +the Government; the Right, and the Romantics." + +"My reasons for the change are based on lofty grounds; the end will +justify the means," said Lucien. + +"Perhaps you do not fully comprehend our position on the side of the +Government," said Leon Giraud. "The Government, the Court, the +Bourbons, the Absolutist Party, or to sum up in the general +expression, the whole system opposed to the constitutional system, may +be divided upon the question of the best means of extinguishing the +Revolution, but is unanimous as to the advisability of extinguishing +the newspapers. The _Reveil_, the _Foudre_, and the _Drapeau Blanc_ have +all been founded for the express purpose of replying to the slander, +gibes, and railing of the Liberal press. I cannot approve them, for it +is precisely this failure to recognize the grandeur of our priesthood +that has led us to bring out a serious and self-respecting paper; +which perhaps," he added parenthetically, "may exercise a worthy +influence before very long, and win respect, and carry weight; but +this Royalist artillery is destined for a first attempt at reprisals, +the Liberals are to be paid back in their own coin--shaft for shaft, +wound for wound. + +"What can come of it Lucien? The majority of newspaper readers incline +for the Left; and in the press, as in warfare, the victory is with the +big battalions. You will be blackguards, liars, enemies of the people; +the other side will be defenders of their country, martyrs, men to be +held in honor, though they may be even more hypocritical and slippery +than their opponents. In these ways the pernicious influence of the +press will be increased, while the most odious form of journalism will +receive sanction. Insult and personalities will become a recognized +privilege of the press; newspapers have taken this tone in the +subscribers' interests; and when both sides have recourse to the same +weapons, the standard is set and the general tone of journalism taken +for granted. When the evil is developed to its fullest extent, +restrictive laws will be followed by prohibitions; there will be a +return of the censorship of the press imposed after the assassination +of the Duc de Berri, and repealed since the opening of the Chambers. +And do you know what the nation will conclude from the debate? The +people will believe the insinuations of the Liberal press; they will +think that the Bourbons mean to attack the rights of property acquired +by the Revolution, and some fine day they will rise and shake off the +Bourbons. You are not only soiling your life, Lucien, you are going +over to the losing side. You are too young, too lately a journalist, +too little initiated into the secret springs of motive and the tricks +of the craft, you have aroused too much jealousy, not to fall a victim +to the general hue and cry that will be raised against you in the +Liberal newspapers. You will be drawn into the fray by party spirit +now still at fever-heat; though the fever, which spent itself in +violence in 1815 and 1816, now appears in debates in the Chamber and +polemics in the papers." + +"I am not quite a featherhead, my friends," said Lucien, "though you +may choose to see a poet in me. Whatever may happen, I shall gain one +solid advantage which no Liberal victory can give me. By the time your +victory is won, I shall have gained my end." + +"We will cut off--your hair," said Michel Chrestien, with a laugh. + +"I shall have my children by that time," said Lucien; "and if you cut +off my head, it will not matter." + +The three could make nothing of Lucien. Intercourse with the great +world had developed in him the pride of caste, the vanities of the +aristocrat. The poet thought, and not without reason, that there was a +fortune in his good looks and intellect, accompanied by the name and +title of Rubempre. Mme. d'Espard and Mme. de Bargeton held him fast by +this clue, as a child holds a cockchafer by a string. Lucien's flight +was circumscribed. The words, "He is one of us, he is sound," +accidentally overheard but three days ago in Mlle. de Touches' salon, +had turned his head. The Duc de Lenoncourt, the Duc de Navarreins, the +Duc de Grandlieu, Rastignac, Blondet, the lovely Duchesse de +Maufrigneuse, the Comte d'Escrignon, and des Lupeaulx, all the most +influential people at Court in fact, had congratulated him on his +conversion, and completed his intoxication. + +"Then there is no more to be said," d'Arthez rejoined. "You, of all +men, will find it hard to keep clean hands and self-respect. I know +you, Lucien; you will feel it acutely when you are despised by the +very men to whom you offer yourself." + +The three took leave, and not one of them gave him a friendly +handshake. Lucien was thoughtful and sad for a few minutes. + +"Oh! never mind those ninnies," cried Coralie, springing upon his knee +and putting her beautiful arms about his neck. "They take life +seriously, and life is a joke. Besides, you are going to be Count +Lucien de Rubempre. I will wheedle the _Chancellerie_ if there is no +other way. I know how to come round that rake of a des Lupeaulx, who +will sign your patent. Did I not tell you, Lucien, that at the last +you should have Coralie's dead body for a stepping stone?" + +Next day Lucien allowed his name to appear in the list of contributors +to the _Reveil_. His name was announced in the prospectus with a +flourish of trumpets, and the Ministry took care that a hundred +thousand copies should be scattered abroad far and wide. There was a +dinner at Robert's, two doors away from Frascati's, to celebrate the +inauguration, and the whole band of Royalist writers for the press +were present. Martainville was there, and Auger and Destains, and a +host of others, still living, who "did Monarchy and religion," to use +the familiar expression coined for them. Nathan had also enlisted +under the banner, for he was thinking of starting a theatre, and not +unreasonably held that it was better to have the licensing authorities +for him than against him. + +"We will pay the Liberals out," cried Merlin. + +"Gentlemen," said Nathan, "if we are for war, let us have war in +earnest; we must not carry it on with pop-guns. Let us fall upon all +Classicals and Liberals without distinction of age or sex, and put +them all to the sword with ridicule. There must be no quarter." + +"We must act honorably; there must be no bribing with copies of books +or presents; no taking money of publishers. We must inaugurate a +Restoration of Journalism." + +"Good!" said Martainville. "_Justum et tenacem propositi virum_! Let us +be implacable and virulent. I will give out La Fayette for the prince +of harlequins that he is!" + +"And I will undertake the heroes of the _Constitutionnel_," added +Lucien; "Sergeant Mercier, M. Jouy's Complete Works, and 'the +illustrious orators of the Left.'" + +A war of extermination was unanimously resolved upon, and by one +o'clock in the morning all shades of opinion were merged and drowned, +together with every glimmer of sense, in a flaming bowl of punch. + +"We have had a fine Monarchical and Religious jollification," remarked +an illustrious reveler in the doorway as he went. + +That comment appeared in the next day's issue of the _Miroir_ through +the good offices of a publisher among the guests, and became historic. +Lucien was supposed to be the traitor who blabbed. His defection gave +the signal for a terrific hubbub in the Liberal camp; Lucien was the +butt of the Opposition newspapers, and ridiculed unmercifully. The +whole history of his sonnets was given to the public. Dauriat was said +to prefer a first loss of a thousand crowns to the risk of publishing +the verses; Lucien was called "the Poet sans Sonnets;" and one +morning, in that very paper in which he had so brilliant a beginning, +he read the following lines, significant enough for him, but barely +intelligible to other readers: + + + *** "If M. Dauriat persistently withholds the Sonnets of the + future Petrarch from publication, we will act like generous foes. + We will open our own columns to his poems, which must be piquant + indeed, to judge by the following specimen obligingly communicated + by a friend of the author." + + +And close upon that ominous preface followed a sonnet entitled "The +Thistle" (_le Chardon)_: + + + A chance-come seedling, springing up one day + Among the flowers in a garden fair, + Made boast that splendid colors bright and rare + Its claims to lofty lineage should display. + + So for a while they suffered it to stay; + But with such insolence it flourished there, + That, out of patience with its braggart's air, + They bade it prove its claims without delay. + + It bloomed forthwith; but ne'er was blundering clown + Upon the boards more promptly hooted down; + The sister flowers began to jeer and laugh. + + The owner flung it out. At close of day + A solitary jackass came to bray-- + A common Thistle's fitting epitaph. + + +Lucien read the words through scalding tears. + +Vernou touched elsewhere on Lucien's gambling propensities, and spoke +of the forthcoming _Archer of Charles IX._ as "anti-national" in its +tendency, the writer siding with Catholic cut-throats against their +Calvinist victims. + +Another week found the quarrel embittered. Lucien had counted upon his +friend Etienne; Etienne owed him a thousand francs, and there had been +besides a private understanding between them; but Etienne Lousteau +during the interval became his sworn foe, and this was the manner of +it. + +For the past three months Nathan had been smitten with Florine's +charms, and much at a loss how to rid himself of Lousteau his rival, +who was in fact dependent upon the actress. And now came Nathan's +opportunity, when Florine was frantic with distress over the failure +of the Panorama-Dramatique, which left her without an engagement. He +went as Lucien's colleague to beg Coralie to ask for a part for +Florine in a play of his which was about to be produced at the +Gymnase. Then Nathan went to Florine and made capital with her out of +the service done by the promise of a conditional engagement. Ambition +turned Florine's head; she did not hesitate. She had had time to gauge +Lousteau pretty thoroughly. Lousteau's courses were weakening his +will, and here was Nathan with his ambitions in politics and +literature, and energies strong as his cravings. Florine proposed to +reappear on the stage with renewed eclat, so she handed over Matifat's +correspondence to Nathan. Nathan drove a bargain for them with +Matifat, and took the sixth share of Finot's review in exchange for +the compromising billets. After this, Florine was installed in +sumptuously furnished apartments in the Rue Hauteville, where she took +Nathan for her protector in the face of the theatrical and +journalistic world. + +Lousteau was terribly overcome. He wept (towards the close of a dinner +given by his friends to console him in his affliction). In the course +of that banquet it was decided that Nathan had not acted unfairly; +several writers present--Finot and Vernou, for instance,--knew of +Florine's fervid admiration for dramatic literature; but they all +agreed that Lucien had behaved very ill when he arranged that business +at the Gymnase; he had indeed broken the most sacred laws of +friendship. Party-spirit and zeal to serve his new friends had led the +Royalist poet on to sin beyond forgiveness. + +"Nathan was carried away by passion," pronounced Bixiou, "while this +'distinguished provincial,' as Blondet calls him, is simply scheming +for his own selfish ends." + +And so it came to pass that deep plots were laid by all parties alike +to rid themselves of this little upstart intruder of a poet who wanted +to eat everybody up. Vernou bore Lucien a personal grudge, and +undertook to keep a tight hand on him; and Finot declared that Lucien +had betrayed the secret of the combination against Matifat, and +thereby swindled him (Finot) out of fifty thousand francs. Nathan, +acting on Florine's advice, gained Finot's support by selling him the +sixth share for fifteen thousand francs, and Lousteau consequently +lost his commission. His thousand crowns had vanished away; he could +not forgive Lucien for this treacherous blow (as he supposed it) dealt +to his interests. The wounds of vanity refuse to heal if oxide of +silver gets into them. + +No words, no amount of description, can depict the wrath of an author +in a paroxysm of mortified vanity, nor the energy which he discovers +when stung by the poisoned darts of sarcasm; but, on the other hand, +the man that is roused to fighting-fury by a personal attack usually +subsides very promptly. The more phlegmatic race, who take these +things quietly, lay their account with the oblivion which speedily +overtakes the spiteful article. These are the truly courageous men of +letters; and if the weaklings seem at first to be the strong men, they +cannot hold out for any length of time. + +During that first fortnight, while the fury was upon him, Lucien +poured a perfect hailstorm of articles into the Royalist papers, in +which he shared the responsibilities of criticism with Hector Merlin. +He was always in the breach, pounding away with all his might in the +_Reveil_, backed up by Martainville, the only one among his associates +who stood by him without an afterthought. Martainville was not in the +secret of certain understandings made and ratified amid after-dinner +jokes, or at Dauriat's in the Wooden Galleries, or behind the scenes +at the Vaudeville, when journalists of either side met on neutral +ground. + +When Lucien went to the greenroom of the Vaudeville, he met with no +welcome; the men of his own party held out a hand to shake, the others +cut him; and all the while Hector Merlin and Theodore Gaillard +fraternized unblushingly with Finot, Lousteau, and Vernou, and the +rest of the journalists who were known for "good fellows." + +The greenroom of the Vaudeville in those days was a hotbed of gossip, +as well as a neutral ground where men of every shade of opinion could +meet; so much so that the President of a court of law, after reproving +a learned brother in a certain council chamber for "sweeping the +greenroom with his gown," met the subject of his strictures, gown to +gown, in the greenroom of the Vaudeville. Lousteau, in time, shook +hands again with Nathan; Finot came thither almost every evening; and +Lucien, whenever he could spare the time, went to the Vaudeville to +watch the enemies, who showed no sign of relenting towards the +unfortunate boy. + +In the time of the Restoration party hatred was far more bitter than +in our day. Intensity of feeling is diminished in our high-pressure +age. The critic cuts a book to pieces and shakes hands with the author +afterwards, and the victim must keep on good terms with his +slaughterer, or run the gantlet of innumerable jokes at his expense. +If he refuses, he is unsociable, eaten up with self-love, he is sulky +and rancorous, he bears malice, he is a bad bed-fellow. To-day let an +author receive a treacherous stab in the back, let him avoid the +snares set for him with base hypocrisy, and endure the most unhandsome +treatment, he must still exchange greetings with his assassin, who, +for that matter, claims the esteem and friendship of his victim. +Everything can be excused and justified in an age which has +transformed vice into virtue and virtue into vice. Good-fellowship has +come to be the most sacred of our liberties; the representatives of +the most opposite opinions courteously blunt the edge of their words, +and fence with buttoned foils. But in those almost forgotten days the +same theatre could scarcely hold certain Royalist and Liberal +journalists; the most malignant provocation was offered, glances were +like pistol-shots, the least spark produced an explosion of quarrel. +Who has not heard his neighbor's half-smothered oath on the entrance +of some man in the forefront of the battle on the opposing side? There +were but two parties--Royalists and Liberals, Classics and Romantics. +You found the same hatred masquerading in either form, and no longer +wondered at the scaffolds of the Convention. + +Lucien had been a Liberal and a hot Voltairean; now he was a rabid +Royalist and a Romantic. Martainville, the only one among his +colleagues who really liked him and stood by him loyally, was more +hated by the Liberals than any man on the Royalist side, and this fact +drew down all the hate of the Liberals on Lucien's head. +Martainville's staunch friendship injured Lucien. Political parties +show scanty gratitude to outpost sentinels, and leave leaders of +forlorn hopes to their fate; 'tis a rule of warfare which holds +equally good in matters political, to keep with the main body of the +army if you mean to succeed. The spite of the small Liberal papers +fastened at once on the opportunity of coupling the two names, and +flung them into each other's arms. Their friendship, real or +imaginary, brought down upon them both a series of articles written by +pens dipped in gall. Felicien Vernou was furious with jealousy of +Lucien's social success; and believed, like all his old associates, in +the poet's approaching elevation. + +The fiction of Lucien's treason was embellished with every kind of +aggravating circumstance; he was called Judas the Less, Martainville +being Judas the Great, for Martainville was supposed (rightly or +wrongly) to have given up the Bridge of Pecq to the foreign invaders. +Lucien said jestingly to des Lupeaulx that he himself, surely, had +given up the Asses' Bridge. + +Lucien's luxurious life, hollow though it was, and founded on +expectations, had estranged his friends. They could not forgive him +for the carriage which he had put down--for them he was still rolling +about in it--nor yet for the splendors of the Rue de Vendome which he +had left. All of them felt instinctively that nothing was beyond the +reach of this young and handsome poet, with intellect enough and to +spare; they themselves had trained him in corruption; and, therefore, +they left no stone unturned to ruin him. + +Some few days before Coralie's first appearance at the Gymnase, Lucien +and Hector Merlin went arm-in-arm to the Vaudeville. Merlin was +scolding his friend for giving a helping hand to Nathan in Florine's +affair. + +"You then and there made two mortal enemies of Lousteau and Nathan," +he said. "I gave you good advice, and you took no notice of it. You +gave praise, you did them a good turn--you will be well punished for +your kindness. Florine and Coralie will never live in peace on the +same stage; both will wish to be first. You can only defend Coralie in +our papers; and Nathan not only has a pull as a dramatic author, he +can control the dramatic criticism in the Liberal newspapers. He has +been a journalist a little longer than you!" + +The words responded to Lucien's inward misgivings. Neither Nathan nor +Gaillard was treating him with the frankness which he had a right to +expect, but so new a convert could hardly complain. Gaillard utterly +confounded Lucien by saying roundly that newcomers must give proofs of +their sincerity for some time before their party could trust them. +There was more jealousy than he had imagined in the inner circles of +Royalist and Ministerial journalism. The jealousy of curs fighting for +a bone is apt to appear in the human species when there is a loaf to +divide; there is the same growling and showing of teeth, the same +characteristics come out. + +In every possible way these writers of articles tried to injure each +other with those in power; they brought reciprocal accusations of +lukewarm zeal; they invented the most treacherous ways of getting rid +of a rival. There had been none of this internecine warfare among the +Liberals; they were too far from power, too hopelessly out of favor; +and Lucien, amid the inextricable tangle of ambitions, had neither the +courage to draw sword and cut the knot, or the patience to unravel it. +He could not be the Beaumarchais, the Aretino, the Freron of his +epoch; he was not made of such stuff; he thought of nothing but his +one desire, the patent of nobility; for he saw clearly that for him +such a restoration meant a wealthy marriage, and, the title once +secured, chance and his good looks would do the rest. This was all his +plan, and Etienne Lousteau, who had confided so much to him, knew his +secret, knew how to deal a deathblow to the poet of Angouleme. That +very night, as Lucien and Merlin went to the Vaudeville, Etienne had +laid a terrible trap, into which an inexperienced boy could not but +fall. + +"Here is our handsome Lucien," said Finot, drawing des Lupeaulx in the +direction of the poet, and shaking hands with feline amiability. "I +cannot think of another example of such rapid success," continued +Finot, looking from des Lupeaulx to Lucien. "There are two sorts of +success in Paris: there is a fortune in solid cash, which any one can +amass, and there is the intangible fortune of connections, position, +or a footing in certain circles inaccessible for certain persons, +however rich they may be. Now my friend here----" + +"Our friend," interposed des Lupeaulx, smiling blandly. + +"Our friend," repeated Finot, patting Lucien's hand, "has made a +brilliant success from this point of view. Truth to tell, Lucien has +more in him, more gift, more wit than the rest of us that envy him, +and he is enchantingly handsome besides; his old friends cannot +forgive him for his success--they call it luck." + +"Luck of that sort never comes to fools or incapables," said des +Lupeaulx. "Can you call Bonaparte's fortune luck, eh? There were a +score of applicants for the command of the army in Italy, just as +there are a hundred young men at this moment who would like to have an +entrance to Mlle. des Touches' house; people are coupling her name +with yours already in society, my dear boy," said des Lupeaulx, +clapping Lucien on the shoulder. "Ah! you are in high favor. Mme. +d'Espard, Mme. de Bargeton, and Mme. de Montcornet are wild about you. +You are going to Mme. Firmiani's party to-night, are you not, and to +the Duchesse de Grandlieu's rout to-morrow?" + +"Yes," said Lucien. + +"Allow me to introduce a young banker to you, a M. du Tillet; you +ought to be acquainted, he has contrived to make a great fortune in a +short time." + +Lucien and du Tillet bowed, and entered into conversation, and the +banker asked Lucien to dinner. Finot and des Lupeaulx, a well-matched +pair, knew each other well enough to keep upon good terms; they turned +away to continue their chat on one of the sofas in the greenroom, and +left Lucien with du Tillet, Merlin, and Nathan. + +"By the way, my friend," said Finot, "tell me how things stand. Is +there really somebody behind Lucien? For he is the _bete noire_ of my +staff; and before allowing them to plot against him, I thought I +should like to know whether, in your opinion, it would be better to +baffle them and keep well with him." + +The Master of Requests and Finot looked at each other very closely for +a moment or two. + +"My dear fellow," said des Lupeaulx, "how can you imagine that the +Marquise d'Espard, or Chatelet, or Mme. de Bargeton--who has procured +the Baron's nomination to the prefecture and the title of Count, so as +to return in triumph to Angouleme--how can you suppose that any of +them will forgive Lucien for his attacks on them? They dropped him +down in the Royalist ranks to crush him out of existence. At this +moment they are looking round for any excuse for not fulfilling the +promises they made to that boy. Help them to some; you will do the +greatest possible service to the two women, and some day or other they +will remember it. I am in their secrets; I was surprised to find how +much they hated the little fellow. This Lucien might have rid himself +of his bitterest enemy (Mme. de Bargeton) by desisting from his +attacks on terms which a woman loves to grant--do you take me? He is +young and handsome, he should have drowned her hate in torrents of +love, he would be Comte de Rubempre by this time; the Cuttlefish-bone +would have obtained some sinecure for him, some post in the Royal +Household. Lucien would have made a very pretty reader to Louis +XVIII.; he might have been librarian somewhere or other, Master of +Requests for a joke, Master of Revels, what you please. The young fool +has missed his chance. Perhaps that is his unpardonable sin. Instead +of imposing his conditions, he has accepted them. When Lucien was +caught with the bait of the patent of nobility, the Baron Chatelet +made a great step. Coralie has been the ruin of that boy. If he had +not had the actress for his mistress, he would have turned again to +the Cuttlefish-bone; and he would have had her too." + +"Then we can knock him over?" + +"How?" des Lupeaulx asked carelessly. He saw a way of gaining credit +with the Marquise d'Espard for this service. + +"He is under contract to write for Lousteau's paper, and we can the +better hold him to his agreement because he has not a sou. If we +tickle up the Keeper of the Seals with a facetious article, and prove +that Lucien wrote it, he will consider that Lucien is unworthy of the +King's favor. We have a plot on hand besides. Coralie will be ruined, +and our distinguished provincial will lose his head when his mistress +is hissed off the stage and left without an engagement. When once the +patent is suspended, we will laugh at the victim's aristocratic +pretensions, and allude to his mother the nurse and his father the +apothecary. Lucien's courage is only skindeep, he will collapse; we +will send him back to his provinces. Nathan made Florine sell me +Matifat's sixth share of the review, I was able to buy; Dauriat and I +are the only proprietors now; we might come to an understanding, you +and I, and the review might be taken over for the benefit of the +Court. I stipulated for the restitution of my sixth before I undertook +to protect Nathan and Florine; they let me have it, and I must help +them; but I wished to know first how Lucien stood----" + +"You deserve your name," said des Lupeaulx. "I like a man of your +sort----" + +"Very well. Then can you arrange a definite engagement for Florine?" +asked Finot. + +"Yes, but rid us of Lucien, for Rastignac and de Marsay never wish to +hear of him again." + +"Sleep in peace," returned Finot. "Nathan and Merlin will always have +articles ready for Gaillard, who will promise to take them; Lucien +will never get a line into the paper. We will cut off his supplies. +There is only Martainville's paper left him in which to defend himself +and Coralie; what can a single paper do against so many?" + +"I will let you know the weak points of the Ministry; but get Lucien +to write that article and hand over the manuscript," said des +Lupeaulx, who refrained carefully from informing Finot that Lucien's +promised patent was nothing but a joke. + +When des Lupeaulx had gone, Finot went to Lucien, and taking the +good-natured tone which deceives so many victims, he explained that +he could not possibly afford to lose his contributor, and at the same +time he shrank from taking proceedings which might ruin him with his +friends of the other side. Finot himself liked a man who was strong +enough to change his opinions. They were pretty sure to come across +one another, he and Lucien, and might be mutually helpful in a +thousand little ways. Lucien, besides, needed a sure man in the +Liberal party to attack the Ultras and men in office who might refuse +to help him. + +"Suppose that they play you false, what will you do?" Finot ended. +"Suppose that some Minister fancies that he has you fast by the halter +of your apostasy, and turns the cold shoulder on you? You will be glad +to set on a few dogs to snap at his legs, will you not? Very well. But +you have made a deadly enemy of Lousteau; he is thirsting for your +blood. You and Felicien are not on speaking terms. I only remain to +you. It is a rule of the craft to keep a good understanding with every +man of real ability. In the world which you are about to enter you can +do me services in return for mine with the press. But business first. +Let me have purely literary articles; they will not compromise you, +and we shall have executed our agreement." + +Lucien saw nothing but good-fellowship and a shrewd eye to business in +Finot's offer; Finot and des Lupeaulx had flattered him, and he was in +a good humor. He actually thanked Finot! + +Ambitious men, like all those who can only make their way by the help +of others and of circumstances, are bound to lay their plans very +carefully and to adhere very closely to the course of conduct on which +they determine; it is a cruel moment in the lives of such aspirants +when some unknown power brings the fabric of their fortunes to some +severe test and everything gives way at once; threads are snapped or +entangled, and misfortune appears on every side. Let a man lose his +head in the confusion, it is all over with him; but if he can resist +this first revolt of circumstances, if he can stand erect until the +tempest passes over, or make a supreme effort and reach the serene +sphere about the storm--then he is really strong. To every man, unless +he is born rich, there comes sooner or later "his fatal week," as it +must be called. For Napoleon, for instance, that week was the Retreat +from Moscow. It had begun now for Lucien. + +Social and literary success had come to him too easily; he had had +such luck that he was bound to know reverses and to see men and +circumstances turn against him. + +The first blow was the heaviest and the most keenly felt, for it +touched Lucien where he thought himself invulnerable--in his heart and +his love. Coralie might not be clever, but hers was a noble nature, +and she possessed the great actress' faculty of suddenly standing +aloof from self. This strange phenomenon is subject, until it +degenerates into a habit with long practice, to the caprices of +character, and not seldom to an admirable delicacy of feeling in +actresses who are still young. Coralie, to all appearance bold and +wanton, as the part required, was in reality girlish and timid, and +love had wrought in her a revulsion of her woman's heart against the +comedian's mask. Art, the supreme art of feigning passion and feeling, +had not yet triumphed over nature in her; she shrank before a great +audience from the utterance that belongs to Love alone; and Coralie +suffered besides from another true woman's weakness--she needed +success, born stage queen though she was. She could not confront an +audience with which she was out of sympathy; she was nervous when she +appeared on the stage, a cold reception paralyzed her. Each new part +gave her the terrible sensations of a first appearance. Applause +produced a sort of intoxication which gave her encouragement without +flattering her vanity; at a murmur of dissatisfaction or before a +silent house, she flagged; but a great audience following attentively, +admiringly, willing to be pleased, electrified Coralie. She felt at +once in communication with the nobler qualities of all those +listeners; she felt that she possessed the power of stirring their +souls and carrying them with her. But if this action and reaction of +the audience upon the actress reveals the nervous organization of +genius, it shows no less clearly the poor child's sensitiveness and +delicacy. Lucien had discovered the treasures of her nature; had +learned in the past months that this woman who loved him was still so +much of a girl. And Coralie was unskilled in the wiles of an actress +--she could not fight her own battles nor protect herself against the +machinations of jealousy behind the scenes. Florine was jealous of +her, and Florine was as dangerous and depraved as Coralie was simple +and generous. Roles must come to find Coralie; she was too proud to +implore authors or to submit to dishonoring conditions; she would not +give herself to the first journalist who persecuted her with his +advances and threatened her with his pen. Genius is rare enough in the +extraordinary art of the stage; but genius is only one condition of +success among many, and is positively hurtful unless it is accompanied +by a genius for intrigue in which Coralie was utterly lacking. + +Lucien knew how much his friend would suffer on her first appearance +at the Gymnase, and was anxious at all costs to obtain a success for +her; but all the money remaining from the sale of the furniture and +all Lucien's earnings had been sunk in costumes, in the furniture of a +dressing-room, and the expenses of a first appearance. + +A few days later, Lucien made up his mind to a humiliating step for +love's sake. He took Fendant and Cavalier's bills, and went to the +_Golden Cocoon_ in the Rue des Bourdonnais. He would ask Camusot to +discount them. The poet had not fallen so low that he could make this +attempt quite coolly. There had been many a sharp struggle first, and +the way to that decision had been paved with many dreadful thoughts. +Nevertheless, he arrived at last in the dark, cheerless little private +office that looked out upon a yard, and found Camusot seated gravely +there; this was not Coralie's infatuated adorer, not the easy-natured, +indolent, incredulous libertine whom he had known hitherto as Camusot, +but a heavy father of a family, a merchant grown old in shrewd +expedients of business and respectable virtues, wearing a magistrate's +mask of judicial prudery; this Camusot was the cool, business-like +head of the firm surrounded by clerks, green cardboard boxes, +pigeonholes, invoices, and samples, and fortified by the presence of a +wife and a plainly-dressed daughter. Lucien trembled from head to foot +as he approached; for the worthy merchant, like the money-lenders, +turned cool, indifferent eyes upon him. + +"Here are two or three bills, monsieur," he said, standing beside the +merchant, who did not rise from his desk. "If you will take them of +me, you will oblige me extremely." + +"You have taken something of _me_, monsieur," said Camusot; "I do not +forget it." + +On this, Lucien explained Coralie's predicament. He spoke in a low +voice, bending to murmur his explanation, so that Camusot could hear +the heavy throbbing of the humiliated poet's heart. It was no part of +Camusot's plans that Coralie should suffer a check. He listened, +smiling to himself over the signatures on the bills (for, as a judge +at the Tribunal of Commerce, he knew how the booksellers stood), but +in the end he gave Lucien four thousand five hundred francs for them, +stipulating that he should add the formula "For value received in +silks." + +Lucien went straight to Braulard, and made arrangements for a good +reception. Braulard promised to come to the dress-rehearsal, to +determine on the points where his "Romans" should work their fleshy +clappers to bring down the house in applause. Lucien gave the rest of +the money to Coralie (he did not tell her how he had come by it), and +allayed her anxieties and the fears of Berenice, who was sorely +troubled over their daily expenses. + +Martainville came several times to hear Coralie rehearse, and he knew +more of the stage than most men of his time; several Royalist writers +had promised favorable articles; Lucien had not a suspicion of the +impending disaster. + +A fatal event occurred on the evening before Coralie's _debut_. +D'Arthez's book had appeared; and the editor of Merlin's paper, +considering Lucien to be the best qualified man on the staff, gave him +the book to review. He owed his unlucky reputation to those articles +on Nathan's work. There were several men in the office at the time, +for all the staff had been summoned; Martainville was explaining that +the party warfare with the Liberals must be waged on certain lines. +Nathan, Merlin, all the contributors, in fact, were talking of Leon +Giraud's paper, and remarking that its influence was the more +pernicious because the language was guarded, cool, moderate. People +were beginning to speak of the circle in the Rue des Quatre-Vents as a +second Convention. It had been decided that the Royalist papers were +to wage a systematic war of extermination against these dangerous +opponents, who, indeed, at a later day, were destined to sow the +doctrines that drove the Bourbons into exile; but that was only after +the most brilliant of Royalist writers had joined them for the sake of +a mean revenge. + +D'Arthez's absolutist opinions were not known; it was taken for +granted that he shared the views of his clique, he fell under the same +anathema, and he was to be the first victim. His book was to be +honored with "a slashing article," to use the consecrated formula. +Lucien refused to write the article. Great was the commotion among the +leading Royalist writers thus met in conclave. Lucien was told plainly +that a renegade could not do as he pleased; if it did not suit his +views to take the side of the Monarchy and Religion, he could go back +to the other camp. Merlin and Martainville took him aside and begged +him, as his friends, to remember that he would simply hand Coralie +over to the tender mercies of the Liberal papers, for she would find +no champions on the Royalist and Ministerial side. Her acting was +certain to provoke a hot battle, and the kind of discussion which +every actress longs to arouse. + +"You don't understand it in the least," said Martainville; "if she +plays for three months amid a cross-fire of criticism, she will make +thirty thousand francs when she goes on tour in the provinces at the +end of the season; and here are you about to sacrifice Coralie and +your own future, and to quarrel with your own bread and butter, all +for a scruple that will always stand in your way, and ought to be got +rid of at once." + +Lucien was forced to choose between d'Arthez and Coralie. His mistress +would be ruined unless he dealt his friend a death-blow in the _Reveil_ +and the great newspaper. Poor poet! He went home with death in his +soul; and by the fireside he sat and read that finest production of +modern literature. Tears fell fast over it as the pages turned. For a +long while he hesitated, but at last he took up the pen and wrote a +sarcastic article of the kind that he understood so well, taking the +book as children might take some bright bird to strip it of its +plumage and torture it. His sardonic jests were sure to tell. Again he +turned to the book, and as he read it over a second time, his better +self awoke. In the dead of night he hurried across Paris, and stood +outside d'Arthez's house. He looked up at the windows and saw the +faint pure gleam of light in the panes, as he had so often seen it, +with a feeling of admiration for the noble steadfastness of that truly +great nature. For some moments he stood irresolute on the curbstone; +he had not courage to go further; but his good angel urged him on. He +tapped at the door and opened, and found d'Arthez sitting reading in a +fireless room. + +"What has happened?" asked d'Arthez, for news of some dreadful kind +was visible in Lucien's ghastly face. + +"Your book is sublime, d'Arthez," said Lucien, with tears in his eyes, +"and they have ordered me to write an attack upon it." + +"Poor boy! the bread that they give you is hard indeed!" said d'Arthez + +"I only ask for one favor, keep my visit a secret and leave me to my +hell, to the occupations of the damned. Perhaps it is impossible to +attain to success until the heart is seared and callous in every most +sensitive spot." + +"The same as ever!" cried d'Arthez. + +"Do you think me a base poltroon? No, d'Arthez; no, I am a boy half +crazed with love," and he told his story. + +"Let us look at the article," said d'Arthez, touched by all that +Lucien said of Coralie. + +Lucien held out the manuscript; d'Arthez read, and could not help +smiling. + +"Oh, what a fatal waste of intellect!" he began. But at the sight of +Lucien overcome with grief in the opposite armchair, he checked +himself. + +"Will you leave it with me to correct? I will let you have it again +to-morrow," he went on. "Flippancy depreciates a work; serious and +conscientious criticism is sometimes praise in itself. I know a way to +make your article more honorable both for yourself and for me. +Besides, I know my faults well enough." + +"When you climb a hot, shadowless hillside, you sometimes find fruit +to quench your torturing thirst; and I have found it here and now," +said Lucien, as he sprang sobbing to d'Arthez's arms and kissed his +friend on the forehead. "It seems to me that I am leaving my +conscience in your keeping; some day I will come to you and ask for it +again." + +"I look upon a periodical repentance as great hypocrisy," d'Arthez +said solemnly; "repentance becomes a sort of indemnity for wrongdoing. +Repentance is virginity of the soul, which we must keep for God; a man +who repents twice is a horrible sycophant. I am afraid that you regard +repentance as absolution." + +Lucien went slowly back to the Rue de la Lune, stricken dumb by those +words. + +Next morning d'Arthez sent back his article, recast throughout, and +Lucien sent it in to the review; but from that day melancholy preyed +upon him, and he could not always disguise his mood. That evening, +when the theatre was full, he experienced for the first time the +paroxysm of nervous terror caused by a _debut_; terror aggravated in +his case by all the strength of his love. Vanity of every kind was +involved. He looked over the rows of faces as a criminal eyes the +judges and the jury on whom his life depends. A murmur would have set +him quivering; any slight incident upon the stage, Coralie's exits and +entrances, the slightest modulation of the tones of her voice, would +perturb him beyond all reason. + +The play in which Coralie made her first appearance at the Gymnase was +a piece of the kind which sometimes falls flat at first, and +afterwards has immense success. It fell flat that night. Coralie was +not applauded when she came on, and the chilly reception reacted upon +her. The only applause came from Camusot's box, and various persons +posted in the balcony and galleries silenced Camusot with repeated +cries of "Hush!" The galleries even silenced the _claqueurs_ when they +led off with exaggerated salvos. Martainville applauded bravely; +Nathan, Merlin, and the treacherous Florine followed his example; but +it was clear that the piece was a failure. A crowd gathered in +Coralie's dressing-room and consoled her, till she had no courage +left. She went home in despair, less for her own sake than for +Lucien's. + +"Braulard has betrayed us," Lucien said. + +Coralie was heartstricken. The next day found her in a high fever, +utterly unfit to play, face to face with the thought that she had been +cut short in her career. Lucien hid the papers from her, and looked +them over in the dining-room. The reviewers one and all attributed the +failure of the piece to Coralie; she had overestimated her strength; +she might be the delight of a boulevard audience, but she was out of +her element at the Gymnase; she had been inspired by a laudable +ambition, but she had not taken her powers into account; she had +chosen a part to which she was quite unequal. Lucien read on through a +pile of penny-a-lining, put together on the same system as his attack +upon Nathan. Milo of Crotona, when he found his hands fast in the oak +which he himself had cleft, was not more furious than Lucien. He grew +haggard with rage. His friends gave Coralie the most treacherous +advice, in the language of kindly counsel and friendly interest. She +should play (according to these authorities) all kind of roles, which +the treacherous writers of these unblushing _feuilletons_ knew to be +utterly unsuited to her genius. And these were the Royalist papers, +led off by Nathan. As for the Liberal press, all the weapons which +Lucien had used were now turned against him. + +Coralie heard a sob, followed by another and another. She sprang out +of bed to find Lucien, and saw the papers. Nothing would satisfy her +but she must read them all; and when she had read them, she went back +to bed, and lay there in silence. + +Florine was in the plot; she had foreseen the outcome; she had studied +Coralie's part, and was ready to take her place. The management, +unwilling to give up the piece, was ready to take Florine in Coralie's +stead. When the manager came, he found poor Coralie sobbing and +exhausted on her bed; but when he began to say, in Lucien's presence, +that Florine knew the part, and that the play must be given that +evening, Coralie sprang up at once. + +"I will play!" she cried, and sank fainting on the floor. + +So Florine took the part, and made her reputation in it; for the piece +succeeded, the newspapers all sang her praises, and from that time +forth Florine was the great actress whom we all know. Florine's +success exasperated Lucien to the highest degree. + +"A wretched girl, whom you helped to earn her bread! If the Gymnase +prefers to do so, let the management pay you to cancel your +engagement. I shall be the Comte de Rubempre; I will make my fortune, +and you shall be my wife." + +"What nonsense!" said Coralie, looking at him with wan eyes. + +"Nonsense!" repeated he. "Very well, wait a few days, and you shall +live in a fine house, you shall have a carriage, and I will write a +part for you!" + +He took two thousand francs and hurried to Frascati's. For seven hours +the unhappy victim of the Furies watched his varying luck, and +outwardly seemed cool and self-contained. He experienced both extremes +of fortune during that day and part of the night that followed; at one +time he possessed as much as thirty thousand francs, and he came out +at last without a sou. In the Rue de la Lune he found Finot waiting +for him with a request for one of his short articles. Lucien so far +forgot himself, that he complained. + +"Oh, it is not all rosy," returned Finot. "You made your +right-about-face in such a way that you were bound to lose the support +of the Liberal press, and the Liberals are far stronger in print than +all the Ministerialist and Royalist papers put together. A man should +never leave one camp for another until he has made a comfortable berth +for himself, by way of consolation for the losses that he must expect; +and in any case, a prudent politician will see his friends first, and +give them his reasons for going over, and take their opinions. You can +still act together; they sympathize with you, and you agree to give +mutual help. Nathan and Merlin did that before they went over. Hawks +don't pike out hawks' eyes. You were as innocent as a lamb; you will +be forced to show your teeth to your new party to make anything out of +them. You have been necessarily sacrificed to Nathan. I cannot conceal +from you that your article on d'Arthez has roused a terrific hubbub. +Marat is a saint compared with you. You will be attacked, and your +book will be a failure. How far have things gone with your romance?" + +"These are the last proof sheets." + +"All the anonymous articles against that young d'Arthez in the +Ministerialist and Ultra papers are set down to you. The _Reveil_ is +poking fun at the set in the Rue des Quatre-Vents, and the hits are +the more telling because they are funny. There is a whole serious +political coterie at the back of Leon Giraud's paper; they will come +into power too, sooner or later." + +"I have not written a line in the _Reveil_ this week past." + +"Very well. Keep my short articles in mind. Write fifty of them +straight off, and I will pay you for them in a lump; but they must be +of the same color as the paper." And Finot, with seeming carelessness, +gave Lucien an edifying anecdote of the Keeper of the Seals, a piece +of current gossip, he said, for the subject of one of the papers. + +Eager to retrieve his losses at play, Lucien shook off his dejection, +summoned up his energy and youthful force, and wrote thirty articles +of two columns each. These finished, he went to Dauriat's, partly +because he felt sure of meeting Finot there, and he wished to give the +articles to Finot in person; partly because he wished for an +explanation of the non-appearance of the _Marguerites_. He found the +bookseller's shop full of his enemies. All the talk immediately ceased +as he entered. Put under the ban of journalism, his courage rose, and +once more he said to himself, as he had said in the alley at the +Luxembourg, "I will triumph." + +Dauriat was neither amiable or inclined to patronize; he was sarcastic +in tone, and determined not to bate an inch of his rights. The +_Marguerites_ should appear when it suited his purpose; he should wait +until Lucien was in a position to secure the success of the book; it +was his, he had bought it outright. When Lucien asserted that Dauriat +was bound to publish the _Marguerites_ by the very nature of the +contract, and the relative positions of the parties to the agreement, +Dauriat flatly contradicted him, said that no publisher could be +compelled by law to publish at a loss, and that he himself was the +best judge of the expediency of producing the book. There was, +besides, a remedy open to Lucien, as any court of law would admit--the +poet was quite welcome to take his verses to a Royalist publisher upon +the repayment of the thousand crowns. + +Lucien went away. Dauriat's moderate tone had exasperated him even +more than his previous arrogance at their first interview. So the +_Marguerites_ would not appear until Lucien had found a host of +formidable supporters, or grown formidable himself! He walked home +slowly, so oppressed and out of heart that he felt ready for suicide. +Coralie lay in bed, looking white and ill. + +"She must have a part, or she will die," said Berenice, as Lucien +dressed for a great evening party at Mlle. des Touches' house in the +Rue du Mont Blanc. Des Lupeaulx and Vignon and Blondet were to be +there, as well as Mme. d'Espard and Mme. de Bargeton. + +The party was given in honor of Conti, the great composer, owner +likewise of one of the most famous voices off the stage, Cinti, Pasta, +Garcia, Levasseur, and two or three celebrated amateurs in society not +excepted. Lucien saw the Marquise, her cousin, and Mme. de Montcornet +sitting together, and made one of the party. The unhappy young fellow +to all appearances was light-hearted, happy, and content; he jested, +he was the Lucien de Rubempre of his days of splendor, he would not +seem to need help from any one. He dwelt on his services to the +Royalist party, and cited the hue and cry raised after him by the +Liberal press as a proof of his zeal. + +"And you will be well rewarded, my friend," said Mme. de Bargeton, +with a gracious smile. "Go to the _Chancellerie_ the day after to-morrow +with 'the Heron' and des Lupeaulx, and you will find your patent +signed by His Majesty. The Keeper of the Seals will take it to-morrow +to the Tuileries, but there is to be a meeting of the Council, and he +will not come back till late. Still, if I hear the result to-morrow +evening, I will let you know. Where are you living?" + +"I will come to you," said Lucien, ashamed to confess that he was +living in the Rue de la Lune. + +"The Duc de Lenoncourt and the Duc de Navarreins have made mention of +you to the King," added the Marquise; "they praised your absolute and +entire devotion, and said that some distinction ought to avenge your +treatment in the Liberal press. The name and title of Rubempre, to +which you have a claim through your mother, would become illustrious +through you, they said. The King gave his lordship instructions that +evening to prepare a patent authorizing the Sieur Lucien Chardon to +bear the arms and title of the Comtes de Rubempre, as grandson of the +last Count by the mother's side. 'Let us favor the songsters' +(_chardonnerets_) 'of Pindus,' said his Majesty, after reading your +sonnet on the Lily, which my cousin luckily remembered to give the +Duke.--'Especially when the King can work miracles, and change the +song-bird into an eagle,' M. de Navarreins replied." + +Lucien's expansion of feeling would have softened the heart of any +woman less deeply wounded than Louise d'Espard de Negrepelisse; but +her thirst for vengeance was only increased by Lucien's graciousness. +Des Lupeaulx was right; Lucien was wanting in tact. It never crossed +his mind that this history of the patent was one of the mystifications +at which Mme. d'Espard was an adept. Emboldened with success and the +flattering distinction shown to him by Mlle. des Touches, he stayed +till two o'clock in the morning for a word in private with his +hostess. Lucien had learned in Royalist newspaper offices that Mlle. +des Touches was the author of a play in which _La petite Fay_, the +marvel of the moment was about to appear. As the rooms emptied, he +drew Mlle. des Touches to a sofa in the boudoir, and told the story of +Coralie's misfortune and his own so touchingly, that Mlle. des Touches +promised to give the heroine's part to his friend. + +That promise put new life into Coralie. But the next day, as they +breakfasted together, Lucien opened Lousteau's newspaper, and found +that unlucky anecdote of the Keeper of the Seals and his wife. The +story was full of the blackest malice lurking in the most caustic wit. +Louis XVIII. was brought into the story in a masterly fashion, and +held up to ridicule in such a way that prosecution was impossible. +Here is the substance of a fiction for which the Liberal party +attempted to win credence, though they only succeeded in adding one +more to the tale of their ingenious calumnies. + +The King's passion for pink-scented notes and a correspondence full of +madrigals and sparkling wit was declared to be the last phase of the +tender passion; love had reached the Doctrinaire stage; or had passed, +in other words, from the concrete to the abstract. The illustrious +lady, so cruelly ridiculed under the name of Octavie by Beranger, had +conceived (so it was said) the gravest fears. The correspondence was +languishing. The more Octavie displayed her wit, the cooler grew the +royal lover. At last Octavie discovered the cause of her decline; her +power was threatened by the novelty and piquancy of a correspondence +between the august scribe and the wife of his Keeper of the Seals. +That excellent woman was believed to be incapable of writing a note; +she was simply and solely godmother to the efforts of audacious +ambition. Who could be hidden behind her petticoats? Octavie decided, +after making observations of her own, that the King was corresponding +with his Minister. + +She laid her plans. With the help of a faithful friend, she arranged +that a stormy debate should detain the Minister at the Chamber; then +she contrived to secure a _tete-a-tete_, and to convince outraged +Majesty of the fraud. Louis XVIII. flew into a royal and truly Bourbon +passion, but the tempest broke on Octavie's head. He would not believe +her. Octavie offered immediate proof, begging the King to write a note +which must be answered at once. The unlucky wife of the Keeper of the +Seals sent to the Chamber for her husband; but precautions had been +taken, and at that moment the Minister was on his legs addressing the +Chamber. The lady racked her brains and replied to the note with such +intellect as she could improvise. + +"Your Chancellor will supply the rest," cried Octavie, laughing at the +King's chagrin. + +There was not a word of truth in the story; but it struck home to +three persons--the Keeper of the Seals, his wife, and the King. It was +said that des Lupeaulx had invented the tale, but Finot always kept +his counsel. The article was caustic and clever, the Liberal papers +and the Orleanists were delighted with it, and Lucien himself laughed, +and thought of it merely as a very amusing _canard_. + +He called next day for des Lupeaulx and the Baron du Chatelet. The +Baron had just been to thank his lordship. The Sieur Chatelet, newly +appointed Councillor Extraordinary, was now Comte du Chatelet, with a +promise of the prefecture of the Charente so soon as the present +prefect should have completed the term of office necessary to receive +the maximum retiring pension. The Comte _du_ Chatelet (for the _du_ had +been inserted in the patent) drove with Lucien to the _Chancellerie_, +and treated his companion as an equal. But for Lucien's articles, he +said, his patent would not have been granted so soon; Liberal +persecution had been a stepping-stone to advancement. Des Lupeaulx was +waiting for them in the Secretary-General's office. That functionary +started with surprise when Lucien appeared and looked at des Lupeaulx. + +"What!" he exclaimed, to Lucien's utter bewilderment. "Do you dare to +come here, sir? Your patent was made out, but his lordship has torn it +up. Here it is!" (the Secretary-General caught up the first torn sheet +that came to hand). "The Minister wished to discover the author of +yesterday's atrocious article, and here is the manuscript," added the +speaker, holding out the sheets of Lucien's article. "You call +yourself a Royalist, sir, and you are on the staff of that detestable +paper which turns the Minister's hair gray, harasses the Centre, and +is dragging the country headlong to ruin? You breakfast on the +_Corsair_, the _Miroir_, the _Constitutionnel_, and the _Courier_; you +dine on the _Quotidienne_ and the _Reveil_, and then sup with +Martainville, the worst enemy of the Government! Martainville urges the +Government on to Absolutist measures; he is more likely to bring on +another Revolution than if he had gone over to the extreme Left. You are +a very clever journalist, but you will never make a politician. The +Minister denounced you to the King, and the King was so angry that he +scolded M. le Duc de Navarreins, his First Gentleman of the Bedchamber. +Your enemies will be all the more formidable because they have hitherto +been your friends. Conduct that one expects from an enemy is atrocious +in a friend." + +"Why, really, my dear fellow, are you a child?" said des Lupeaulx. +"You have compromised me. Mme. d'Espard, Mme. de Bargeton, and Mme. de +Montcornet, who were responsible for you, must be furious. The Duke is +sure to have handed on his annoyance to the Marquise, and the Marquise +will have scolded her cousin. Keep away from them and wait." + +"Here comes his lordship--go!" said the Secretary-General. + +Lucien went out into the Place Vendome; he was stunned by this +bludgeon blow. He walked home along the Boulevards trying to think +over his position. He saw himself a plaything in the hands of envy, +treachery, and greed. What was he in this world of contending +ambitions? A child sacrificing everything to the pursuit of pleasure +and the gratification of vanity; a poet whose thoughts never went +beyond the moment, a moth flitting from one bright gleaming object to +another. He had no definite aim; he was the slave of circumstance +--meaning well, doing ill. Conscience tortured him remorselessly. And +to crown it all, he was penniless and exhausted with work and emotion. +His articles could not compare with Merlin's or Nathan's work. + +He walked at random, absorbed in these thoughts. As he passed some of +the reading-rooms which were already lending books as well as +newspapers, a placard caught his eyes. It was an advertisement of a +book with a grotesque title, but beneath the announcement he saw his +name in brilliant letters--"By Lucien Chardon de Rubempre." So his +book had come out, and he had heard nothing of it! All the newspapers +were silent. He stood motionless before the placard, his arms hanging +at his sides. He did not notice a little knot of acquaintances +--Rastignac and de Marsay and some other fashionable young men; nor did +he see that Michel Chrestien and Leon Giraud were coming towards him. + +"Are you M. Chardon?" It was Michel who spoke, and there was that in +the sound of his voice that set Lucien's heartstrings vibrating. + +"Do you not know me?" he asked, turning very pale. + +Michel spat in his face. + +"Take that as your wages for your article against d'Arthez. If +everybody would do as I do on his own or his friend's behalf, the +press would be as it ought to be--a self-respecting and respected +priesthood." + +Lucien staggered back and caught hold of Rastignac. + +"Gentlemen," he said, addressing Rastignac and de Marsay, "you will +not refuse to act as my seconds. But first, I wish to make matters +even and apology impossible." + +He struck Michel a sudden, unexpected blow in the face. The rest +rushed in between the Republican and Royalist, to prevent a street +brawl. Rastignac dragged Lucien off to the Rue Taitbout, only a few +steps away from the Boulevard de Gand, where this scene took place. It +was the hour of dinner, or a crowd would have assembled at once. De +Marsay came to find Lucien, and the pair insisted that he should dine +with them at the Cafe Anglais, where they drank and made merry. + +"Are you a good swordsman?" inquired de Marsay. + +"I have never had a foil in my hands." + +"A good shot?" + +"Never fired a pistol in my life." + +"Then you have luck on your side. You are a formidable antagonist to +stand up to; you may kill your man," said de Marsay. + +Fortunately, Lucien found Coralie in bed and asleep. + +She had played without rehearsal in a one-act play, and taken her +revenge. She had met with genuine applause. Her enemies had not been +prepared for this step on her part, and her success had determined the +manager to give her the heroine's part in Camille Maupin's play. He +had discovered the cause of her apparent failure, and was indignant +with Florine and Nathan. Coralie should have the protection of the +management. + +At five o'clock that morning, Rastignac came for Lucien. + +"The name of your street my dear fellow, is particularly appropriate +for your lodgings; you are up in the sky," he said, by way of +greeting. "Let us be first upon the ground on the road to +Clignancourt; it is good form, and we ought to set them an example." + +"Here is the programme," said de Marsay, as the cab rattled through +the Faubourg Saint-Denis: "You stand up at twenty-five paces, coming +nearer, till you are only fifteen apart. You have, each of you, five +paces to take and three shots to fire--no more. Whatever happens, that +must be the end of it. We load for your antagonist, and his seconds +load for you. The weapons were chosen by the four seconds at a +gunmaker's. We helped you to a chance, I will promise you; horse +pistols are to be the weapons." + +For Lucien, life had become a bad dream. He did not care whether he +lived or died. The courage of suicide helped him in some sort to carry +things off with a dash of bravado before the spectators. He stood in +his place; he would not take a step, a piece of recklessness which the +others took for deliberate calculation. They thought the poet an +uncommonly cool hand. Michel Chrestien came as far as his limit; both +fired twice and at the same time, for either party was considered to +be equally insulted. Michel's first bullet grazed Lucien's chin; +Lucien's passed ten feet above Chrestien's head. The second shot hit +Lucien's coat collar, but the buckram lining fortunately saved its +wearer. The third bullet struck him in the chest, and he dropped. + +"Is he dead?" asked Michel Chrestien. + +"No," said the surgeon, "he will pull through." + +"So much the worse," answered Michel. + +"Yes; so much the worse," said Lucien, as his tears fell fast. + +By noon the unhappy boy lay in bed in his own room. With untold pains +they had managed to remove him, but it had taken five hours to bring +him to the Rue de la Lune. His condition was not dangerous, but +precautions were necessary lest fever should set in and bring about +troublesome complications. Coralie choked down her grief and anguish. +She sat up with him at night through the anxious weeks of his illness, +studying her parts by his bedside. Lucien was in danger for two long +months; and often at the theatre Coralie acted her frivolous role with +one thought in her heart, "Perhaps he is dying at this moment." + +Lucien owed his life to the skill and devotion of a friend whom he had +grievously hurt. Bianchon had come to tend him after hearing the story +of the attack from d'Arthez, who told it in confidence, and excused +the unhappy poet. Bianchon suspected that d'Arthez was generously +trying to screen the renegade; but on questioning Lucien during a +lucid interval in the dangerous nervous fever, he learned that his +patient was only responsible for the one serious article in Hector +Merlin's paper. + +Before the first month was out, the firm of Fendant and Cavalier filed +their schedule. Bianchon told Coralie that Lucien must on no account +hear the news. The famous _Archer of Charles IX._, brought out with an +absurd title, had been a complete failure. Fendant, being anxious to +realize a little ready money before going into bankruptcy, had sold +the whole edition (without Cavalier's knowledge) to dealers in printed +paper. These, in their turn, had disposed of it at a cheap rate to +hawkers, and Lucien's book at that moment was adorning the bookstalls +along the Quays. The booksellers on the Quai des Augustins, who had +previously taken a quantity of copies, now discovered that after this +sudden reduction of the price they were like to lose heavily on their +purchases; the four duodecimo volumes, for which they had paid four +francs fifty centimes, were being given away for fifty sous. Great was +the outcry in the trade; but the newspapers preserved a profound +silence. Barbet had not foreseen this "clearance;" he had a belief in +Lucien's abilities; for once he had broken his rule and taken two +hundred copies. The prospect of a loss drove him frantic; the things +he said of Lucien were fearful to hear. Then Barbet took a heroic +resolution. He stocked his copies in a corner of his shop, with the +obstinacy of greed, and left his competitors to sell their wares at a +loss. Two years afterwards, when d'Arthez's fine preface, the merits +of the book, and one or two articles by Leon Giraud had raised the +value of the book, Barbet sold his copies, one by one, at ten francs +each. + +Lucien knew nothing of all this, but Berenice and Coralie could not +refuse to allow Hector Merlin to see his dying comrade, and Hector +Merlin made him drink, drop by drop, the whole of the bitter draught +brewed by the failure of Fendant and Cavalier, made bankrupts by his +first ill-fated book. Martainville, the one friend who stood by Lucien +through thick and thin, had written a magnificent article on his work; +but so great was the general exasperation against the editor of +_L'Aristarque_, _L'Oriflamme_, and _Le Drapeau Blanc_, that his +championship only injured Lucien. In vain did the athlete return the +Liberal insults tenfold, not a newspaper took up the challenge in +spite of all his attacks. + +Coralie, Berenice, and Bianchon might shut the door on Lucien's +so-called friends, who raised a great outcry, but it was impossible +to keep out creditors and writs. After the failure of Fendant and +Cavalier, their bills were taken into bankruptcy according to that +provision of the Code of Commerce most inimical to the claims of third +parties, who in this way lose the benefit of delay. + +Lucien discovered that Camusot was proceeding against him with great +energy. When Coralie heard the name, and for the first time learned +the dreadful and humiliating step which her poet had taken for her +sake, the angelic creature loved him ten times more than before, and +would not approach Camusot. The bailiff bringing the warrant of arrest +shrank back from the idea of dragging his prisoner out of bed, and +went back to Camusot before applying to the President of the Tribunal +of Commerce for an order to remove the debtor to a private hospital. +Camusot hurried at once to the Rue de la Lune, and Coralie went down +to him. + +When she came up again she held the warrants, in which Lucien was +described as a tradesman, in her hand. How had she obtained those +papers from Camusot? What promise had she given? Coralie kept a sad, +gloomy silence, but when she returned she looked as if all the life +had gone out of her. She played in Camille Maupin's play, and +contributed not a little to the success of that illustrious literary +hermaphrodite; but the creation of this character was the last flicker +of a bright, dying lamp. On the twentieth night, when Lucien had so +far recovered that he had regained his appetite and could walk abroad, +and talked of getting to work again, Coralie broke down; a secret +trouble was weighing upon her. Berenice always believed that she had +promised to go back to Camusot to save Lucien. + +Another mortification followed. Coralie was obliged to see her part +given to Florine. Nathan had threatened the Gymnase with war if the +management refused to give the vacant place to Coralie's rival. +Coralie had persisted till she could play no longer, knowing that +Florine was waiting to step into her place. She had overtasked her +strength. The Gymnase had advanced sums during Lucien's illness, she +had no money to draw; Lucien, eager to work though he was, was not yet +strong enough to write, and he helped besides to nurse Coralie and to +relieve Berenice. From poverty they had come to utter distress; but in +Bianchon they found a skilful and devoted doctor, who obtained credit +for them of the druggist. The landlord of the house and the +tradespeople knew by this time how matters stood. The furniture was +attached. The tailor and dressmaker no longer stood in awe of the +journalist, and proceeded to extremes; and at last no one, with the +exception of the pork-butcher and the druggist, gave the two unlucky +children credit. For a week or more all three of them--Lucien, +Berenice, and the invalid--were obliged to live on the various +ingenious preparations sold by the pork-butcher; the inflammatory diet +was little suited to the sick girl, and Coralie grew worse. Sheer want +compelled Lucien to ask Lousteau for a return of the loan of a +thousand francs lost at play by the friend who had deserted him in his +hour of need. Perhaps, amid all his troubles, this step cost him most +cruel suffering. + +Lousteau was not to be found in the Rue de la Harpe. Hunted down like +a hare, he was lodging now with this friend, now with that. Lucien +found him at last at Flicoteaux's; he was sitting at the very table at +which Lucien had found him that evening when, for his misfortune, he +forsook d'Arthez for journalism. Lousteau offered him dinner, and +Lucien accepted the offer. + +As they came out of Flicoteaux's with Claude Vignon (who happened to +be dining there that day) and the great man in obscurity, who kept his +wardrobe at Samanon's, the four among them could not produce enough +specie to pay for a cup of coffee at the Cafe Voltaire. They lounged +about the Luxembourg in the hope of meeting with a publisher; and, as +it fell out, they met with one of the most famous printers of the day. +Lousteau borrowed forty francs of him, and divided the money into four +equal parts. + +Misery had brought down Lucien's pride and extinguished sentiment; he +shed tears as he told the story of his troubles, but each one of his +comrades had a tale as cruel as his own; and when the three versions +had been given, it seemed to the poet that he was the least +unfortunate among the four. All of them craved a respite from +remembrance and thoughts which made trouble doubly hard to bear. + +Lousteau hurried to the Palais Royal to gamble with his remaining nine +francs. The great man unknown to fame, though he had a divine +mistress, must needs hie him to a low haunt of vice to wallow in +perilous pleasure. Vignon betook himself to the _Rocher de Cancale_ to +drown memory and thought in a couple of bottles of Bordeaux; Lucien +parted company with him on the threshold, declining to share that +supper. When he shook hands with the one journalist who had not been +hostile to him, it was with a cruel pang in his heart. + +"What shall I do?" he asked aloud. + +"One must do as one can," the great critic said. "Your book is good, +but it excited jealousy, and your struggle will be hard and long. +Genius is a cruel disease. Every writer carries a canker in his heart, +a devouring monster, like the tapeworm in the stomach, which destroys +all feeling as it arises in him. Which is the stronger? The man or the +disease? One has need be a great man, truly, to keep the balance +between genius and character. The talent grows, the heart withers. +Unless a man is a giant, unless he has the thews of a Hercules, he +must be content either to lose his gift or to live without a heart. +You are slender and fragile, you will give way," he added, as he +turned into the restaurant. + +Lucien returned home, thinking over that terrible verdict. He beheld +the life of literature by the light of the profound truths uttered by +Vignon. + +"Money! money!" a voice cried in his ears. + +Then he drew three bills of a thousand francs each, due respectively +in one, two, and three months, imitating the handwriting of his +brother-in-law, David Sechard, with admirable skill. He endorsed the +bills, and took them next morning to Metivier, the paper-dealer in the +Rue Serpente, who made no difficulty about taking them. Lucien wrote a +few lines to give his brother-in-law notice of this assault upon his +cash-box, promising, as usual in such cases, to be ready to meet the +bills as they fell due. + +When all debts, his own and Coralie's, were paid, he put the three +hundred francs which remained into Berenice's hands, bidding her to +refuse him money if he asked her for it. He was afraid of a return of +the gambler's frenzy. Lucien worked away gloomily in a sort of cold, +speechless fury, putting forth all his powers into witty articles, +written by the light of the lamp at Coralie's bedside. Whenever he +looked up in search of ideas, his eyes fell on that beloved face, +white as porcelain, fair with the beauty that belongs to the dying, +and he saw a smile on her pale lips, and her eyes, grown bright with a +more consuming pain than physical suffering, always turned on his +face. + +Lucien sent in his work, but he could not leave the house to worry +editors, and his articles did not appear. When he at last made up his +mind to go to the office, he met with a cool reception from Theodore +Gaillard, who had advanced him money, and turned his literary diamonds +to good account afterwards. + +"Take care, my dear fellow, you are falling off," he said. "You must +not let yourself down, your work wants inspiration!" + +"That little Lucien has written himself out with his romance and his +first articles," cried Felicien Vernou, Merlin, and the whole chorus +of his enemies, whenever his name came up at Dauriat's or the +Vaudeville. "The work he is sending us is pitiable." + +"To have written oneself out" (in the slang of journalism), is a +verdict very hard to live down. It passed everywhere from mouth to +mouth, ruining Lucien, all unsuspicious as he was. And, indeed, his +burdens were too heavy for his strength. In the midst of a heavy +strain of work, he was sued for the bills which he had drawn in David +Sechard's name. He had recourse to Camusot's experience, and Coralie's +sometime adorer was generous enough to assist the man she loved. The +intolerable situation lasted for two whole months; the days being +diversified by stamped papers handed over to Desroches, a friend of +Bixiou, Blondet, and des Lupeaulx. + +Early in August, Bianchon told them that Coralie's condition was +hopeless--she had only a few days to live. Those days were spent in +tears by Berenice and Lucien; they could not hide their grief from the +dying girl, and she was broken-hearted for Lucien's sake. + +Some strange change was working in Coralie. She would have Lucien +bring a priest; she must be reconciled to the Church and die in peace. +Coralie died as a Christian; her repentance was sincere. Her agony and +death took all energy and heart out of Lucien. He sank into a low +chair at the foot of the bed, and never took his eyes off her till +Death brought the end of her suffering. It was five o'clock in the +morning. Some singing-bird lighting upon a flower-pot on the +window-sill, twittered a few notes. Berenice, kneeling by the bedside, +was covering a hand fast growing cold with kisses and tears. On the +chimney-piece there lay eleven sous. + +Lucien went out. Despair made him beg for money to lay Coralie in her +grave. He had wild thoughts of flinging himself at the Marquise +d'Espard's feet, of entreating the Comte du Chatelet, Mme. de +Bargeton, Mlle. des Touches, nay, that terrible dandy of a de Marsay. +All his pride had gone with his strength. He would have enlisted as a +common soldier at that moment for money. He walked on with a +slouching, feverish gait known to all the unhappy, reached Camille +Maupin's house, entered, careless of his disordered dress, and sent in +a message. He entreated Mlle. des Touches to see him for a moment. + +"Mademoiselle only went to bed at three o'clock this morning," said +the servant, "and no one would dare to disturb her until she rings." + +"When does she ring?" + +"Never before ten o'clock." + +Then Lucien wrote one of those harrowing appeals in which the +well-dressed beggar flings all pride and self-respect to the winds. +One evening, not so very long ago, when Lousteau had told him of the +abject begging letters which Finot received, Lucien had thought it +impossible that any creature would sink so low; and now, carried away +by his pen, he had gone further, it may be, than other unlucky +wretches upon the same road. He did not suspect, in his fever and +imbecility, that he had just written a masterpiece of pathos. On his +way home along the Boulevards, he met Barbet. + +"Barbet!" he begged, holding out his hand. "Five hundred francs!" + +"No. Two hundred," returned the other. + +"Ah! then you have a heart." + +"Yes; but I am a man of business as well. I have lost a lot of money +through you," he concluded, after giving the history of the failure of +Fendant and Cavalier, "will you put me in the way of making some?" + +Lucien quivered. + +"You are a poet. You ought to understand all kinds of poetry," +continued the little publisher. "I want a few rollicking songs at this +moment to put along with some more by different authors, or they will +be down upon me over the copyright. I want to have a good collection +to sell on the streets at ten sous. If you care to let me have ten +good drinking-songs by to-morrow morning, or something spicy,--you +know the sort of thing, eh!--I will pay you two hundred francs." + +When Lucien returned home, he found Coralie stretched out straight and +stiff on a pallet-bed; Berenice, with many tears, had wrapped her in a +coarse linen sheet, and put lighted candles at the four corners of the +bed. Coralie's face had taken that strange, delicate beauty of death +which so vividly impresses the living with the idea of absolute calm; +she looked like some white girl in a decline; it seemed as if those +pale, crimson lips must open and murmur the name which had blended +with the name of God in the last words that she uttered before she +died. + +Lucien told Berenice to order a funeral which should not cost more +than two hundred francs, including the service at the shabby little +church of the Bonne-Nouvelle. As soon as she had gone out, he sat down +to a table, and beside the dead body of his love he composed ten +rollicking songs to fit popular airs. The effort cost him untold +anguish, but at last the brain began to work at the bidding of +Necessity, as if suffering were not; and already Lucien had learned to +put Claude Vignon's terrible maxims in practice, and to raise a +barrier between heart and brain. What a night the poor boy spent over +those drinking songs, writing by the light of the tall wax candles +while the priest recited the prayers for the dead! + +Morning broke before the last song was finished. Lucien tried it over +to a street-song of the day, to the consternation of Berenice and the +priest, who thought that he was mad:-- + + + Lads, 'tis tedious waste of time + To mingle song and reason; + Folly calls for laughing rhyme, + Sense is out of season. + Let Apollo be forgot + When Bacchus fills the drinking-cup; + Any catch is good, I wot, + If good fellows take it up. + Let philosophers protest, + Let us laugh, + And quaff, + And a fig for the rest! + + As Hippocrates has said, + Every jolly fellow, + When a century has sped, + Still is fit and mellow. + No more following of a lass + With the palsy in your legs? + --While your hand can hold a glass, + You can drain it to the dregs, + With an undiminished zest. + Let us laugh, + And quaff, + And a fig for the rest! + + Whence we come we know full well. + Whiter are we going? + Ne'er a one of us can tell, + 'Tis a thing past knowing. + Faith! what does it signify, + Take the good that Heaven sends; + It is certain that we die, + Certain that we live, my friends. + Life is nothing but a jest. + Let us laugh, + And quaff, + And a fig for the rest! + + +He was shouting the reckless refrain when d'Arthez and Bianchon +arrived, to find him in a paroxysm of despair and exhaustion, utterly +unable to make a fair copy of his verses. A torrent of tears followed; +and when, amid his sobs, he had told his story, he saw the tears +standing in his friends' eyes. + +"This wipes out many sins," said d'Arthez. + +"Happy are they who suffer for their sins in this world," the priest +said solemnly. + +At the sight of the fair, dead face smiling at Eternity, while +Coralie's lover wrote tavern-catches to buy a grave for her, and +Barbet paid for the coffin--of the four candles lighted about the dead +body of her who had thrilled a great audience as she stood behind the +footlights in her Spanish basquina and scarlet green-clocked +stockings; while beyond in the doorway, stood the priest who had +reconciled the dying actress with God, now about to return to the +church to say a mass for the soul of her who had "loved much,"--all +the grandeur and the sordid aspects of the scene, all that sorrow +crushed under by Necessity, froze the blood of the great writer and +the great doctor. They sat down; neither of them could utter a word. + +Just at that moment a servant in livery announced Mlle. des Touches. +That beautiful and noble woman understood everything at once. She +stepped quickly across the room to Lucien, and slipped two +thousand-franc notes into his hand as she grasped it. + +"It is too late," he said, looking up at her with dull, hopeless eyes. + +The three stayed with Lucien, trying to soothe his despair with +comforting words; but every spring seemed to be broken. At noon all +the brotherhood, with the exception of Michel Chrestien (who, however, +had learned the truth as to Lucien's treachery), was assembled in the +poor little church of the Bonne-Nouvelle; Mlle. de Touches was +present, and Berenice and Coralie's dresser from the theatre, with a +couple of supernumeraries and the disconsolate Camusot. All the men +accompanied the actress to her last resting-place in Pere Lachaise. +Camusot, shedding hot tears, had solemnly promised Lucien to buy the +grave in perpetuity, and to put a headstone above it with the words: + + + CORALIE + + AGED NINETEEN YEARS + + August, 1822 + + +Lucien stayed there, on the sloping ground that looks out over Paris, +until the sun had set. + +"Who will love me now?" he thought. "My truest friends despise me. +Whatever I might have done, she who lies here would have thought me +wholly noble and good. I have no one left to me now but my sister and +mother and David. And what do they think of me at home?" + +Poor distinguished provincial! He went back to the Rue de la Lune; but +the sight of the rooms was so acutely painful, that he could not stay +in them, and he took a cheap lodging elsewhere in the same street. +Mlle. des Touches' two thousand francs and the sale of the furniture +paid the debts. + +Berenice had two hundred francs left, on which they lived for two +months. Lucien was prostrate; he could neither write nor think; he +gave way to morbid grief. Berenice took pity upon him. + +"Suppose that you were to go back to your own country, how are you to +get there?" she asked one day, by way of reply to an exclamation of +Lucien's. + +"On foot." + +"But even so, you must live and sleep on the way. Even if you walk +twelve leagues a day, you will want twenty francs at least." + +"I will get them together," he said. + +He took his clothes and his best linen, keeping nothing but strict +necessaries, and went to Samanon, who offered fifty francs for his +entire wardrobe. In vain he begged the money-lender to let him have +enough to pay his fare by the coach; Samanon was inexorable. In a +paroxysm of fury, Lucien rushed to Frascati's, staked the proceeds of +the sale, and lost every farthing. Back once more in the wretched room +in the Rue de la Lune, he asked Berenice for Coralie's shawl. The good +girl looked at him, and knew in a moment what he meant to do. He had +confessed to his loss at the gaming-table; and now he was going to +hang himself. + +"Are you mad, sir? Go out for a walk, and come back again at midnight. +I will get the money for you; but keep to the Boulevards, do not go +towards the Quais." + +Lucien paced up and down the Boulevards. He was stupid with grief. He +watched the passers-by and the stream of traffic, and felt that he was +alone, and a very small atom in this seething whirlpool of Paris, +churned by the strife of innumerable interests. His thoughts went back +to the banks of his Charente; a craving for happiness and home awoke +in him; and with the craving, came one of the sudden febrile bursts of +energy which half-feminine natures like his mistake for strength. He +would not give up until he had poured out his heart to David Sechard, +and taken counsel of the three good angels still left to him on earth. + +As he lounged along, he caught sight of Berenice--Berenice in her +Sunday clothes, speaking to a stranger at the corner of the Rue de la +Lune and the filthy Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, where she had taken her +stand. + +"What are you doing?" asked Lucien, dismayed by a sudden suspicion. + +"Here are your twenty francs," said the girl, slipping four five-franc +pieces into the poet's hand. "They may cost dear yet; but you can go," +and she had fled before Lucien could see the way she went; for, in +justice to him, it must be said that the money burned his hand, he +wanted to return it, but he was forced to keep it as the final brand +set upon him by life in Paris. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Barbet + A Man of Business + The Seamy Side of History + The Middle Classes + +Beaudenord, Godefroid de + The Ball at Sceaux + The Firm of Nucingen + +Berenice + Lost Illusions + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + The Atheist's Mass + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Blondet, Emile + Jealousies of a Country Town + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Modeste Mignon + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Firm of Nucingen + The Peasantry + +Blondet, Virginie + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Secrets of a Princess + The Peasantry + Another Study of Woman + The Member for Arcis + A Daughter of Eve + +Braulard + Cousin Betty + Cousin Pons + +Bridau, Joseph + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Another Study of Woman + Pierre Grassou + Letters of Two Brides + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + +Bruel, Jean Francois du + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Government Clerks + A Start in Life + A Prince of Bohemia + The Middle Classes + A Daughter of Eve + +Bruel, Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Middle Classes + +Cabirolle, Agathe-Florentine + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + A Bachelor's Establishment + +Camusot + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Pons + The Muse of the Department + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Canalis, Constant-Cyr-Melchior, Baron de + Letters of Two Brides + Modeste Mignon + The Magic Skin + Another Study of Woman + A Start in Life + Beatrix + The Unconscious Humorists + The Member for Arcis + +Cardot, Jean-Jerome-Severin + A Start in Life + Lost Illusions + + A Bachelor's Establishment + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + Cesar Birotteau + +Carigliano, Duchesse de + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + The Peasantry + The Member for Arcis + +Cavalier + The Seamy Side of History + +Chaboisseau + The Government Clerks + A Man of Business + +Chatelet, Sixte, Baron du + Lost Illusions + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Thirteen + +Chatelet, Marie-Louise-Anais de Negrepelisse, Baronne du + Lost Illusions + The Government Clerks + +Chrestien, Michel + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + +Collin, Jacques + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Member for Arcis + +Coloquinte + A Bachelor's Establishment + +Coralie, Mademoiselle + A Start in Life + A Bachelor's Establishment + +Dauriat + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Modeste Mignon + +Desroches (son) + A Bachelor's Establishment + Colonel Chabert + A Start in Life + A Woman of Thirty + The Commission in Lunacy + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + +Arthez, Daniel d' + Letters of Two Brides + The Member for Arcis + The Secrets of a Princess + +Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d' + The Commission in Lunacy + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + +Finot, Andoche + Cesar Birotteau + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Government Clerks + A Start in Life + Gaudissart the Great + The Firm of Nucingen + +Foy, Maximilien-Sebastien + Cesar Birotteau + +Gaillard, Theodore + Beatrix + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Unconscious Humorists + +Gaillard, Madame Theodore + Jealousies of a Country Town + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Beatrix + The Unconscious Humorists + +Galathionne, Prince and Princess (both not in each story) + The Secrets of a Princess + The Middle Classes + Father Goriot + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + +Gentil + Lost Illusions + +Giraud, Leon + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Unconscious Humorists + +Giroudeau + A Start in Life + A Bachelor's Establishment + +Grindot + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Start in Life + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Beatrix + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + +Lambert, Louis + Louis Lambert + A Seaside Tragedy + +Listomere, Marquis de + The Lily of the Valley + A Study of Woman + +Listomere, Marquise de + The Lily of the Valley + Lost Illusions + A Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + +Lousteau, Etienne + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + +Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des + The Muse of the Department + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Ursule Mirouet + +Manerville, Paul Francois-Joseph, Comte de + The Thirteen + The Ball at Sceaux + Lost Illusions + A Marriage Settlement + +Marsay, Henri de + The Thirteen + The Unconscious Humorists + Another Study of Woman + The Lily of the Valley + Father Goriot + Jealousies of a Country Town + Ursule Mirouet + A Marriage Settlement + Lost Illusions + Letters of Two Brides + The Ball at Sceaux + Modeste Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + +Matifat (wealthy druggist) + Cesar Birotteau + A Bachelor's Establishment + Lost Illusions + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Pons + +Meyraux + Louis Lambert + +Montcornet, Marechal, Comte de + Domestic Peace + Lost Illusions + + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Peasantry + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + +Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de + The Thirteen + Father Goriot + Lost Illusions + Another Study of Woman + Pierrette + The Member for Arcis + +Nathan, Raoul + Lost Illusions + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + Letters of Two Brides + The Seamy Side of History + The Muse of the Department + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Unconscious Humorists + +Nathan, Madame Raoul + The Muse of the Department + Lost Illusions + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Government Clerks + A Bachelor's Establishment + Ursule Mirouet + Eugenie Grandet + The Imaginary Mistress + A Prince of Bohemia + +Negrepelisse, De + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + +Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + +Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de + Father Goriot + The Thirteen + Eugenie Grandet + Cesar Birotteau + Melmoth Reconciled + Lost Illusions + The Commission in Lunacy + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Modeste Mignon + The Firm of Nucingen + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + +Palma (banker) + The Firm of Nucingen + Cesar Birotteau + Gobseck + Lost Illusions + The Ball at Sceaux + +Pombreton, Marquis de + Lost Illusions + Jealousies of a Country Town + +Rastignac, Eugene de + Father Goriot + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Ball at Sceaux + The Commission in Lunacy + A Study of Woman + Another Study of Woman + The Magic Skin + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Gondreville Mystery + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + The Unconscious Humorists + +Rhetore, Duc Alphonse de + A Bachelor's Establishment + + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Albert Savarus + The Member for Arcis + +Ridal, Fulgence + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Unconscious Humorists + +Rubempre, Lucien-Chardon de + Lost Illusions + The Government Clerks + Ursule Mirouet + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Samanon + The Government Clerks + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + +Sechard, David + Lost Illusions + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Sechard, Madame David + Lost Illusions + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor's Establishment + Pierrette + Melmoth Reconciled + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + Lost Illusions + A Bachelor's Establishment + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + +Vandenesse, Comte Felix de + The Lily of the Valley + Lost Illusions + Cesar Birotteau + Letters of Two Brides + A Start in Life + The Marriage Settlement + The Secrets of a Princess + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + +Vernou, Felicien + A Bachelor's Establishment + Lost Illusions + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Cousin Betty + +Vignon, Claude + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + + + III + + + + EVE AND DAVID + (Lost Illusions Part III) + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated By + Ellen Marriage + + + +Lucien had gone to Paris; and David Sechard, with the courage and +intelligence of the ox which painters give the Evangelist for +accompanying symbol, set himself to make the large fortune for which +he had wished that evening down by the Charente, when he sat with Eve +by the weir, and she gave him her hand and her heart. He wanted to +make the money quickly, and less for himself than for Eve's sake and +Lucien's. He would place his wife amid the elegant and comfortable +surroundings that were hers by right, and his strong arm should +sustain her brother's ambitions--this was the programme that he saw +before his eyes in letters of fire. + +Journalism and politics, the immense development of the book trade, of +literature and of the sciences; the increase of public interest in +matters touching the various industries in the country; in fact, the +whole social tendency of the epoch following the establishment of the +Restoration produced an enormous increase in the demand for paper. The +supply required was almost ten times as large as the quantity in which +the celebrated Ouvrard speculated at the outset of the Revolution. +Then Ouvrard could buy up first the entire stock of paper and then the +manufacturers; but in the year 1821 there were so many paper-mills in +France, that no one could hope to repeat his success; and David had +neither audacity enough nor capital enough for such speculation. +Machinery for producing paper in any length was just coming into use +in England. It was one of the most urgent needs of the time, +therefore, that the paper trade should keep pace with the requirements +of the French system of civil government, a system by which the right +of discussion was to be extended to every man, and the whole fabric +based upon continual expression of individual opinion; a grave +misfortune, for the nation that deliberates is but little wont to act. + +So, strange coincidence! while Lucien was drawn into the great +machinery of journalism, where he was like to leave his honor and his +intelligence torn to shreds, David Sechard, at the back of his +printing-house, foresaw all the practical consequences of the +increased activity of the periodical press. He saw the direction in +which the spirit of the age was tending, and sought to find means to +the required end. He saw also that there was a fortune awaiting the +discoverer of cheap paper, and the event has justified his +clearsightedness. Within the last fifteen years, the Patent Office has +received more than a hundred applications from persons claiming to +have discovered cheap substances to be employed in the manufacture of +paper. David felt more than ever convinced that this would be no +brilliant triumph, it is true, but a useful and immensely profitable +discovery; and after his brother-in-law went to Paris, he became more +and more absorbed in the problem which he had set himself to solve. + +The expenses of his marriage and of Lucien's journey to Paris had +exhausted all his resources; he confronted the extreme of poverty at +the very outset of married life. He had kept one thousand francs for +the working expenses of the business, and owed a like sum, for which +he had given a bill to Postel the druggist. So here was a double +problem for this deep thinker; he must invent a method of making cheap +paper, and that quickly; he must make the discovery, in fact, in order +to apply the proceeds to the needs of the household and of the +business. What words can describe the brain that can forget the cruel +preoccupations caused by hidden want, by the daily needs of a family +and the daily drudgery of a printer's business, which requires such +minute, painstaking care; and soar, with the enthusiasm and +intoxication of the man of science, into the regions of the unknown in +quest of a secret which daily eludes the most subtle experiment? And +the inventor, alas! as will shortly be seen, has plenty of woes to +endure, besides the ingratitude of the many; idle folk that can do +nothing themselves tell them, "Such a one is a born inventor; he could +not do otherwise. He no more deserves credit for his invention than a +prince for being born to rule! He is simply exercising his natural +faculties, and his work is its own reward," and the people believe +them. + +Marriage brings profound mental and physical perturbations into a +girl's life; and if she marries under the ordinary conditions of lower +middle-class life, she must moreover begin to study totally new +interests and initiate herself in the intricacies of business. With +marriage, therefore, she enters upon a phase of her existence when she +is necessarily on the watch before she can act. Unfortunately, David's +love for his wife retarded this training; he dared not tell her the +real state of affairs on the day after their wedding, nor for some +time afterwards. His father's avarice condemned him to the most +grinding poverty, but he could not bring himself to spoil the +honeymoon by beginning his wife's commercial education and prosaic +apprenticeship to his laborious craft. So it came to pass that +housekeeping, no less than working expenses, ate up the thousand +francs, his whole fortune. For four months David gave no thought to +the future, and his wife remained in ignorance. The awakening was +terrible! Postel's bill fell due; there was no money to meet it, and +Eve knew enough of the debt and its cause to give up her bridal +trinkets and silver. + +That evening Eve tried to induce David to talk of their affairs, for +she had noticed that he was giving less attention to the business and +more to the problem of which he had once spoken to her. Since the +first few weeks of married life, in fact, David spent most of his time +in the shed in the backyard, in the little room where he was wont to +mould his ink-rollers. Three months after his return to Angouleme, he +had replaced the old fashioned round ink-balls by rollers made of +strong glue and treacle, and an ink-table, on which the ink was evenly +distributed, an improvement so obvious that Cointet Brothers no sooner +saw it than they adopted the plan themselves. + +By the partition wall of this kitchen, as it were, David had set up a +little furnace with a copper pan, ostensibly to save the cost of fuel +over the recasting of his rollers, though the moulds had not been used +twice, and hung there rusting upon the wall. Nor was this all; a solid +oak door had been put in by his orders, and the walls were lined with +sheet-iron; he even replaced the dirty window sash by panes of ribbed +glass, so that no one without could watch him at his work. + +When Eve began to speak about the future, he looked uneasily at her, +and cut her short at the first word by saying, "I know all that you +must think, child, when you see that the workshop is left to itself, +and that I am dead, as it were, to all business interests; but see," +he continued, bringing her to the window, and pointing to the +mysterious shed, "there lies our fortune. For some months yet we must +endure our lot, but let us bear it patiently; leave me to solve the +problem of which I told you, and all our troubles will be at an end." + +David was so good, his devotion was so thoroughly to be taken upon his +word, that the poor wife, with a wife's anxiety as to daily expenses, +determined to spare her husband the household cares and to take the +burden upon herself. So she came down from the pretty blue-and-white +room, where she sewed and talked contentedly with her mother, took +possession of one of the two dens at the back of the printing-room, +and set herself to learn the business routine of typography. Was it +not heroism in a wife who expected ere long to be a mother? + +During the past few months David's workmen had left him one by one; +there was not enough work for them to do. Cointet Brothers, on the +other hand, were overwhelmed with orders; they were employing all the +workmen of the department; the alluring prospect of high wages even +brought them a few from Bordeaux, more especially apprentices, who +thought themselves sufficiently expert to cancel their articles and go +elsewhere. When Eve came to look into the affairs of Sechard's +printing works, she discovered that he employed three persons in all. + +First in order stood Cerizet, an apprentice of Didot's, whom David had +chosen to train. Most foremen have some one favorite among the great +numbers of workers under them, and David had brought Cerizet to +Angouleme, where he had been learning more of the business. Marion, as +much attached to the house as a watch-dog, was the second; and the +third was Kolb, an Alsacien, at one time a porter in the employ of the +Messrs. Didot. Kolb had been drawn for military service, chance +brought him to Angouleme, and David recognized the man's face at a +review just as his time was about to expire. Kolb came to see David, +and was smitten forthwith by the charms of the portly Marion; she +possessed all the qualities which a man of his class looks for in a +wife--the robust health that bronzes the cheeks, the strength of a man +(Marion could lift a form of type with ease), the scrupulous honesty +on which an Alsacien sets such store, the faithful service which +bespeaks a sterling character, and finally, the thrift which had saved +a little sum of a thousand francs, besides a stock of clothing and +linen, neat and clean, as country linen can be. Marion herself, a big, +stout woman of thirty-six, felt sufficiently flattered by the +admiration of a cuirassier, who stood five feet seven in his +stockings, a well-built warrior, strong as a bastion, and not +unnaturally suggested that he should become a printer. So, by the time +Kolb received his full discharge, Marion and David between them had +transformed him into a tolerably creditable "bear," though their pupil +could neither read nor write. + +Job printing, as it is called, was not so abundant at this season but +that Cerizet could manage it without help. Cerizet, compositor, +clicker, and foreman, realized in his person the "phenomenal +triplicity" of Kant; he set up type, read proof, took orders, and made +out invoices; but the most part of the time he had nothing to do, and +used to read novels in his den at the back of the workshop while he +waited for an order for a bill-head or a trade circular. Marion, +trained by old Sechard, prepared and wetted down the paper, helped +Kolb with the printing, hung the sheets to dry, and cut them to size; +yet cooked the dinner, none the less, and did her marketing very early +of a morning. + +Eve told Cerizet to draw out a balance-sheet for the last six months, +and found that the gross receipts amounted to eight hundred francs. On +the other hand, wages at the rate of three francs per day--two francs +to Cerizet, and one to Kolb--reached a total of six hundred francs; +and as the goods supplied for the work printed and delivered amounted +to some hundred odd francs, it was clear to Eve that David had been +carrying on business at a loss during the first half-year of their +married life. There was nothing to show for rent, nothing for Marion's +wages, nor for the interest on capital represented by the plant, the +license, and the ink; nothing, finally, by way of allowance for the +host of things included in the technical expression "wear and tear," a +word which owes its origin to the cloths and silks which are used to +moderate the force of the impression, and to save wear to the type; a +square of stuff (the _blanket_) being placed between the platen and the +sheet of paper in the press. + +Eve made a rough calculation of the resources of the printing office +and of the output, and saw how little hope there was for a business +drained dry by the all-devouring activity of the brothers Cointet; for +by this time the Cointets were not only contract printers to the town +and the prefecture, and printers to the Diocese by special appointment +--they were paper-makers and proprietors of a newspaper to boot. That +newspaper, sold two years ago by the Sechards, father and son, for +twenty-two thousand francs, was now bringing in eighteen thousand +francs per annum. Eve began to understand the motives lurking beneath +the apparent generosity of the brothers Cointet; they were leaving the +Sechard establishment just sufficient work to gain a pittance, but not +enough to establish a rival house. + +When Eve took the management of the business, she began by taking +stock. She set Kolb and Marion and Cerizet to work, and the workshop +was put to rights, cleaned out, and set in order. Then one evening +when David came in from a country excursion, followed by an old woman +with a huge bundle tied up in a cloth, Eve asked counsel of him as to +the best way of turning to profit the odds and ends left them by old +Sechard, promising that she herself would look after the business. +Acting upon her husband's advice, Mme. Sechard sorted all the remnants +of paper which she found, and printed old popular legends in double +columns upon a single sheet, such as peasants paste on their walls, +the histories of _The Wandering Jew_, _Robert the Devil_, _La Belle +Maguelonne_ and sundry miracles. Eve sent Kolb out as a hawker. + +Cerizet had not a moment to spare now; he was composing the naive +pages, with the rough cuts that adorned them, from morning to night; +Marion was able to manage the taking off; and all domestic cares fell +to Mme. Chardon, for Eve was busy coloring the prints. Thanks to +Kolb's activity and honesty, Eve sold three thousand broad sheets at a +penny apiece, and made three hundred francs in all at a cost of thirty +francs. + +But when every peasant's hut and every little wine-shop for twenty +leagues round was papered with these legends, a fresh speculation must +be discovered; the Alsacien could not go beyond the limits of the +department. Eve, turning over everything in the whole printing house, +had found a collection of figures for printing a "Shepherd's +Calendar," a kind of almanac meant for those who cannot read, +letterpress being replaced by symbols, signs, and pictures in colored +inks, red, black and blue. Old Sechard, who could neither read nor +write himself, had made a good deal of money at one time by bringing +out an almanac in hieroglyph. It was in book form, a single sheet +folded to make one hundred and twenty-eight pages. + +Thoroughly satisfied with the success of the broad sheets, a piece of +business only undertaken by country printing offices, Mme. Sechard +invested all the proceeds in the _Shepherd's Calendar_, and began it +upon a large scale. Millions of copies of this work are sold annually +in France. It is printed upon even coarser paper than the _Almanac of +Liege_, a ream (five hundred sheets) costing in the first instance +about four francs; while the printed sheets sell at the rate of a +halfpenny apiece--twenty-five francs per ream. + +Mme. Sechard determined to use one hundred reams for the first +impression; fifty thousand copies would bring in two thousand francs. +A man so deeply absorbed in his work as David in his researches is +seldom observant; yet David, taking a look round his workshop, was +astonished to hear the groaning of a press and to see Cerizet always +on his feet, setting up type under Mme. Sechard's direction. There was +a pretty triumph for Eve on the day when David came in to see what she +was doing, and praised the idea, and thought the calendar an excellent +stroke of business. Furthermore, David promised to give advice in the +matter of colored inks, for an almanac meant to appeal to the eye; and +finally, he resolved to recast the ink-rollers himself in his +mysterious workshop, so as to help his wife as far as he could in her +important little enterprise. + +But just as the work began with strenuous industry, there came letters +from Lucien in Paris, heart-sinking letters that told his mother and +sister and brother-in-law of his failure and distress; and when Eve, +Mme. Chardon, and David each secretly sent money to their poet, it +must be plain to the reader that the three hundred francs they sent +were like their very blood. The overwhelming news, the disheartening +sense that work as bravely as she might, she made so little, left Eve +looking forward with a certain dread to an event which fills the cup +of happiness to the full. The time was coming very near now, and to +herself she said, "If my dear David has not reached the end of his +researches before my confinement, what will become of us? And who will +look after our poor printing office and the business that is growing +up?" + +The _Shepherd's Calendar_ ought by rights to have been ready before the +1st of January, but Cerizet was working unaccountably slowly; all the +work of composing fell to him; and Mme. Sechard, knowing so little, +could not find fault, and was fain to content herself with watching +the young Parisian. + +Cerizet came from the great Foundling Hospital in Paris. He had been +apprenticed to the MM. Didot, and between the ages of fourteen and +seventeen he was David Sechard's fanatical worshiper. David put him +under one of the cleverest workmen, and took him for his copy-holder, +his page. Cerizet's intelligence naturally interested David; he won +the lad's affection by procuring amusements now and again for him, and +comforts from which he was cut off by poverty. Nature had endowed +Cerizet with an insignificant, rather pretty little countenance, red +hair, and a pair of dull blue eyes; he had come to Angouleme and +brought the manners of the Parisian street-boy with him. He was +formidable by reason of a quick, sarcastic turn and a spiteful +disposition. Perhaps David looked less strictly after him in +Angouleme; or, perhaps, as the lad grew older, his mentor put more +trust in him, or in the sobering influences of a country town; but be +that as it may, Cerizet (all unknown to his sponsor) was going +completely to the bad, and the printer's apprentice was acting the +part of a Don Juan among little work girls. His morality, learned in +Paris drinking-saloons, laid down the law of self-interest as the sole +rule of guidance; he knew, moreover, that next year he would be "drawn +for a soldier," to use the popular expression, saw that he had no +prospects, and ran into debt, thinking that soon he should be in the +army, and none of his creditors would run after him. David still +possessed some ascendency over the young fellow, due not to his +position as master, nor yet to the interest that he had taken in his +pupil, but to the great intellectual power which the sometime +street-boy fully recognized. + +Before long Cerizet began to fraternize with the Cointets' workpeople, +drawn to them by the mutual attraction of blouse and jacket, and the +class feeling, which is, perhaps, strongest of all in the lowest ranks +of society. In their company Cerizet forgot the little good doctrine +which David had managed to instil into him; but, nevertheless, when +the others joked the boy about the presses in his workshop ("old +sabots," as the "bears" contemptuously called them), and showed him +the magnificent machines, twelve in number, now at work in the +Cointets' great printing office, where the single wooden press was +only used for experiments, Cerizet would stand up for David and fling +out at the braggarts. + +"My gaffer will go farther with his 'sabots' than yours with their +cast-iron contrivances that turn out mass books all day long," he +would boast. "He is trying to find out a secret that will lick all the +printing offices in France and Navarre." + +"And meantime you take your orders from a washer-woman, you snip of a +foreman, on two francs a day." + +"She is pretty though," retorted Cerizet; "it is better to have her to +look at than the phizes of your gaffers." + +"And do you live by looking at his wife?" + +From the region of the wineshop, or from the door of the printing +office, where these bickerings took place, a dim light began to break +in upon the brothers Cointet as to the real state of things in the +Sechard establishment. They came to hear of Eve's experiment, and held +it expedient to stop these flights at once, lest the business should +begin to prosper under the poor young wife's management. + +"Let us give her a rap over the knuckles, and disgust her with the +business," said the brothers Cointet. + +One of the pair, the practical printer, spoke to Cerizet, and asked +him to do the proof-reading for them by piecework, to relieve their +reader, who had more than he could manage. So it came to pass that +Cerizet earned more by a few hours' work of an evening for the +brothers Cointet than by a whole day's work for David Sechard. Other +transactions followed; the Cointets seeing no small aptitude in +Cerizet, he was told that it was a pity that he should be in a +position so little favorable to his interests. + +"You might be foreman some day in a big printing office, making six +francs a day," said one of the Cointets one day, "and with your +intelligence you might come to have a share in the business." + +"Where is the use of my being a good foreman?" returned Cerizet. "I am +an orphan, I shall be drawn for the army next year, and if I get a bad +number who is there to pay some one else to take my place?" + +"If you make yourself useful," said the well-to-do printer, "why +should not somebody advance the money?" + +"It won't be my gaffer in any case!" said Cerizet. + +"Pooh! Perhaps by that time he will have found out the secret." + +The words were spoken in a way that could not but rouse the worst +thoughts in the listener; and Cerizet gave the papermaker and printer +a very searching look. + +"I do not know what he is busy about," he began prudently, as the +master said nothing, "but he is not the kind of man to look for +capitals in the lower case!" + +"Look here, my friend," said the printer, taking up half-a-dozen +sheets of the diocesan prayer-book and holding them out to Cerizet, +"if you can correct these for us by to-morrow, you shall have eighteen +francs to-morrow for them. We are not shabby here; we put our +competitor's foreman in the way of making money. As a matter of fact, +we might let Mme. Sechard go too far to draw back with her _Shepherd's +Calendar_, and ruin her; very well, we give you permission to tell her +that we are bringing out a _Shepherd's Calendar_ of our own, and to call +her attention too to the fact that she will not be the first in the +field." + +Cerizet's motive for working so slowly on the composition of the +almanac should be clear enough by this time. + +When Eve heard that the Cointets meant to spoil her poor little +speculation, dread seized upon her; at first she tried to see a proof +of attachment in Cerizet's hypocritical warning of competition; but +before long she saw signs of an over-keen curiosity in her sole +compositor--the curiosity of youth, she tried to think. + +"Cerizet," she said one morning, "you stand about on the threshold, +and wait for M. Sechard in the passage, to pry into his private +affairs; when he comes out into the yard to melt down the rollers, you +are there looking at him, instead of getting on with the almanac. +These things are not right, especially when you see that I, his wife, +respect his secrets, and take so much trouble on myself to leave him +free to give himself up to his work. If you had not wasted time, the +almanac would be finished by now, and Kolb would be selling it, and +the Cointets could have done us no harm." + +"Eh! madame," answered Cerizet. "Here am I doing five francs' worth of +composing for two francs a day, and don't you think that that is +enough? Why, if I did not read proofs of an evening for the Cointets, +I might feed myself on husks." + +"You are turning ungrateful early," said Eve, deeply hurt, not so much +by Cerizet's grumbling as by his coarse tone, threatening attitude, +and aggressive stare; "you will get on in life." + +"Not with a woman to order me about though, for it is not often that +the month has thirty days in it then." + +Feeling wounded in her womanly dignity, Eve gave Cerizet a withering +look and went upstairs again. At dinner-time she spoke to David. + +"Are you sure, dear, of that little rogue Cerizet?" + +"Cerizet!" said David. "Why, he was my youngster; I trained him, I +took him on as my copy-holder. I put him to composing; anything that +he is he owes to me, in fact! You might as well ask a father if he is +sure of his child." + +Upon this, Eve told her husband that Cerizet was reading proofs for +the Cointets. + +"Poor fellow! he must live," said David, humbled by the consciousness +that he had not done his duty as a master. + +"Yes, but there is a difference, dear, between Kolb and Cerizet--Kolb +tramps about twenty leagues every day, spends fifteen or twenty sous, +and brings us back seven and eight and sometimes nine francs of sales; +and when his expenses are paid, he never asks for more than his wages. +Kolb would sooner cut off his hand than work a lever for the Cointets; +Kolb would not peer among the things that you throw out into the yard +if people offered him a thousand crowns to do it; but Cerizet picks +them up and looks at them." + +It is hard for noble natures to think evil, to believe in ingratitude; +only through rough experience do they learn the extent of human +corruption; and even when there is nothing left them to learn in this +kind, they rise to an indulgence which is the last degree of contempt. + +"Pooh! pure Paris street-boy's curiosity," cried David. + +"Very well, dear, do me the pleasure to step downstairs and look at +the work done by this boy of yours, and tell me then whether he ought +not to have finished our almanac this month." + +David went into the workshop after dinner, and saw that the calendar +should have been set up in a week. Then, when he heard that the +Cointets were bringing out a similar almanac, he came to the rescue. +He took command of the printing office, Kolb helped at home instead of +selling broadsheets. Kolb and Marion pulled off the impressions from +one form while David worked another press with Cerizet, and +superintended the printing in various inks. Every sheet must be +printed four separate times, for which reason none but small houses +will attempt to produce a _Shepherd's Calendar_, and that only in the +country where labor is cheap, and the amount of capital employed in +the business is so small that the interest amounts to little. +Wherefore, a press which turns out beautiful work cannot compete in +the printing of such sheets, coarse though they may be. + +So, for the first time since old Sechard retired, two presses were at +work in the old house. The calendar was, in its way, a masterpiece; +but Eve was obliged to sell it for less than a halfpenny, for the +Cointets were supplying hawkers at the rate of three centimes per +copy. Eve made no loss on the copies sold to hawkers; on Kolb's sales, +made directly, she gained; but her little speculation was spoiled. +Cerizet saw that his fair employer distrusted him; in his own +conscience he posed as the accuser, and said to himself, "You suspect +me, do you? I will have my revenge," for the Paris street-boy is made +on this wise. Cerizet accordingly took pay out of all proportion to +the work of proof-reading done for the Cointets, going to their office +every evening for the sheets, and returning them in the morning. He +came to be on familiar terms with them through the daily chat, and at +length saw a chance of escaping the military service, a bait held out +to him by the brothers. So far from requiring prompting from the +Cointets, he was the first to propose the espionage and exploitation +of David's researches. + +Eve saw how little she could depend upon Cerizet, and to find another +Kolb was simply impossible; she made up her mind to dismiss her one +compositor, for the insight of a woman who loves told her that Cerizet +was a traitor; but as this meant a deathblow to the business, she took +a man's resolution. She wrote to M. Metivier, with whom David and the +Cointets and almost every papermaker in the department had business +relations, and asked him to put the following advertisement into a +trade paper: + + +"FOR SALE, as a going concern, a Printing Office, with License and +Plant; situated at Angouleme. Apply for particulars to M. Metivier, +Rue Serpente." + + +The Cointets saw the advertisement. "That little woman has a head on +her shoulders," they said. "It is time that we took her business under +our own control, by giving her enough work to live upon; we might find +a real competitor in David's successor; it is in our interest to keep +an eye upon that workshop." + +The Cointets went to speak to David Sechard, moved thereto by this +thought. Eve saw them, knew that her stratagem had succeeded at once, +and felt a thrill of the keenest joy. They stated their proposal. They +had more work than they could undertake, their presses could not keep +pace with the work, would M. Sechard print for them? They had sent to +Bordeaux for workmen, and could find enough to give full employment to +David's three presses. + +"Gentlemen," said Eve, while Cerizet went across to David's workshop +to announce the two printers, "while my husband was with the MM. Didot +he came to know of excellent workers, honest and industrious men; he +will choose his successor, no doubt, from among the best of them. If +he sold his business outright for some twenty thousand francs, it +might bring us in a thousand francs per annum; that would be better +than losing a thousand yearly over such trade as you leave us. Why did +you envy us the poor little almanac speculation, especially as we have +always brought it out?" + +"Oh, why did you not give us notice, madame? We would not have +interfered with you," one of the brothers answered blandly (he was +known as the "tall Cointet"). + +"Oh, come gentlemen! you only began your almanac after Cerizet told +you that I was bringing out mine." + +She spoke briskly, looking full at "the tall Cointet" as she spoke. He +lowered his eyes; Cerizet's treachery was proven to her. + +This brother managed the business and the paper-mill; he was by far +the cleverer man of business of the two. Jean showed no small ability +in the conduct of the printing establishment, but in intellectual +capacity he might be said to take colonel's rank, while Boniface was a +general. Jean left the command to Boniface. This latter was thin and +spare in person; his face, sallow as an altar candle, was mottled with +reddish patches; his lips were pinched; there was something in his +eyes that reminded you of a cat's eyes. Boniface Cointet never excited +himself; he would listen to the grossest insults with the serenity of +a bigot, and reply in a smooth voice. He went to mass, he went to +confession, he took the sacrament. Beneath his caressing manners, +beneath an almost spiritless look, lurked the tenacity and ambition of +the priest, and the greed of the man of business consumed with a +thirst for riches and honors. In the year 1820 "tall Cointet" wanted +all that the _bourgeoisie_ finally obtained by the Revolution of 1830. +In his heart he hated the aristocrats, and in religion he was +indifferent; he was as much or as little of a bigot as Bonaparte was a +member of the Mountain; yet his vertebral column bent with a +flexibility wonderful to behold before the noblesse and the official +hierarchy; for the powers that be, he humbled himself, he was meek and +obsequious. One final characteristic will describe him for those who +are accustomed to dealings with all kinds of men, and can appreciate +its value--Cointet concealed the expression of his eyes by wearing +colored glasses, ostensibly to preserve his sight from the reflection +of the sunlight on the white buildings in the streets; for Angouleme, +being set upon a hill, is exposed to the full glare of the sun. Tall +Cointet was really scarcely above middle height; he looked much taller +than he actually was by reason of the thinness, which told of overwork +and a brain in continual ferment. His lank, sleek gray hair, cut in +somewhat ecclesiastical fashion; the black trousers, black stockings, +black waistcoat, and long puce-colored greatcoat (styled a _levite_ in +the south), all completed his resemblance to a Jesuit. + +Boniface was called "tall Cointet" to distinguish him from his +brother, "fat Cointet," and the nicknames expressed a difference in +character as well as a physical difference between a pair of equally +redoubtable personages. As for Jean Cointet, a jolly, stout fellow, +with a face from a Flemish interior, colored by the southern sun of +Angouleme, thick-set, short and paunchy as Sancho Panza; with a smile +on his lips and a pair of sturdy shoulders, he was a striking contrast +to his older brother. Nor was the difference only physical and +intellectual. Jean might almost be called Liberal in politics; he +belonged to the Left Centre, only went to mass on Sundays, and lived +on a remarkably good understanding with the Liberal men of business. +There were those in L'Houmeau who said that this divergence between +the brothers was more apparent than real. Tall Cointet turned his +brother's seeming good nature to advantage very skilfully. Jean was +his bludgeon. It was Jean who gave all the hard words; it was Jean who +conducted the executions which little beseemed the elder brother's +benevolence. Jean took the storms department; he would fly into a +rage, and propose terms that nobody would think of accepting, to pave +the way for his brother's less unreasonable propositions. And by such +policy the pair attained their ends, sooner or later. + +Eve, with a woman's tact, had soon divined the characters of the two +brothers; she was on her guard with foes so formidable. David, +informed beforehand of everything by his wife, lent a profoundly +inattentive mind to his enemies' proposals. + +"Come to an understanding with my wife," he said, as he left the +Cointets in the office and went back to his laboratory. "Mme. Sechard +knows more about the business than I do myself. I am interested in +something that will pay better than this poor place; I hope to find a +way to retrieve the losses that I have made through you----" + +"And how?" asked the fat Cointet, chuckling. + +Eve gave her husband a look that meant, "Be careful!" + +"You will be my tributaries," said David, "and all other consumers of +papers besides." + +"Then what are you investigating?" asked the hypocritical Boniface +Cointet. + +Boniface's question slipped out smoothly and insinuatingly, and again +Eve's eyes implored her husband to give an answer that was no answer, +or to say nothing at all. + +"I am trying to produce paper at fifty per cent less than the present +cost price," and he went. He did not see the glances exchanged between +the brothers. "That is an inventor, a man of his build cannot sit with +his hands before him.--Let us exploit him," said Boniface's eyes. "How +can we do it?" said Jean's. + +Mme. Sechard spoke. "David treats me just in the same way," she said. +"If I show any curiosity, he feels suspicious of my name, no doubt, +and out comes that remark of his; it is only a formula, after all." + +"If your husband can work out the formula, he will certainly make a +fortune more quickly than by printing; I am not surprised that he +leaves the business to itself," said Boniface, looking across the +empty workshop, where Kolb, seated upon a wetting-board, was rubbing +his bread with a clove of garlic; "but it would not suit our views to +see this place in the hands of an energetic, pushing, ambitious +competitor," he continued, "and perhaps it might be possible to arrive +at an understanding. Suppose, for instance, that you consented for a +consideration to allow us to put in one of our own men to work your +presses for our benefit, but nominally for you; the thing is sometimes +done in Paris. We would find the fellow work enough to enable him to +rent your place and pay you well, and yet make a profit for himself." + +"It depends on the amount," said Eve Sechard. "What is your offer?" +she added, looking at Boniface to let him see that she understood his +scheme perfectly well. + +"What is your own idea?" Jean Cointet put in briskly. + +"Three thousand francs for six months," said she. + +"Why, my dear young lady, you were proposing to sell the place +outright for twenty thousand francs," said Boniface with much suavity. +"The interest on twenty thousand francs is only twelve hundred francs +per annum at six per cent." + +For a moment Eve was thrown into confusion; she saw the need for +discretion in matters of business. + +"You wish to use our presses and our name as well," she said; "and, as +I have already shown you, I can still do a little business. And then +we pay rent to M. Sechard senior, who does not load us with presents." + +After two hours of debate, Eve obtained two thousand francs for six +months, one thousand to be paid in advance. When everything was +concluded, the brothers informed her that they meant to put in Cerizet +as lessee of the premises. In spite of herself, Eve started with +surprise. + +"Isn't it better to have somebody who knows the workshop?" asked the +fat Cointet. + +Eve made no reply; she took leave of the brothers, vowing inwardly to +look after Cerizet. + +"Well, here are our enemies in the place!" laughed David, when Eve +brought out the papers for his signature at dinner-time. + +"Pshaw!" said she, "I will answer for Kolb and Marion; they alone +would look after things. Besides, we shall be making an income of four +thousand francs from the workshop, which only costs us money as it is; +and looking forward, I see a year in which you may realize your +hopes." + +"You were born to be the wife of a scientific worker, as you said by +the weir," said David, grasping her hand tenderly. + +But though the Sechard household had money sufficient that winter, +they were none the less subjected to Cerizet's espionage, and all +unconsciously became dependent upon Boniface Cointet. + +"We have them now!" the manager of the paper-mill had exclaimed as he +left the house with his brother the printer. "They will begin to +regard the rent as regular income; they will count upon it and run +themselves into debt. In six months' time we will decline to renew the +agreement, and then we shall see what this man of genius has at the +bottom of his mind; we will offer to help him out of his difficulty by +taking him into partnership and exploiting his discovery." + +Any shrewd man of business who should have seen tall Cointet's face as +he uttered those words, "taking him into partnership," would have +known that it behooves a man to be even more careful in the selection +of the partner whom he takes before the Tribunal of Commerce than in +the choice of the wife whom he weds at the Mayor's office. Was it not +enough already, and more than enough, that the ruthless hunters were +on the track of the quarry? How should David and his wife, with Kolb +and Marion to help them, escape the toils of a Boniface Cointet? + +A draft for five hundred francs came from Lucien, and this, with +Cerizet's second payment, enabled them to meet all the expenses of +Mme. Sechard's confinement. Eve and the mother and David had thought +that Lucien had forgotten them, and rejoiced over this token of +remembrance as they rejoiced over his success, for his first exploits +in journalism made even more noise in Angouleme than in Paris. + +But David, thus lulled into a false security, was to receive a +staggering blow, a cruel letter from Lucien:-- + + + _Lucien to David._ + + "MY DEAR DAVID,--I have drawn three bills on you, and negotiated + them with Metivier; they fall due in one, two, and three months' + time. I took this hateful course, which I know will burden you + heavily, because the one alternative was suicide. I will explain + my necessity some time, and I will try besides to send the amounts + as the bills fall due. + + "Burn this letter; say nothing to my mother and sister; for, I + confess it, I have counted upon you, upon the heroism known so + well to your despairing brother, + + "LUCIEN DE RUBEMPRE." + + +By this time Eve had recovered from her confinement. + +"Your brother, poor fellow, is in desperate straits," David told her. +"I have sent him three bills for a thousand francs at one, two, and +three months; just make a note of them," and he went out into the +fields to escape his wife's questionings. + +But Eve had felt very uneasy already. It was six months since Lucien +had written to them. She talked over the news with her mother till her +forebodings grew so dark that she made up her mind to dissipate them. +She would take a bold step in her despair. + +Young M. de Rastignac had come to spend a few days with his family. He +had spoken of Lucien in terms that set Paris gossip circulating in +Angouleme, till at last it reached the journalist's mother and sister. +Eve went to Mme. de Rastignac, asked the favor of an interview with +her son, spoke of all her fears, and asked him for the truth. In a +moment Eve heard of her brother's connection with the actress Coralie, +of his duel with Michel Chrestien, arising out of his own treacherous +behavior to Daniel d'Arthez; she received, in short, a version of +Lucien's history, colored by the personal feeling of a clever and +envious dandy. Rastignac expressed sincere admiration for the +abilities so terribly compromised, and a patriotic fear for the future +of a native genius; spite and jealousy masqueraded as pity and +friendliness. He spoke of Lucien's blunders. It seemed that Lucien had +forfeited the favor of a very great person, and that a patent +conferring the right to bear the name and arms of Rubempre had +actually been made out and subsequently torn up. + +"If your brother, madame, had been well advised, he would have been on +the way to honors, and Mme. de Bargeton's husband by this time; but +what can you expect? He deserted her and insulted her. She is now Mme. +la Comtesse Sixte du Chatelet, to her own great regret, for she loved +Lucien." + +"Is it possible!" exclaimed Mme. Sechard. + +"Your brother is like a young eagle, blinded by the first rays of +glory and luxury. When an eagle falls, who can tell how far he may +sink before he drops to the bottom of some precipice? The fall of a +great man is always proportionately great." + +Eve came away with a great dread in her heart; those last words +pierced her like an arrow. She had been wounded to the quick. She said +not a word to anybody, but again and again a tear rolled down her +cheeks, and fell upon the child at her breast. So hard is it to give +up illusions sanctioned by family feeling, illusions that have grown +with our growth, that Eve had doubted Eugene de Rastignac. She would +rather hear a true friend's account of her brother. Lucien had given +them d'Arthez's address in the days when he was full of enthusiasm for +the brotherhood; she wrote a pathetic letter to d'Arthez, and received +the following reply:-- + + + _D'Arthez to Mme. Sechard._ + + "MADAME,--You ask me to tell you the truth about the life that + your brother is leading in Paris; you are anxious for + enlightenment as to his prospects; and to encourage a frank answer + on my part, you repeat certain things that M. de Rastignac has + told you, asking me if they are true. With regard to the purely + personal matter, madame, M. de Rastignac's confidences must be + corrected in Lucien's favor. Your brother wrote a criticism of my + book, and brought it to me in remorse, telling me that he could + not bring himself to publish it, although obedience to the orders + of his party might endanger one who was very dear to him. Alas! + madame, a man of letters must needs comprehend all passions, since + it is his pride to express them; I understood that where a + mistress and a friend are involved, the friend is inevitably + sacrificed. I smoothed your brother's way; I corrected his + murderous article myself, and gave it my full approval. + + "You ask whether Lucien has kept my friendship and esteem; to this + it is difficult to make an answer. Your brother is on a road that + leads him to ruin. At this moment I still feel sorry for him; + before long I shall have forgotten him, of set purpose, not so + much on account of what he has done already as for that which he + inevitably will do. Your Lucien is not a poet, he has the poetic + temper; he dreams, he does not think; he spends himself in + emotion, he does not create. He is, in fact--permit me to say it + --a womanish creature that loves to shine, the Frenchman's great + failing. Lucien will always sacrifice his best friend for the + pleasure of displaying his own wit. He would not hesitate to sign + a pact with the Devil to-morrow if so he might secure a few years + of luxurious and glorious life. Nay, has he not done worse + already? He has bartered his future for the short-lived delights + of living openly with an actress. So far, he has not seen the + dangers of his position; the girl's youth and beauty and devotion + (for she worships him) have closed his eyes to the truth; he + cannot see that no glory or success or fortune can induce the + world to accept the position. Very well, as it is now, so it will + be with each new temptation--your brother will not look beyond the + enjoyment of the moment. Do not be alarmed: Lucien will never go + so far as a crime, he has not the strength of character; but he + would take the fruits of a crime, he would share the benefit but + not the risk--a thing that seems abhorrent to the whole world, + even to scoundrels. Oh, he would despise himself, he would repent; + but bring him once more to the test, and he would fail again; for + he is weak of will, he cannot resist the allurements of pleasure, + nor forego the least of his ambitions. He is indolent, like all + who would fain be poets; he thinks it clever to juggle with the + difficulties of life instead of facing and overcoming them. He + will be brave at one time, cowardly at another, and deserves + neither credit for his courage, nor blame for his cowardice. + Lucien is like a harp with strings that are slackened or tightened + by the atmosphere. He might write a great book in a glad or angry + mood, and care nothing for the success that he had desired for so + long. + + "When he first came to Paris he fell under the influence of an + unprincipled young fellow, and was dazzled by his companion's + adroitness and experience in the difficulties of a literary life. + This juggler completely bewitched Lucien; he dragged him into a + life which a man cannot lead and respect himself, and, unluckily + for Lucien, love shed its magic over the path. The admiration that + is given too readily is a sign of want of judgment; a poet ought + not to be paid in the same coin as a dancer on the tight-rope. We + all felt hurt when intrigue and literary rascality were preferred + to the courage and honor of those who counseled Lucien rather to + face the battle than to filch success, to spring down into the + arena rather than become a trumpet in the orchestra. + + "Society, madame, oddly enough, shows plentiful indulgence to + young men of Lucien's stamp; they are popular, the world is + fascinated by their external gifts and good looks. Nothing is + asked of them, all their sins are forgiven; they are treated like + perfect natures, others are blind to their defects, they are the + world's spoiled children. And, on the other hand, the world is + stern beyond measure to strong and complete natures. Perhaps in + this apparently flagrant injustice society acts sublimely, taking + a harlequin at his just worth, asking nothing of him but + amusement, promptly forgetting him; and asking divine great deeds + of those before whom she bends the knee. Everything is judged by + laws of its being; the diamond must be flawless; the ephemeral + creation of fashion may be flimsy, bizarre, inconsequent. So + Lucien may perhaps succeed to admiration in spite of his mistakes; + he has only to profit by some happy vein or to be among good + companions; but if an evil angel crosses his path, he will go to + the very depths of hell. 'Tis a brilliant assemblage of good + qualities embroidered upon too slight a tissue; time wears the + flowers away till nothing but the web is left; and if that is poor + stuff, you behold a rag at the last. So long as Lucien is young, + people will like him; but where will he be as a man of thirty? + That is the question which those who love him sincerely are bound + to ask themselves. If I alone had come to think in this way of + Lucien, I might perhaps have spared you the pain which my plain + speaking will give you; but to evade the questions put by your + anxiety, and to answer a cry of anguish like your letter with + commonplaces, seemed to me alike unworthy of you and of me, whom + you esteem too highly; and besides, those of my friends who knew + Lucien are unanimous in their judgment. So it appeared to me to be + a duty to put the truth before you, terrible though it may be. + Anything may be expected of Lucien, anything good or evil. That is + our opinion, and this letter is summed up in that sentence. If the + vicissitudes of his present way of life (a very wretched and + slippery one) should bring the poet back to you, use all your + influence to keep him among you; for until his character has + acquired stability, Paris will not be safe for him. He used to + speak of you, you and your husband, as his guardian angels; he has + forgotten you, no doubt; but he will remember you again when + tossed by tempest, with no refuge left to him but his home. Keep + your heart for him, madame; he will need it. + + "Permit me, madame, to convey to you the expression of the sincere + respect of a man to whom your rare qualities are known, a man who + honors your mother's fears so much, that he desires to style + himself your devoted servant, + + "D'ARTHEZ." + + +Two days after the letter came, Eve was obliged to find a wet-nurse; +her milk had dried up. She had made a god of her brother; now, in her +eyes, he was depraved through the exercise of his noblest faculties; +he was wallowing in the mire. She, noble creature that she was, was +incapable of swerving from honesty and scrupulous delicacy, from all +the pious traditions of the hearth, which still burns so clearly and +sheds its light abroad in quiet country homes. Then David had been +right in his forecasts! The leaden hues of grief overspread Eve's +white brow. She told her husband her secret in one of the pellucid +talks in which married lovers tell everything to each other. The tones +of David's voice brought comfort. Though the tears stood in his eyes +when he knew that grief had dried his wife's fair breast, and knew +Eve's despair that she could not fulfil a mother's duties, he held out +reassuring hopes. + +"Your brother's imagination has let him astray, you see, child. It is +so natural that a poet should wish for blue and purple robes, and +hurry as eagerly after festivals as he does. It is a bird that loves +glitter and luxury with such simple sincerity, that God forgives him +if man condemns him for it." + +"But he is draining our lives!" exclaimed poor Eve. + +"He is draining our lives just now, but only a few months ago he saved +us by sending us the first fruits of his earnings," said the good +David. He had the sense to see that his wife was in despair, was going +beyond the limit, and that love for Lucien would very soon come back. +"Fifty years ago, or thereabouts, Mercier said in his _Tableau de Paris_ +that a man cannot live by literature, poetry, letters, or science, by +the creatures of his brain, in short; and Lucien, poet that he is, +would not believe the experience of five centuries. The harvests that +are watered with ink are only reaped ten or twelve years after the +sowing, if indeed there is any harvest after all. Lucien has taken the +green wheat for the sheaves. He will have learned something of life, +at any rate. He was the dupe of a woman at the outset; he was sure to +be duped afterwards by the world and false friends. He has bought his +experience dear, that is all. Our ancestors used to say, 'If the son +of the house brings back his two ears and his honor safe, all is +well----'" + +"Honor!" poor Eve broke in. "Oh, but Lucien has fallen in so many +ways! Writing against his conscience! Attacking his best friend! +Living upon an actress! Showing himself in public with her. Bringing +us to lie on straw----" + +"Oh, that is nothing----!" cried David, and suddenly stopped short. +The secret of Lucien's forgery had nearly escaped him, and, unluckily, +his start left a vague, uneasy impression on Eve. + +"What do you mean by nothing?" she answered. "And where shall we find +the money to meet bills for three thousand francs?" + +"We shall be obliged to renew the lease with Cerizet, to begin with," +said David. "The Cointets have been allowing him fifteen per cent on +the work done for them, and in that way alone he has made six hundred +francs, besides contriving to make five hundred francs by job +printing." + +"If the Cointets know that, perhaps they will not renew the lease. +They will be afraid of him, for Cerizet is a dangerous man." + +"Eh! what is that to me!" cried David, "we shall be rich in a very +little while. When Lucien is rich, dear angel, he will have nothing +but good qualities." + +"Oh! David, my dear, my dear; what is this that you have said +unthinkingly? Then Lucien fallen into the clutches of poverty would +not have the force of character to resist evil? And you think just as +M. d'Arthez thinks! No one is great unless he has strength of +character, and Lucien is weak. An angel must not be tempted--what is +that?" + +"What but a nature that is noble only in its own region, its own +sphere, its heaven? I will spare him the struggle; Lucien is not meant +for it. Look here! I am so near the end now that I can talk to you +about the means." + +He drew several sheets of white paper from his pocket, brandished them +in triumph, and laid them on his wife's lap. + +"A ream of this paper, royal size, would cost five francs at the +most," he added, while Eve handled the specimens with almost childish +surprise. + +"Why, how did you make these sample bits?" she asked. + +"With an old kitchen sieve of Marion's." + +"And are you not satisfied yet?" asked Eve. + +"The problem does not lie in the manufacturing process; it is a +question of the first cost of the pulp. Alas, child, I am only a late +comer in a difficult path. As long ago as 1794, Mme. Masson tried to +use printed paper a second time; she succeeded, but what a price it +cost! The Marquis of Salisbury tried to use straw as a material in +1800, and the same idea occurred to Seguin in France in 1801. Those +sheets in your hand are made from the common rush, the _arundo +phragmites_, but I shall try nettles and thistles; for if the material +is to continue to be cheap, one must look for something that will grow +in marshes and waste lands where nothing else can be grown. The whole +secret lies in the preparation of the stems. At present my method is +not quite simple enough. Still, in spite of this difficulty, I feel +sure that I can give the French paper trade the privilege of our +literature; papermaking will be for France what coal and iron and +coarse potter's clay are for England--a monopoly. I mean to be the +Jacquart of the trade." + +Eve rose to her feet. David's simple-mindedness had roused her to +enthusiasm, to admiration; she held out her arms to him and held him +tightly to her, while she laid her head upon his shoulder. + +"You give me my reward as if I had succeeded already," he said. + +For all answer, Eve held up her sweet face, wet with tears, to his, +and for a moment she could not speak. + +"The kiss was not for the man of genius," she said, "but for my +comforter. Here is a rising glory for the glory that has set; and, in +the midst of my grief for the brother that has fallen so low, my +husband's greatness is revealed to me.--Yes, you will be great, great +like the Graindorges, the Rouvets, and Van Robais, and the Persian who +discovered madder, like all the men you have told me about; great men +whom nobody remembers, because their good deeds were obscure +industrial triumphs." + + + +"What are they doing just now?" + +It was Boniface Cointet who spoke. He was walking up and down outside +in the Place du Murier with Cerizet watching the silhouettes of the +husband and wife on the blinds. He always came at midnight for a chat +with Cerizet, for the latter played the spy upon his former master's +every movement. + +"He is showing her the paper he made this morning, no doubt," said +Cerizet. + +"What is it made of?" asked the paper manufacturer. + +"Impossible to guess," answered Cerizet; "I made a hole in the roof +and scrambled up and watched the gaffer; he was boiling pulp in a +copper pan all last night. There was a heap of stuff in a corner, but +I could make nothing of it; it looked like a heap of tow, as near as I +could make out." + +"Go no farther," said Boniface Cointet in unctuous tones; "it would +not be right. Mme. Sechard will offer to renew your lease; tell her +that you are thinking of setting up for yourself. Offer her half the +value of the plant and license, and, if she takes the bid, come to me. +In any case, spin the matter out. . . . Have they no money?" + +"Not a sou," said Cerizet. + +"Not a sou," repeated tall Cointet.--"I have them now," said he to +himself. + +Metivier, paper manufacturers' wholesale agent, and Cointet Brothers, +printers and paper manufacturers, were also bankers in all but name. +This surreptitious banking system defies all the ingenuity of the +Inland Revenue Department. Every banker is required to take out a +license which, in Paris, costs five hundred francs; but no hitherto +devised method of controlling commerce can detect the delinquents, or +compel them to pay their due to the Government. And though Metivier +and the Cointets were "outside brokers," in the language of the Stock +Exchange, none the less among them they could set some hundreds of +thousands of francs moving every three months in the markets of Paris, +Bordeaux, and Angouleme. Now it so fell out that that very evening +Cointet Brothers had received Lucien's forged bills in the course of +business. Upon this debt, tall Cointet forthwith erected a formidable +engine, pointed, as will presently be seen, against the poor, patient +inventor. + +By seven o'clock next morning, Boniface Cointet was taking a walk by +the mill stream that turned the wheels in his big factory; the sound +of the water covered his talk, for he was talking with a companion, a +young man of nine-and-twenty, who had been appointed attorney to the +Court of First Instance in Angouleme some six weeks ago. The young +man's name was Pierre Petit-Claud. + +"You are a schoolfellow of David Sechard's, are you not?" asked tall +Cointet by way of greeting to the young attorney. Petit-Claud had lost +no time in answering the wealthy manufacturer's summons. + +"Yes, sir," said Petit-Claud, keeping step with tall Cointet. + +"Have you renewed the acquaintance?" + +"We have met once or twice at most since he came back. It could hardly +have been otherwise. In Paris I was buried away in the office or at +the courts on week-days, and on Sundays and holidays I was hard at +work studying, for I had only myself to look to." (Tall Cointet nodded +approvingly.) "When we met again, David and I, he asked me what I had +done with myself. I told him that after I had finished my time at +Poitiers, I had risen to be Maitre Olivet's head-clerk, and that some +time or other I hoped to make a bid for his berth. I know a good deal +more of Lucien Chardon (de Rubempre he calls himself now), he was Mme. +de Bargeton's lover, our great poet, David Sechard's brother-in-law, +in fact." + +"Then you can go and tell David of your appointment, and offer him +your services," said tall Cointet. + +"One can't do that," said the young attorney. + +"He has never had a lawsuit, and he has no attorney, so one can do +that," said Cointet, scanning the other narrowly from behind his +colored spectacles. + +A certain quantity of gall mingled with the blood in Pierre +Petit-Claud's veins; his father was a tailor in L'Houmeau, and his +schoolfellows had looked down upon him. His complexion was of the +muddy and unwholesome kind which tells a tale of bad health, late +hours and penury, and almost always of a bad disposition. The best +description of him may be given in two familiar expressions--he was +sharp and snappish. His cracked voice suited his sour face, meagre +look, and magpie eyes of no particular color. A magpie eye, according +to Napoleon, is a sure sign of dishonesty. "Look at So-and-so," he +said to Las Cases at Saint Helena, alluding to a confidential servant +whom he had been obliged to dismiss for malversation. "I do not know +how I could have been deceived in him for so long; he has a magpie +eye." Tall Cointet, surveying the weedy little lawyer, noted his face +pitted with smallpox, the thin hair, and the forehead, bald already, +receding towards a bald cranium; saw, too, the confession of weakness +in his attitude with the hand on the hip. "Here is my man," said he to +himself. + +As a matter of fact, this Petit-Claud, who had drunk scorn like water, +was eaten up with a strong desire to succeed in life; he had no money, +but nevertheless he had the audacity to buy his employer's connection +for thirty thousand francs, reckoning upon a rich marriage to clear +off the debt, and looking to his employer, after the usual custom, to +find him a wife, for an attorney always has an interest in marrying +his successor, because he is the sooner paid off. But if Petit-Claud +counted upon his employer, he counted yet more upon himself. He had +more than average ability, and that of a kind not often found in the +provinces, and rancor was the mainspring of his power. A mighty hatred +makes a mighty effort. + +There is a great difference between a country attorney and an attorney +in Paris; tall Cointet was too clever not to know this, and to turn +the meaner passions that move a pettifogging lawyer to good account. +An eminent attorney in Paris, and there are many who may be so +qualified, is bound to possess to some extent the diplomate's +qualities; he had so much business to transact, business in which +large interests are involved; questions of such wide interest are +submitted to him that he does not look upon procedure as machinery for +bringing money into his pocket, but as a weapon of attack and defence. +A country attorney, on the other hand, cultivates the science of +costs, _broutille_, as it is called in Paris, a host of small items that +swell lawyers' bills and require stamped paper. These weighty matters +of the law completely fill the country attorney's mind; he has a bill +of costs always before his eyes, whereas his brother of Paris thinks +of nothing but his fees. The fee is a honorarium paid by a client over +and above the bill of costs, for the more or less skilful conduct of +his case. One-half of the bill of costs goes to the Treasury, whereas +the entire fee belongs to the attorney. Let us admit frankly that the +fees received are seldom as large as the fees demanded and deserved by +a clever lawyer. Wherefore, in Paris, attorneys, doctors, and +barristers, like courtesans with a chance-come lover, take very +considerable precautions against the gratitude of clients. The client +before and after the lawsuit would furnish a subject worthy of +Meissonier; there would be brisk bidding among attorneys for the +possession of two such admirable bits of genre. + +There is yet another difference between the Parisian and the country +attorney. An attorney in Paris very seldom appears in court, though he +is sometimes called upon to act as arbitrator (_refere_). Barristers, +at the present day, swarm in the provinces; but in 1822 the country +attorney very often united the functions of solicitor and counsel. As +a result of this double life, the attorney acquired the peculiar +intellectual defects of the barrister, and retained the heavy +responsibilities of the attorney. He grew talkative and fluent, and +lost his lucidity of judgment, the first necessity for the conduct of +affairs. If a man of more than ordinary ability tries to do the work +of two men, he is apt to find that the two men are mediocrities. The +Paris attorney never spends himself in forensic eloquence; and as he +seldom attempts to argue for and against, he has some hope of +preserving his mental rectitude. It is true that he brings the balista +of the law to work, and looks for the weapons in the armory of +judicial contradictions, but he keeps his own convictions as to the +case, while he does his best to gain the day. In a word, a man loses +his head not so much by thinking as by uttering thoughts. The spoken +word convinces the utterer; but a man can act against his own bad +judgment without warping it, and contrive to win in a bad cause +without maintaining that it is a good one, like the barrister. Perhaps +for this very reason an old attorney is the more likely of the two to +make a good judge. + +A country attorney, as we have seen, has plenty of excuses for his +mediocrity; he takes up the cause of petty passions, he undertakes +pettifogging business, he lives by charging expenses, he strains the +Code of procedure and pleads in court. In a word, his weak points are +legion; and if by chance you come across a remarkable man practising +as a country attorney, he is indeed above the average level. + +"I thought, sir, that you sent for me on your own affairs," said +Petit-Claud, and a glance that put an edge on his words fell upon tall +Cointet's impenetrable blue spectacles. + +"Let us have no beating about the bush," returned Boniface Cointet. +"Listen to me." + +After that beginning, big with mysterious import, Cointet set himself +down upon a bench, and beckoned Petit-Claud to do likewise. + +"When M. du Hautoy came to Angouleme in 1804, on his way to his +consulship at Valence, he made the acquaintance of Mme. de Senonches, +then Mlle. Zephirine, and had a daughter by her," added Cointet for +the attorney's ear----"Yes," he continued, as Petit-Claud gave a +start; "yes, and Mlle. Zephirine's marriage with M. de Senoches soon +followed the birth of the child. The girl was brought up in my +mother's house; she is the Mlle. Francoise de la Haye in whom Mme. de +Senoches takes an interest; she is her godmother in the usual style. +Now, my mother farmed land belonging to old Mme. de Cardanet, Mlle. +Zephirine's grandmother; and as she knew the secret of the sole +heiress of the Cardanets and the Senonches of the older branch, they +made me trustee for the little sum which M. Francois du Hautoy meant +for the girl's fortune. I made my own fortune with those ten thousand +francs, which amount to thirty thousand at the present day. Mme. de +Senonches is sure to give the wedding clothes, and some plate and +furniture to her goddaughter. Now, I can put you in the way of +marrying the girl, my lad," said Cointet, slapping Petit-Claud on the +knee; "and when you marry Francoise de la Haye, you will have a large +number of the aristocracy of Angouleme as your clients. This +understanding between us (under the rose) will open up magnificent +prospects for you. Your position will be as much as any one could +want; in fact, they don't ask better, I know." + +"What is to be done?" Petit-Claud asked eagerly. "You have an +attorney, Maitre Cachan----" + +"And, moreover, I shall not leave Cachan at once for you; I shall only +be your client later on," said Cointet significantly. "What is to be +done, do you ask, my friend? Eh! why, David Sechard's business. The +poor devil has three thousand francs' worth of bills to meet; he will +not meet them; you will stave off legal proceedings in such a way as +to increase the expenses enormously. Don't trouble yourself; go on, +pile on items. Doublon, my process-server, will act under Cachan's +directions, and he will lay on like a blacksmith. A word to the wise +is sufficient. Now, young man?----" + +An eloquent pause followed, and the two men looked at each other. + +"We have never seen each other," Cointet resumed; "I have not said a +syllable to you; you know nothing about M. du Hautoy, nor Mme. de +Senonches, nor Mlle. de la Haye; only, when the time comes, two months +hence, you will propose for the young lady. If we should want to see +each other, you will come here after dark. Let us have nothing in +writing." + +"Then you mean to ruin Sechard?" asked Petit-Claud. + +"Not exactly; but he must be in jail for some time----" + +"And what is the object?" + +"Do you think that I am noodle enough to tell you that? If you have +wit enough to find out, you will have sense enough to hold your +tongue." + +"Old Sechard has plenty of money," said Petit-Claud. He was beginning +already to enter into Boniface Cointet's notions, and foresaw a +possible cause of failure. + +"So long as the father lives, he will not give his son a farthing; and +the old printer has no mind as yet to send in an order for his funeral +cards." + +"Agreed!" said Petit-Claud, promptly making up his mind. "I don't ask +you for guarantees; I am an attorney. If any one plays me a trick, +there will be an account to settle between us." + +"The rogue will go far," thought Cointet; he bade Petit-Claud +good-morning. + +The day after this conference was the 30th of April, and the Cointets +presented the first of the three bills forged by Lucien. Unluckily, +the bill was brought to poor Mme. Sechard; and she, seeing at once +that the signature was not in her husband's handwriting, sent for +David and asked him point-blank: + +"You did not put your name to that bill, did you?" + +"No," said he; "your brother was so pressed for time that he signed +for me." + +Eve returned the bill to the bank messenger sent by the Cointets. + +"We cannot meet it," she said; then, feeling that her strength was +failing, she went up to her room. David followed her. + +"Go quickly to the Cointets, dear," Eve said faintly; "they will have +some consideration for you; beg them to wait; and call their attention +besides to the fact that when Cerizet's lease is renewed, they will +owe you a thousand francs." + +David went forthwith to his enemies. Now, any foreman may become a +master printer, but there are not always the makings of a good man of +business in a skilled typographer; David knew very little of business; +when, therefore, with a heavily-beating heart and a sensation of +throttling, David had put his excuses badly enough and formulated his +request, the answer--"This is nothing to do with us; the bill has been +passed on to us by Metivier; Metivier will pay us. Apply to M. +Metivier"--cut him short at once. + +"Oh!" cried Eve when she heard the result, "as soon as the bill is +returned to M. Metivier, we may be easy." + +At two o'clock the next day, Victor-Ange-Hermenegilde Doublon, +bailiff, made protest for non-payment at two o'clock, a time when the +Place du Murier is full of people; so that though Doublon was careful +to stand and chat at the back door with Marion and Kolb, the news of +the protest was known all over the business world of Angouleme that +evening. Tall Cointet had enjoined it upon Master Doublon to show the +Sechards the greatest consideration; but when all was said and done, +could the bailiff's hypocritical regard for appearances save Eve and +David from the disgrace of a suspension of payment? Let each judge for +himself. A tolerably long digression of this kind will seem all too +short; and ninety out of every hundred readers shall seize with +avidity upon details that possess all the piquancy of novelty, thus +establishing yet once again the trust of the well-known axiom, that +there is nothing so little known as that which everybody is supposed +to know--the Law of the Land, to wit. + +And of a truth, for the immense majority of Frenchmen, a minute +description of some part of the machinery of banking will be as +interesting as any chapter of foreign travel. When a tradesman living +in one town gives a bill to another tradesman elsewhere (as David was +supposed to have done for Lucien's benefit), the transaction ceases to +be a simple promissory note, given in the way of business by one +tradesman to another in the same place, and becomes in some sort a +letter of exchange. When, therefore, Metivier accepted Lucien's three +bills, he was obliged to send them for collection to his +correspondents in Angouleme--to Cointet Brothers, that is to say. +Hence, likewise, a certain initial loss for Lucien in exchange on +Angouleme, taking the practical shape of an abatement of so much per +cent over and above the discount. In this way Sechard's bills had +passed into circulation in the bank. You would not believe how greatly +the quality of banker, united with the august title of creditor, +changes the debtor's position. For instance, when a bill has been +passed through the bank (please note that expression), and transferred +from the money market in Paris to the financial world of Angouleme, if +that bill is protested, then the bankers in Angouleme must draw up a +detailed account of the expenses of protest and return; 'tis a duty +which they owe to themselves. Joking apart, no account of the most +romantic adventure could be more mildly improbable than this of the +journey made by a bill. Behold a certain article in the Code of +commerce authorizing the most ingenious pleasantries after +Mascarille's manner, and the interpretation thereof shall make +apparent manifold atrocities lurking beneath the formidable word +"legal." + +Master Doublon registered the protest and went himself with it to MM. +Cointet Brothers. The firm had a standing account with their bailiff; +he gave them six months' credit; and the lynxes of Angouleme +practically took a twelvemonth, though tall Cointet would say month by +month to the lynxes' jackal, "Do you want any money, Doublon?" Nor was +this all. Doublon gave the influential house a rebate upon every +transaction; it was the merest trifle, one franc fifty centimes on a +protest, for instance. + +Tall Cointet quietly sat himself down at his desk and took out a small +sheet of paper with a thirty-five centime stamp upon it, chatting as +he did so with Doublon as to the standing of some of the local +tradesmen. + +"Well, are you satisfied with young Gannerac?" + +"He is not doing badly. Lord, a carrier drives a trade----" + +"Drives a trade, yes; but, as a matter of fact, his expenses are a +heavy pull on him; his wife spends a good deal, so they tell me----" + +"Of _his_ money?" asked Doublon, with a knowing look. + +The lynx meanwhile had finished ruling his sheet of paper, and now +proceeded to trace the ominous words at the head of the following +account in bold characters:-- + + + ACCOUNT OF EXPENSES OF PROTEST AND RETURN. + + _To one bill for_ one thousand francs, _bearing date of February the + tenth, eighteen hundred and twenty-two, drawn by_ Sechard junior _of + Angouleme, to order of_ Lucien Chardon, _otherwise_ de Rubempre, + _endorsed to order of_ Metivier, _and finally to our order, matured + the thirtieth of April last, protested by_ Doublon, _process-server, + on the first of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-two._ + fr. c. + Principal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000 -- + Expenses of Protest. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 35 + Bank charges, one-half per cent. . . . . . . 5 -- + Brokerage, one-quarter per cent. . . . . . . 2 50 + Stamp on re-draft and present account. . . . 1 35 + Interest and postage . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 -- + ____ ____ + 1024 20 + Exchange at the rate of one and a quarter + per cent on 1024 fr. 20 c.. . . . . . . . 13 25 + ____ ____ + Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 45 + + _One thousand and thirty-seven francs forty-five centimes, for + which we repay ourselves by our draft at sight upon M. Metivier, + Rue Serpente, Paris, payable to order of M. Gannerac of L'Houmeau._ + + ANGOULEME, May 2, 1822 COINTET BROTHERS. + + +At the foot of this little memorandum, drafted with the ease that +comes of long practice (for the writer chatted with Doublon as he +wrote), there appeared the subjoined form of declaration:-- + + + "We, the undersigned, Postel of L'Houmeau, pharmaceutical chemist, + and Gannerac, forwarding agent, merchant of this town, hereby + certify that the present rate of exchange on Paris is one and a + quarter per cent. + + "ANGOULEME, May 2, 1822." + + +"Here, Doublon, be so good as to step round and ask Postel and +Gannerac to put their names to this declaration, and bring it back +with you to-morrow morning." + +And Doublon, quite accustomed as he was to these instruments of +torture, forthwith went, as if it were the simplest thing in the +world. Evidently the protest might have been sent in an envelope, as +in Paris, and even so all Angouleme was sure to hear of the poor +Sechards' unlucky predicament. How they all blamed his want of +business energy! His excessive fondness for his wife had been the ruin +of him, according to some; others maintained that it was his affection +for his brother-in-law; and what shocking conclusions did they not +draw from these premises! A man ought never to embrace the interests +of his kith and kin. Old Sechard's hard-hearted conduct met with +approval, and people admired him for his treatment of his son! + +And now, all you who for any reason whatsoever should forget to "honor +your engagements," look well into the methods of the banking business, +by which one thousand francs may be made to pay interest at the rate +of twenty-eight francs in ten minutes, without breaking the law of the +land. + +The thousand francs, the one incontestable item in the account, comes +first. + +The second item is shared between the bailiff and the Inland Revenue +Department. The six francs due to the State for providing a piece of +stamped paper, and putting the debtor's mortification on record, will +probably ensure a long life to this abuse; and as you already know, +one franc fifty centimes from this item found its way into the +banker's pockets in the shape of Doublon's rebate. + +"Bank charges one-half per cent," runs the third item, which appears +upon the ingenious plea that if a banker has not received payment, he +has for all practical purposes discounted a bill. And although the +contrary may be the case, if you fail to receive a thousand francs, it +seems to be very much the same thing as if you had paid them away. +Everybody who has discounted a bill knows that he has to pay more than +the six per cent fixed by law; for a small percentage appears under +the humble title of "charges," representing a premium on the financial +genius and skill with which the capitalist puts his money out to +interest. The more money he makes out of you, the more he asks. +Wherefore it would be undoubtedly cheaper to discount a bill with a +fool, if fools there be in the profession of bill-discounting. + +The law requires the banker to obtain a stock-broker's certificate for +the rate of exchange. When a place is so unlucky as to boast no stock +exchange, two merchants act instead. This is the significance of the +item "brokerage"; it is a fixed charge of a quarter per cent on the +amount of the protested bill. The custom is to consider the amount as +paid to the merchants who act for the stock-broker, and the banker +quietly puts the money into his cash-box. So much for the third item +in this delightful account. + +The fourth includes the cost of the piece of stamped paper on which +the account itself appears, as well as the cost of the stamp for +re-draft, as it is ingeniously named, viz., the banker's draft upon +his colleague in Paris. + +The fifth is a charge for postage and the legal interest due upon the +amount for the time that it may happen to be absent from the banker's +strong box. + +The final item, the exchange, is the object for which the bank exists, +which is to say, for the transmission of sums of money from one place +to another. + +Now, sift this account thoroughly, and what do you find? The method of +calculation closely resembles Polichinelle's arithmetic in Lablache's +Neapolitan song, "fifteen and five make twenty-two." The signatures of +Messieurs Postel and Gannerac were obviously given to oblige in the +way of business; the Cointets would act at need for Gannerac as +Gannerac acted for the Cointets. It was a practical application of the +well-known proverb, "Reach me the rhubarb and I will pass you the +senna." Cointet Brothers, moreover, kept a standing account with +Metivier; there was no need of a re-draft, and no re-draft was made. A +returned bill between the two firms simply meant a debit or credit +entry and another line in a ledger. + +This highly-colored account, therefore, is reduced to the one thousand +francs, with an additional thirteen francs for expenses of protest, +and half per cent for a month's delay, one thousand and eighteen +francs it may be in all. + +Suppose that in a large banking-house a bill for a thousand francs is +daily protested on an average, then the banker receives twenty-eight +francs a day by the grace of God and the constitution of the banking +system, that all powerful invention due to the Jewish intellect of the +Middle Ages, which after six centuries still controls monarchs and +peoples. In other words, a thousand francs would bring such a house +twenty-eight francs per day, or ten thousand two hundred and twenty +francs per annum. Triple the average of protests, and consequently of +expenses, and you shall derive an income of thirty thousand francs per +annum, interest upon purely fictitious capital. For which reason, +nothing is more lovingly cultivated than these little "accounts of +expenses." + +If David Sechard had come to pay his bill on the 3rd of May, that is, +the day after it was protested, MM. Cointet Brothers would have met +him at once with, "We have returned your bill to M. Metivier," +although, as a matter of fact, the document would have been lying upon +the desk. A banker has a right to make out the account of expenses on +the evening of the day when the bill is protested, and he uses the +right to "sweat the silver crowns," in the country banker's phrase. + +The Kellers, with correspondents all over the world, make twenty +thousand francs per annum by charges for postage alone; accounts of +expenses of protest pay for Mme. la Baronne de Nucingen's dresses, +opera box, and carriage. The charge for postage is a more shocking +swindle, because a house will settle ten matters of business in as +many lines of a single letter. And of the tithe wrung from misfortune, +the Government, strange to say! takes its share, and the national +revenue is swelled by a tax on commercial failure. And the Bank? from +the august height of a counting-house she flings an observation, full +of commonsense, at the debtor, "How is it?" asks she, "that you cannot +meet your bill?" and, unluckily, there is no reply to the question. +Wherefore, the "account of expenses" is an account bristling with +dreadful fictions, fit to cause any debtor, who henceforth shall +reflect upon this instructive page, a salutary shudder. + +On the 4th of May, Metivier received the account from Cointet +Brothers, with instructions to proceed against M. Lucien Chardon, +otherwise de Rubempre, with the utmost rigor of the law. + +Eve also wrote to M. Metivier, and a few days later received an answer +which reassured her completely:-- + + + _To M. Sechard, Junior, Printer, Angouleme._ + + "I have duly received your esteemed favor of the 5th instant. From + your explanation of the bill due on April 30th, I understand that + you have obliged your brother-in-law, M. de Rubempre, who is + spending so much that it will be doing you a service to summons + him. His present position is such that he is likely to delay + payment for long. If your brother-in-law should refuse payment, I + shall rely upon the credit of your old-established house.--I sign + myself now, as ever, your obedient servant, + "Metivier." + + +"Well," said Eve, commenting upon the letter to David, "Lucien will +know when they summons him that we could not pay." + +What a change wrought in Eve those few words meant! The love that grew +deeper as she came to know her husband's character better and better, +was taking the place of love for her brother in her heart. But to how +many illusions had she not bade farewell? + +And now let us trace out the whole history of the bill and the account +of expenses in the business world of Paris. The law enacts that the +third holder, the technical expression for the third party into whose +hands the bill passes, is at liberty to proceed for the whole amount +against any one of the various endorsers who appears to him to be most +likely to make prompt payment. M. Metivier, using this discretion, +served a summons upon Lucien. Behold the successive stages of the +proceedings, all of them perfectly futile. Metivier, with the Cointets +behind him, knew that Lucien was not in a position to pay, but +insolvency in fact is not insolvency in law until it has been formally +proved. + +Formal proof of Lucien's inability to pay was obtained in the +following manner: + +On the 5th of May, Metivier's process-server gave Lucien notice of the +protest and an account of the expense thereof, and summoned him to +appear before the Tribunal of Commerce, or County Court, of Paris, to +hear a vast number of things: this, among others, that he was liable +to imprisonment as a merchant. By the time that Lucien, hard pressed +and hunted down on all sides, read this jargon, he received notice of +judgment against him by default. Coralie, his mistress, ignorant of +the whole matter, imagined that Lucien had obliged his brother-in-law, +and handed him all the documents together--too late. An actress sees +so much of bailiffs, duns, and writs, upon the stage, that she looks +on all stamped paper as a farce. + +Tears filled Lucien's eyes; he was unhappy on Sechard's account, he +was ashamed of the forgery, he wished to pay, he desired to gain time. +Naturally he took counsel of his friends. But by the time Lousteau, +Blondet, Bixiou, and Nathan had told the poet to snap his fingers at a +court only established for tradesmen, Lucien was already in the +clutches of the law. He beheld upon his door the little yellow placard +which leaves its reflection on the porter's countenance, and exercises +a most astringent influence upon credit; striking terror into the +heart of the smallest tradesman, and freezing the blood in the veins +of a poet susceptible enough to care about the bits of wood, silken +rags, dyed woolen stuffs, and multifarious gimcracks entitled +furniture. + +When the broker's men came for Coralie's furniture, the author of the +_Marguerites_ fled to a friend of Bixiou's, one Desroches, a barrister, +who burst out laughing at the sight of Lucien in such a state about +nothing at all. + +"That is nothing, my dear fellow. Do you want to gain time?" + +"Yes, as much possible." + +"Very well, apply for stay of execution. Go and look up Masson, he is +a solicitor in the Commercial Court, and a friend of mine. Take your +documents to him. He will make a second application for you, and give +notice of objection to the jurisdiction of the court. There is not the +least difficulty; you are a journalist, your name is well known +enough. If they summons you before a civil court, come to me about it, +that will be my affair; I engage to send anybody who offers to annoy +the fair Coralie about his business." + +On the 28th of May, Lucien's case came on in the civil court, and +judgment was given before Desroches expected it. Lucien's creditor was +pushing on the proceedings against him. A second execution was put in, +and again Coralie's pilasters were gilded with placards. Desroches +felt rather foolish; a colleague had "caught him napping," to use his +own expression. He demurred, not without reason, that the furniture +belonged to Mlle. Coralie, with whom Lucien was living, and demanded +an order for inquiry. Thereupon the judge referred the matter to the +registrar for inquiry, the furniture was proved to belong to the +actress, and judgment was entered accordingly. Metivier appealed, and +judgment was confirmed on appeal on the 30th of June. + +On the 7th of August, Maitre Cachan received by the coach a bulky +package endorsed, "Metivier _versus_ Sechard and Lucien Chardon." + +The first document was a neat little bill, of which a copy (accuracy +guaranteed) is here given for the reader's benefit:-- + + + _To Bill due the last day of April, drawn by_ + Sechard, junior, _to order of_ Lucien de + Rubempre, _together with expenses of fr. c. + protest and return_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 45 + May 5th--Serving notice of protest and + summons to appear before the + Tribunal of Commerce in + Paris, May 7th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 75 + " 7th--Judgment by default and + warrant of arrest. . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 -- + " 10th--Notification of judgment . . . . . . . . . 8 50 + " 12th--Warrant of execution . . . . . . . . . . . 5 50 + " 14th--Inventory and appraisement + previous to execution. . . . . . . . . . . 16 -- + " 18th--Expenses of affixing placards. . . . . . . 15 25 + " 19th--Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 -- + " 24th--Verification of inventory, and + application for stay of execution + on the part of the said + Lucien de Rubempre, objecting + to the jurisdiction of the Court. . . . . . 12 -- + " 27th--Order of the Court upon application + duly repeated, and transfer of + of case to the Civil Court. . . . . . . . . 35 -- + ____ ____ + Carried forward. . . . . . . . . . . . 1177 45 + + fr. c. + Brought forward 1177 45 + May 28th--Notice of summary proceedings in + the Civil Court at the instance + of Metivier, represented by + counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 50 + June 2nd--Judgment, after hearing both + parties, condemning Lucien for + expenses of protest and return; + the plaintiff to bear costs + of proceedings in the + Commercial Court. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 -- + " 6th--Notification of judgment. . . . . . . . . . 10 -- + + " 15th--Warrant of execution. . . . . . . . . . . . 5 50 + " 19th--Inventory and appraisement preparatory + to execution; interpleader summons by + the Demoiselle Coralie, claiming goods + and chattels taken in execution; demand + for immediate special inquiry before + further proceedings be taken . . . . . . . 20 -- + " " --Judge's order referring matter to + registrar for immediate special inquiry. . 40 -- + " " --Judgment in favor of the said + Mademoiselle Coralie . . . . . . . . . . . 250 -- + " 20th--Appeal by Metivier . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 -- + " 30th--Confirmation of judgment . . . . . . . . . 250 -- + ____ ____ + Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1926 45 + __________ + + Bill matured May 31st, with expenses of fr. c. + protest and return. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 45 + Serving notice of protest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 75 + ____ ____ + Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1046 20 + + Bill matured June 30th, with expenses of + protest and return. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037 45 + Serving notice of protest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 75 + ____ ____ + Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1046 20 + __________ + + +This document was accompanied by a letter from Metivier, instructing +Maitre Cachan, notary of Angouleme, to prosecute David Sechard with +the utmost rigor of the law. Wherefore Maitre Victor-Ange-Hermenegilde +Doublon summoned David Sechard before the Tribunal of Commerce in +Angouleme for the sum-total of four thousand and eighteen francs +eighty-five centimes, the amount of the three bills and expenses +already incurred. On the morning of the very day when Doublon served +the writ upon Eve, requiring her to pay a sum so enormous in her eyes, +there came a letter like a thunderbolt from Metivier:-- + + + _To Monsieur Sechard, Junior, Printer, Angouleme._ + + "SIR,--Your brother-in-law, M. Chardon, is so shamelessly + dishonest, that he declares his furniture to be the property of an + actress with whom he is living. You ought to have informed me + candidly of these circumstances, and not have allowed me to go to + useless expense over law proceedings. I have received no answer + to my letter of the 10th of May last. You must not, therefore, + take it amiss if I ask for immediate repayment of the three bills + and the expenses to which I have been put.--Yours, etc., + "METIVIER." + + +Eve had heard nothing during these months, and supposed, in her +ignorance of commercial law, that her brother had made reparation for +his sins by meeting the forged bills. + +"Be quick, and go at once to Petit-Claud, dear," she said; "tell him +about it, and ask his advice." + +David hurried to his schoolfellow's office. + +"When you came to tell me of your appointment and offered me your +services, I did not think that I should need them so soon," he said. + +Petit-Claud studied the fine face of this man who sat opposite him in +the office chair, and scarcely listened to the details of the case, +for he knew more of them already than the speaker. As soon as he saw +Sechard's anxiety, he said to himself, "The trick has succeeded." + +This kind of comedy is often played in an attorney's office. "Why are +the Cointets persecuting him?" Petit-Claud wondered within himself, +for the attorney can use his wit to read his clients' thoughts as +clearly as the ideas of their opponents, and it is his business to see +both sides of the judicial web. + +"You want to gain time," he said at last, when Sechard had come to an +end. "How long do you want? Something like three or four months?" + +"Oh! four months! that would be my salvation," exclaimed David. +Petit-Claud appeared to him as an angel. + +"Very well. No one shall lay hands on any of your furniture, and no +one shall arrest you for four months----But it will cost you a great +deal," said Petit-Claud. + +"Eh! what does that matter to me?" cried Sechard. + +"You are expecting some money to come in; but are you sure of it?" +asked Petit-Claud, astonished at the way in which his client walked +into the toils. + +"In three months' time I shall have plenty of money," said the +inventor, with an inventor's hopeful confidence. + +"Your father is still above ground," suggested Petit-Claud; "he is in +no hurry to leave his vines." + +"Do you think that I am counting on my father's death?" returned +David. "I am on the track of a trade secret, the secret of making a +sheet of paper as strong as Dutch paper, without a thread of cotton in +it, and at a cost of fifty per cent less than cotton pulp." + +"There is a fortune in that!" exclaimed Petit-Claud. He knew now what +the tall Cointet meant. + +"A large fortune, my friend, for in ten years' time the demand for +paper will be ten times larger than it is to-day. Journalism will be +the craze of our day." + +"Nobody knows your secret?" + +"Nobody except my wife." + +"You have not told any one what you mean to do--the Cointets, for +example?" + +"I did say something about it, but in general terms, I think." + +A sudden spark of generosity flashed through Petit-Claud's rancorous +soul; he tried to reconcile Sechard's interests with the Cointet's +projects and his own. + +"Listen, David, we are old schoolfellows, you and I; I will fight your +case; but understand this clearly--the defence, in the teeth of the +law, will cost you five or six thousand francs! Do not compromise your +prospects. I think you will be compelled to share the profits of your +invention with some one of our paper manufacturers. Let us see now. +You will think twice before you buy or build a paper mill; and there +is the cost of the patent besides. All this means time, and money too. +The servers of writs will be down upon you too soon, perhaps, although +we are going to give them the slip----" + +"I have my secret," said David, with the simplicity of the man of +books. + +"Well and good, your secret will be your plank of safety," said +Petit-Claud; his first loyal intention of avoiding a lawsuit by a +compromise was frustrated. "I do not wish to know it; but mind this +that I tell you. Work in the bowels of the earth if you can, so that +no one may watch you and gain a hint from your ways of working, or +your plank will be stolen from under your feet. An inventor and a +simpleton often live in the same skin. Your mind runs so much on your +secrets that you cannot think of everything. People will begin to have +their suspicions at last, and the place is full of paper manufacturers. +So many manufacturers, so many enemies for you! You are like a beaver +with the hunters about you; do not give them your skin----" + +"Thank you, dear fellow, I have told myself all this," exclaimed +Sechard, "but I am obliged to you for showing so much concern for me +and for your forethought. It does not really matter to me myself. An +income of twelve hundred francs would be enough for me, and my father +ought by rights to leave me three times as much some day. Love and +thought make up my life--a divine life. I am working for Lucien's sake +and for my wife's." + +"Come, give me this power of attorney, and think of nothing but your +discovery. If there should be any danger of arrest, I will let you +know in time, for we must think of all possibilities. And let me tell +you again to allow no one of whom you are not so sure as you are of +yourself to come into your place." + +"Cerizet did not care to continue the lease of the plant and premises, +hence our little money difficulties. We have no one at home now but +Marion and Kolb, an Alsacien as trusty as a dog, and my wife and her +mother----" + +"One word," said Petit-Claud, "don't trust that dog----" + +"You do not know him," exclaimed David; "he is like a second self." + +"May I try him?" + +"Yes," said Sechard. + +"There, good-bye, but send Mme. Sechard to me; I must have a power of +attorney from your wife. And bear in mind, my friend, that there is a +fire burning in your affairs," said Petit-Claud, by way of warning of +all the troubles gathering in the law courts to burst upon David's +head. + +"Here am I with one foot in Burgundy and the other in Champagne," he +added to himself as he closed the office door on David. + +Harassed by money difficulties, beset with fears for his wife's +health, stung to the quick by Lucien's disgrace, David had worked on +at his problem. He had been trying to find a single process to replace +the various operations of pounding and maceration to which all flax or +cotton or rags, any vegetable fibre, in fact, must be subjected; and +as he went to Petit-Claud's office, he abstractedly chewed a bit of +nettle stalk that had been steeping in water. On his way home, +tolerably satisfied with his interview, he felt a little pellet +sticking between his teeth. He laid it on his hand, flattened it out, +and saw that the pulp was far superior to any previous result. The +want of cohesion is the great drawback of all vegetable fibre; straw, +for instance, yields a very brittle paper, which may almost be called +metallic and resonant. These chances only befall bold inquirers into +Nature's methods! + +"Now," said he to himself, "I must contrive to do by machinery and +some chemical agency the thing that I myself have done unconsciously." + +When his wife saw him, his face was radiant with belief in victory. +There were traces of tears in Eve's face. + +"Oh! my darling, do not trouble yourself; Petit-Claud will guarantee +that we shall not be molested for several months to come. There will +be a good deal of expense over it; but, as Petit-Claud said when he +came to the door with me, 'A Frenchman has a right to keep his +creditors waiting, provided he repays them capital, interest, and +costs.'--Very well, then, we shall do that----" + +"And live meanwhile?" asked poor Eve, who thought of everything. + +"Ah! that is true," said David, carrying his hand to his ear after the +unaccountable fashion of most perplexed mortals. + +"Mother will look after little Lucien, and I can go back to work +again," said she. + +"Eve! oh, my Eve!" cried David, holding his wife closely to him.--"At +Saintes, not very far from here, in the sixteenth century, there lived +one of the very greatest of Frenchmen, for he was not merely the +inventor of glaze, he was the glorious precursor of Buffon and Cuvier +besides; he was the first geologist, good, simple soul that he was. +Bernard Palissy endured the martyrdom appointed for all seekers into +secrets but his wife and children and all his neighbors were against +him. His wife used to sell his tools; nobody understood him, he +wandered about the countryside, he was hunted down, they jeered at +him. But I--am loved----" + +"Dearly loved!" said Eve, with the quiet serenity of the love that is +sure of itself. + +"And so may well endure all that poor Bernard Palissy suffered +--Bernard Palissy, the discoverer of Ecouen ware, the Huguenot +excepted by Charles IX. on the day of Saint-Bartholomew. He lived to +be rich and honored in his old age, and lectured on the 'Science of +Earths,' as he called it, in the face of Europe." + +"So long as my fingers can hold an iron, you shall want for nothing," +cried the poor wife, in tones that told of the deepest devotion. "When +I was Mme. Prieur's forewoman I had a friend among the girls, Basine +Clerget, a cousin of Postel's, a very good child; well, Basine told me +the other day when she brought back the linen, that she was taking +Mme. Prieur's business; I will work for her." + +"Ah! you shall not work there for long," said David; "I have found +out----" + +Eve, watching his face, saw the sublime belief in success which +sustains the inventor, the belief that gives him courage to go forth +into the virgin forests of the country of Discovery; and, for the +first time in her life, she answered that confident look with a +half-sad smile. David bent his head mournfully. + +"Oh! my dear! I am not laughing! I did not doubt! It was not a sneer!" +cried Eve, on her knees before her husband. "But I see plainly now +that you were right to tell me nothing about your experiments and your +hopes. Ah! yes, dear, an inventor should endure the long painful +travail of a great idea alone, he should not utter a word of it even +to his wife. . . . A woman is a woman still. This Eve of yours could +not help smiling when she heard you say, 'I have found out,' for the +seventeenth time this month." + +David burst out laughing so heartily at his own expense that Eve +caught his hand in hers and kissed it reverently. It was a delicious +moment for them both, one of those roses of love and tenderness that +grow beside the desert paths of the bitterest poverty, nay, at times +in yet darker depths. + +As the storm of misfortune grew, Eve's courage redoubled; the +greatness of her husband's nature, his inventor's simplicity, the +tears that now and again she saw in the eyes of this dreamer of dreams +with the tender heart,--all these things aroused in her an unsuspected +energy of resistance. Once again she tried the plan that had succeeded +so well already. She wrote to M. Metivier, reminding him that the +printing office was for sale, offered to pay him out of the proceeds, +and begged him not to ruin David with needless costs. Metivier +received the heroic letter, and shammed dead. His head-clerk replied +that in the absence of M. Metivier he could not take it upon himself +to stay proceedings, for his employer had made it a rule to let the +law take its course. Eve wrote again, offering this time to renew the +bills and pay all the costs hitherto incurred. To this the clerk +consented, provided that Sechard senior guaranteed payment. So Eve +walked over to Marsac, taking Kolb and her mother with her. She braved +the old vinedresser, and so charming was she, that the old man's face +relaxed, and the puckers smoothed out at the sight of her; but when, +with inward quakings, she came to speak of a guarantee, she beheld a +sudden and complete change of the tippleographic countenance. + +"If I allowed my son to put his hand to the lips of my cash box +whenever he had a mind, he would plunge it deep into the vitals, he +would take all I have!" cried old Sechard. "That is the way with +children; they eat up their parents' purse. What did I do myself, eh? +_I_ never cost my parents a farthing. Your printing office is standing +idle. The rats and the mice do all the printing that is done in +it. . . . You have a pretty face; I am very fond of you; you are a +careful, hard-working woman; but that son of mine!--Do you know what +David is? I'll tell you--he is a scholar that will never do a stroke +of work! If I had reared him, as I was reared myself, without knowing +his letters, and if I had made a 'bear' of him, like his father before +him, he would have money saved and put out to interest by now. . . . +Oh! he is my cross, that fellow is, look you! And, unluckily, he is +all the family I have, for there is never like to be a later edition. +And when he makes you unhappy----" + +Eve protested with a vehement gesture of denial. + +"Yes, he does," affirmed old Sechard; "you had to find a wet-nurse for +the child. Come, come, I know all about it, you are in the county +court, and the whole town is talking about you. I was only a 'bear,' +_I_ have no book learning, _I_ was not foreman at the Didots', the +first printers in the world; but yet I never set eyes on a bit of +stamped paper. Do you know what I say to myself as I go to and fro +among my vines, looking after them and getting in my vintage, and +doing my bits of business?--I say to myself, 'You are taking a lot of +trouble, poor old chap; working to pile one silver crown on another, +you will leave a fine property behind you, and the bailiffs and the +lawyers will get it all; . . . or else it will go in nonsensical +notions and crotchets.'--Look you here, child; you are the mother of +yonder little lad; it seemed to me as I held him at the font with Mme. +Chardon that I could see his old grandfather's copper nose on his +face; very well, think less of Sechard and more of that little rascal. +I can trust no one but you; you will prevent him from squandering my +property--my poor property." + +"But, dear papa Sechard, your son will be a credit to you, you will +see; he will make money and be a rich man one of these days, and wear +the Cross of the Legion of Honor at his buttonhole." + +"What is he going to do to get it?" + +"You will see. But, meanwhile, would a thousand crowns ruin you? A +thousand crowns would put an end to the proceedings. Well, if you +cannot trust him, lend the money to me; I will pay it back; you could +make it a charge on my portion, on my earnings----" + +"Then has some one brought David into a court of law?" cried the +vinedresser, amazed to find that the gossip was really true. "See what +comes of knowing how to write your name! And how about my rent! Oh! +little girl, I must go to Angouleme at once and ask Cachan's advice, +and see that I am straight. You did right well to come over. +Forewarned is forearmed." + +After two hours of argument Eve was fain to go, defeated by the +unanswerable _dictum_, "Women never understand business." She had come +with a faint hope, she went back again almost heartbroken, and reached +home just in time to receive notice of judgment; Sechard must pay +Metivier in full. The appearance of a bailiff at a house door is an +event in a country town, and Doublon had come far too often of late. +The whole neighborhood was talking about the Sechards. Eve dared not +leave her house; she dreaded to hear the whispers as she passed. + +"Oh! my brother, my brother!" cried poor Eve, as she hurried into the +passage and up the stairs, "I can never forgive you, unless it +was----" + +"Alas! it was that, or suicide," said David, who had followed her. + +"Let us say no more about it," she said quietly. "The woman who +dragged him down into the depths of Paris has much to answer for; and +your father, my David, is quite inexorable! Let us bear it in +silence." + +A discreet rapping at the door cut short some word of love on David's +lips. Marion appeared, towing the big, burly Kolb after her across the +outer room. + +"Madame," said Marion, "we have known, Kolb and I, that you and the +master were very much put about; and as we have eleven hundred francs +of savings between us, we thought we could not do better than put them +in the mistress' hands----" + +"Die misdress," echoed Kolb fervently. + +"Kolb," cried David, "you and I will never part. Pay a thousand francs +on account to Maitre Cachan, and take a receipt for it; we will keep +the rest. And, Kolb, no power on earth must extract a word from you as +to my work, or my absences from home, or the things you may see me +bring back; and if I send you to look for plants for me, you know, no +human being must set eyes on you. They will try to corrupt you, my +good Kolb; they will offer you thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of +francs, to tell----" + +"Dey may offer me millions," cried Kolb, "but not ein vort from me +shall dey traw. Haf I not peen in der army, and know my orders?" + +"Well, you are warned. March, and ask M. Petit-Claud to go with you as +witness." + +"Yes," said the Alsacien. "Some tay I hope to be rich enough to dust +der chacket of dat man of law. I don't like his gountenance." + +"Kolb is a good man, madame," said Big Marion; "he is as strong as a +Turk, and as meek as a lamb. Just the one that would make a woman +happy. It was his notion, too, to invest our savings this way +--'safings,' as he calls them. Poor man, if he doesn't speak right, he +thinks right, and I understand him all the same. He has a notion of +working for somebody else, so as to save us his keep----" + +"Surely we shall be rich, if it is only to repay these good folk," +said David, looking at his wife. + +Eve thought it quite simple; it was no surprise to her to find other +natures on a level with her own. The dullest--nay, the most +indifferent--observer could have seen all the beauty of her nature in +her way of receiving this service. + +"You will be rich some day, dear master," said Marion; "your bread is +ready baked. Your father has just bought another farm, he is putting +by money for you; that he is." + +And under the circumstances, did not Marion show an exquisite delicacy +of feeling by belittling, as it were, her kindness in this way? + +French procedure, like all things human, has its defects; +nevertheless, the sword of justice, being a two-edged weapon, is +excellently adapted alike for attack or defence. Procedure, moreover, +has its amusing side; for when opposed, lawyers arrive at an +understanding, as they well may do, without exchanging a word; through +their manner of conducting their case, a suit becomes a kind of war +waged on the lines laid down by the first Marshal Biron, who, at the +siege of Rouen, it may be remembered, received his son's project for +taking the city in two days with the remark, "You must be in a great +hurry to go and plant cabbages!" Let two commanders-in-chief spare +their troops as much as possible, let them imitate the Austrian +generals who give the men time to eat their soup though they fail to +effect a juncture, and escape reprimand from the Aulic Council; let +them avoid all decisive measures, and they shall carry on a war for +ever. Maitre Cachan, Petit-Claud, and Doublon, did better than the +Austrian generals; they took for their example Quintus Fabius +Cunctator--the Austrian of antiquity. + +Petit-Claud, malignant as a mule, was not long in finding out all the +advantages of his position. No sooner had Boniface Cointet guaranteed +his costs than he vowed to lead Cachan a dance, and to dazzle the +paper manufacturer with a brilliant display of genius in the creation +of items to be charged to Metivier. Unluckily for the fame of the +young forensic Figaro, the writer of this history is obliged to pass +over the scene of his exploits in as great a hurry as if he trod on +burning coals; but a single bill of costs, in the shape of the +specimen sent from Paris, will no doubt suffice for the student of +contemporary manners. Let us follow the example set us by the +Bulletins of the Grande Armee, and give a summary of Petit-Claud's +valiant feats and exploits in the province of pure law; they will be +the better appreciated for concise treatment. + +David Sechard was summoned before the Tribunal of Commerce at +Angouleme for the 3rd of July, made default, and notice of judgment +was served on the 8th. On the 10th, Doublon obtained an execution +warrant, and attempted to put in an execution on the 12th. On this +Petit-Claud applied for an interpleader summons, and served notice on +Metivier for that day fortnight. Metivier made application for a +hearing without delay, and on the 19th, Sechard's application was +dismissed. Hard upon this followed notice of judgment, authorizing the +issue of an execution warrant on the 22nd, a warrant of arrest on the +23rd, and bailiff's inventory previous to the execution on the 24th. +Metivier, Doublon, Cachan & Company were proceeding at this furious +pace, when Petit-Claud suddenly pulled them up, and stayed execution +by lodging notice of appeal on the Court-Royal. Notice of appeal, duly +reiterated on the 25th of July, drew Metivier off to Poitiers. + +"Come!" said Petit-Claud to himself, "there we are likely to stop for +some time to come." + +No sooner was the storm passed over to Poitiers, and an attorney +practising in the Court-Royal instructed to defend the case, than +Petit-Claud, a champion facing both ways, made application in Mme. +Sechard's name for the immediate separation of her estate from her +husband's; using "all diligence" (in legal language) to such purpose, +that he obtained an order from the court on the 28th, and inserted +notice at once in the _Charente Courier_. Now David the lover had +settled ten thousand francs upon his wife in the marriage contract, +making over to her as security the fixtures of the printing office and +the household furniture; and Petit-Claud therefore constituted Mme. +Sechard her husband's creditor for that small amount, drawing up a +statement of her claims on the estate in the presence of a notary on +the 1st of August. + +While Petit-Claud was busy securing the household property of his +clients, he gained the day at Poitiers on the point of law on which +the demurrer and appeals were based. He held that, as the court of the +Seine had ordered the plaintiff to pay costs of proceedings in the +Paris commercial court, David was so much the less liable for expenses +of litigation incurred upon Lucien's account. The Court-Royal took +this view of the case, and judgment was entered accordingly. David +Sechard was ordered to pay the amount in dispute in the Angouleme +Court, less the law expenses incurred in Paris; these Metivier must +pay, and each side must bear its own costs in the appeal to the +Court-Royal. + +David Sechard was duly notified of the result on the 17th of August. +On the 18th the judgment took the practical shape of an order to pay +capital, interest, and costs, followed up by notice of an execution +for the morrow. Upon this Petit-Claud intervened and put in a claim +for the furniture as the wife's property duly separated from her +husband's; and what was more, Petit-Claud produced Sechard senior upon +the scene of action. The old vinegrower had become his client on this +wise. He came to Angouleme on the day after Eve's visit, and went to +Maitre Cachan for advice. His son owed him arrears of rent; how could +he come by this rent in the scrimmage in which his son was engaged? + +"I am engaged by the other side," pronounced Cachan, "and I cannot +appear for the father when I am suing the son; but go to Petit-Claud, +he is very clever, he may perhaps do even better for you than I should +do." + +Cachan and Petit-Claud met at the Court. + +"I have sent you Sechard senior," said Cachan; "take the case for me +in exchange." Lawyers do each other services of this kind in country +towns as well as in Paris. + +The day after Sechard senior gave Petit-Claud his confidence, the tall +Cointet paid a visit to his confederate. + +"Try to give old Sechard a lesson," he said. "He is the kind of man +that will never forgive his son for costing him a thousand francs or +so; the outlay will dry up any generous thoughts in his mind, if he +ever has any." + +"Go back to your vines," said Petit-Claud to his new client. "Your son +is not very well off; do not eat him out of house and home. I will +send for you when the time comes." + +On behalf of Sechard senior, therefore, Petit-Claud claimed that the +presses, being fixtures, were so much the more to be regarded as tools +and implements of trade, and the less liable to seizure, in that the +house had been a printing office since the reign of Louis XIV. Cachan, +on Metivier's account, waxed indignant at this. In Paris Lucien's +furniture had belonged to Coralie, and here again in Angouleme David's +goods and chattels all belonged to his wife or his father; pretty +things were said in court. Father and son were summoned; such claims +could not be allowed to stand. + +"We mean to unmask the frauds intrenched behind bad faith of the most +formidable kind; here is the defence of dishonesty bristling with the +plainest and most innocent articles of the Code, and why?--to avoid +repayment of three thousand francs; obtained how?--from poor +Metivier's cash box! And yet there are those who dare to say a word +against bill-discounters! What times we live in! . . . Now, I put it +to you--what is this but taking your neighbor's money? . . . You will +surely not sanction a claim which would bring immorality to the very +core of justice!" + +Cachan's eloquence produced an effect on the court. A divided judgment +was given in favor of Mme. Sechard, the house furniture being held to +be her property; and against Sechard senior, who was ordered to pay +costs--four hundred and thirty-four francs, sixty-five centimes. + +"It is kind of old Sechard," laughed the lawyers; "he would have a +finger in the pie, so let him pay!" + +Notice of judgment was given on the 26th of August; the presses and +plant could be seized on the 28th. Placards were posted. Application +was made for an order empowering them to sell on the spot. +Announcements of the sale appeared in the papers, and Doublon +flattered himself that the inventory should be verified and the +auction take place on the 2nd of September. + +By this time David Sechard owed Metivier five thousand two hundred and +seventy-five francs, twenty-five centimes (to say nothing of +interest), by formal judgment confirmed by appeal, the bill of costs +having been duly taxed. Likewise to Petit-Claud he owed twelve hundred +francs, exclusive of the fees, which were left to David's generosity +with the generous confidence displayed by the hackney coachman who has +driven you so quickly over the road on which you desire to go. + +Mme. Sechard owed Petit-Claud something like three hundred and fifty +francs and fees besides; and of old Sechard, besides four hundred and +thirty-four francs, sixty-five centimes, the little attorney demanded +a hundred crowns by way of fee. Altogether, the Sechard family owed +about ten thousand francs. This is what is called "putting fire into +the bed straw." + +Apart from the utility of these documents to other nations who thus +may behold the battery of French law in action, the French legislator +ought to know the lengths to which the abuse of procedure may be +carried, always supposing that the said legislator can find time for +reading. Surely some sort of regulation might be devised, some way of +forbidding lawyers to carry on a case until the sum in dispute is more +than eaten up in costs? Is there not something ludicrous in the idea +of submitting a square yard of soil and an estate of thousands of +acres to the same legal formalities? These bare outlines of the +history of the various stages of procedure should open the eyes of +Frenchmen to the meaning of the words "legal formalities, justice, and +costs," little as the immense majority of the nations know about them. + +Five thousand pounds' weight of type in the printing office were worth +two thousand francs as old metal; the three presses were valued at six +hundred francs; the rest of the plant would fetch the price of old +iron and firewood. The household furniture would have brought in a +thousand francs at most. The whole personal property of Sechard junior +therefore represented the sum of four thousand francs; and Cachan and +Petit-Claud made claims for seven thousand francs in costs already +incurred, to say nothing of expenses to come, for the blossom gave +promise of fine fruits enough, as the reader will shortly see. Surely +the lawyers of France and Navarre, nay, even of Normandy herself, will +not refuse Petit-Claud his meed of admiration and respect? Surely, +too, kind hearts will give Marion and Kolb a tear of sympathy? + +All through the war Kolb sat on a chair in the doorway, acting as +watch-dog, when David had nothing else for him to do. It was Kolb who +received all the notifications, and a clerk of Petit-Claud's kept +watch over Kolb. No sooner were the placards announcing the auction +put up on the premises than Kolb tore them down; he hurried round the +town after the bill-poster, tearing the placards from the walls. + +"Ah, scountrels!" he cried, "to dorment so goot a man; and they calls +it chustice!" + +Marion made half a franc a day by working half time in a paper mill as +a machine tender, and her wages contributed to the support of the +household. Mme. Chardon went back uncomplainingly to her old +occupation, sitting up night after night, and bringing home her wages +at the end of the week. Poor Mme. Chardon! Twice already she had made +a nine days' prayer for those she loved, wondering that God should be +deaf to her petitions, and blind to the light of the candles on His +altar. + +On the 2nd of September, a letter came from Lucien, the first since +the letter of the winter, which David had kept from his wife's +knowledge--the announcement of the three bills which bore David's +signature. This time Lucien wrote to Eve. + +"The third since he left us!" she said. Poor sister, she was afraid to +open the envelope that covered the fatal sheet. + +She was feeding the little one when the post came in; they could not +afford a wet-nurse now, and the child was being brought up by hand. +Her state of mind may be imagined, and David's also, when he had been +roused to read the letter, for David had been at work all night, and +only lay down at daybreak. + + + _Lucien to Eve._ + + "PARIS, August 29th. + + "MY DEAR SISTER,--Two days ago, at five o'clock in the morning, + one of God's noblest creatures breathed her last in my arms; she + was the one woman on earth capable of loving me as you and mother + and David love me, giving me besides that unselfish affection, + something that neither mother nor sister can give--the utmost + bliss of love. Poor Coralie, after giving up everything for my + sake, may perhaps have died for me--for me, who at this moment + have not the wherewithal to bury her. She could have solaced my + life; you, and you alone, my dear good angels, can console me for + her death. God has forgiven her, I think, the innocent girl, for + she died like a Christian. Oh, this Paris! Eve, Paris is the glory + and the shame of France. Many illusions I have lost here already, + and I have others yet to lose, when I begin to beg for the little + money needed before I can lay the body of my angel in consecrated + earth. + "Your unhappy brother, + "Lucien." + + "P. S. I must have given you much trouble by my heedlessness; some + day you will know all, and you will forgive me. You must be quite + easy now; a worthy merchant, a M. Camusot, to whom I once caused + cruel pangs, promised to arrange everything, seeing that Coralie + and I were so much distressed." + + +"The sheet is still moist with his tears," said Eve, looking at the +letter with a heart so full of sympathy that something of the old love +for Lucien shone in her eyes. + +"Poor fellow, he must have suffered cruelly if he has been loved as he +says!" exclaimed Eve's husband, happy in his love; and these two +forgot all their own troubles at this cry of a supreme sorrow. Just at +that moment Marion rushed in. + +"Madame," she panted, "here they are! Here they are!" + +"Who is here?" + +"Doublon and his men, bad luck to them! Kolb will not let them come +in; they have come to sell us up." + +"No, no, they are not going to sell you up, never fear," cried a voice +in the next room, and Petit-Claud appeared upon the scene. "I have +just lodged notice of appeal. We ought not to sit down under a +judgment that attaches a stigma of bad faith to us. I did not think it +worth while to fight the case here. I let Cachan talk to gain time for +you; I am sure of gaining the day at Poitiers----" + +"But how much will it cost to win the day?" asked Mme. Sechard. + +"Fees if you win, one thousand francs if we lose our case." + +"Oh, dear!" cried poor Eve; "why, the remedy is worse than the +disease!" + +Petit-Claud was not a little confused at this cry of innocence +enlightened by the progress of the flames of litigation. It struck him +too that Eve was a very beautiful woman. In the middle of the +discussion old Sechard arrived, summoned by Petit-Claud. The old man's +presence in the chamber where his little grandson in the cradle lay +smiling at misfortune completed the scene. The young attorney at once +addressed the newcomer with: + +"You owe me seven hundred francs for the interpleader, Papa Sechard; +but you can charge the amount to your son in addition to the arrears +of rent." + +The vinedresser felt the sting of the sarcasm conveyed by +Petit-Claud's tone and manner. + +"It would have cost you less to give security for the debt at first," +said Eve, leaving the cradle to greet her father-in-law with a kiss. + +David, quite overcome by the sight of the crowd outside the house (for +Kolb's resistance to Doublon's men had collected a knot of people), +could only hold out a hand to his father; he did not say a word. + +"And how, pray, do I come to owe you seven hundred francs?" the old +man asked, looking at Petit-Claud. + +"Why, in the first place, I am engaged by you. Your rent is in +question; so, as far as I am concerned, you and our debtor are one and +the same person. If your son does not pay my costs in the case, you +must pay them yourself.--But this is nothing. In a few hours David +will be put in prison; will you allow him to go?" + +"What does he owe?" + +"Something like five or six thousand francs, besides the amounts owing +to you and to his wife." + +The speech roused all the old man's suspicions at once. He looked +round the little blue-and-white bedroom at the touching scene before +his eyes--at a beautiful woman weeping over a cradle, at David bowed +down by anxieties, and then again at the lawyer. This was a trap set +for him by that lawyer; perhaps they wanted to work upon his paternal +feelings, to get money out of him? That was what it all meant. He took +alarm. He went over to the cradle and fondled the child, who held out +both little arms to him. No heir to an English peerage could be more +tenderly cared for than this little one in that house of trouble; his +little embroidered cap was lined with pale pink. + +"Eh! let David get out of it as best he may. I am thinking of this +child here," cried the old grandfather, "and the child's mother will +approve of that. David that knows so much must know how to pay his +debts." + +"Now I will just put your meaning into plain language," said +Petit-Claud ironically. "Look here, Papa Sechard, you are jealous of +your son. Hear the truth! you put David into his present position by +selling the business to him for three times its value. You ruined him +to make an extortionate bargain! Yes, don't you shake your head; you +sold the newspaper to the Cointets and pocketed all the proceeds, and +that was as much as the whole business was worth. You bear David a +grudge, not merely because you have plundered him, but because, also, +your own son is a man far above yourself. You profess to be +prodigiously fond of your grandson, to cloak your want of feeling for +your son and his wife, because you ought to pay down money _hic et nunc_ +for them, while you need only show a posthumous affection for your +grandson. You pretend to be fond of the little fellow, lest you should +be taxed with want of feeling for your own flesh and blood. That is +the bottom of it, Papa Sechard." + +"Did you fetch me over to hear this?" asked the old man, glowering at +his lawyer, his daughter-in-law, and his son in turn. + +"Monsieur!" protested poor Eve, turning to Petit-Claud, "have you +vowed to ruin us? My husband had never uttered a word against his +father." (Here the old man looked cunningly at her.) "David has told +me scores of times that you loved him in your way," she added, looking +at her father-in-law, and understanding his suspicions. + +Petit-Claud was only following out the tall Cointet's instructions. He +was widening the breach between the father and son, lest Sechard +senior should extricate David from his intolerable position. "The day +that David Sechard goes to prison shall be the day of your +introduction to Mme. de Senonches," the "tall Cointet" had said no +longer ago than yesterday. + +Mme. Sechard, with the quick insight of love, had divined +Petit-Claud's mercenary hostility, even as she had once before felt +instinctively that Cerizet was a traitor. As for David, his +astonishment may be imagined; he could not understand how Petit-Claud +came to know so much of his father's nature and his own history. +Upright and honorable as he was, he did not dream of the relations +between his lawyer and the Cointets; nor, for that matter, did he know +that the Cointets were at work behind Metivier. Meanwhile old Sechard +took his son's silence as an insult, and Petit-Claud, taking advantage +of his client's bewilderment, beat a retreat. + +"Good-bye, my dear David; you have had warning, notice of appeal +doesn't invalidate the warrant for arrest. It is the only course left +open to your creditors, and it will not be long before they take it. +So, go away at once----Or, rather, if you will take my advice, go to +the Cointets and see them about it. They have capital. If your +invention is perfected and answers the purpose, go into partnership +with them. After all, they are very good fellows----" + +"Your invention?" broke in old Sechard. + +"Why, do you suppose that your son is fool enough to let his business +slip away from him without thinking of something else?" exclaimed the +attorney. "He is on the brink of the discovery of a way of making +paper at a cost of three francs per ream, instead of ten, he tells +me." + +"One more dodge for taking me in! You are all as thick as thieves in a +fair. If David has found out such a plan, he has no need of me--he is +a millionaire! Good-bye, my dears, and a good-day to you all," and the +old man disappeared down the staircase. + +"Find some way of hiding yourself," was Petit-Claud's parting word to +David, and with that he hurried out to exasperate old Sechard still +further. He found the vinegrower growling to himself outside in the +Place du Murier, went with him as far as L'Houmeau, and there left him +with a threat of putting in an execution for the costs due to him +unless they were paid before the week was out. + +"I will pay you if you will show me how to disinherit my son without +injuring my daughter-in-law or the boy," said old Sechard, and they +parted forthwith. + +"How well the 'tall Cointet' knows the folk he is dealing with! It is +just as he said; those seven hundred francs will prevent the father +from paying seven thousand," the little lawyer thought within himself +as he climbed the path to Angouleme. "Still, that old slyboots of a +paper-maker must not overreach us; it is time to ask him for something +besides promises." + + + +"Well, David dear, what do you mean to do?" asked Eve, when the lawyer +had followed her father-in-law. + +"Marion, put your biggest pot on the fire!" called David; "I have my +secret fast." + +At this Eve put on her bonnet and shawl and walking shoes with +feverish haste. + +"Kolb, my friend, get ready to go out," she said, "and come with me; +if there is any way out of this hell, I must find it." + +When Eve had gone out, Marion spoke to David. "Do be sensible, sir," +she said, "or the mistress will fret herself to death. Make some money +to pay off your debts, and then you can try to find treasure at your +ease----" + +"Don't talk, Marion," said David; "I am going to overcome my last +difficulty, and then I can apply for the patent and the improvement on +the patent at the same time." + +This "improvement on the patent" is the curse of the French patentee. +A man may spend ten years of his life in working out some obscure +industrial problem; and when he has invented some piece of machinery, +or made a discovery of some kind, he takes out a patent and imagines +that he has a right to his own invention; then there comes a +competitor; and unless the first inventor has foreseen all possible +contingencies, the second comer makes an "improvement on the patent" +with a screw or a nut, and takes the whole thing out of his hands. The +discovery of a cheap material for paper pulp, therefore, is by no +means the conclusion of the whole matter. David Sechard was anxiously +looking ahead on all sides lest the fortune sought in the teeth of +such difficulties should be snatched out of his hands at the last. +Dutch paper as flax paper is still called, though it is no longer made +in Holland, is slightly sized; but every sheet is sized separately by +hand, and this increases the cost of production. If it were possible +to discover some way of sizing the paper in the pulping-trough, with +some inexpensive glue, like that in use to-day (though even now it is +not quite perfect), there would be no "improvement on the patent" to +fear. For the past month, accordingly, David had been making +experiments in sizing pulp. He had two discoveries before him. + +Eve went to see her mother. Fortunately, it so happened that Mme. +Chardon was nursing the deputy-magistrate's wife, who had just given +the Milauds of Nevers an heir presumptive; and Eve, in her distrust of +all attorneys and notaries, took into her head to apply for advice to +the legal guardian of widows and orphans. She wanted to know if she +could relieve David from his embarrassments by taking them upon +herself and selling her claims upon the estate, and besides, she had +some hope of discovering the truth as to Petit-Claud's unaccountable +conduct. The official, struck with Mme. Sechard's beauty, received her +not only with the respect due to a woman but with a sort of courtesy +to which Eve was not accustomed. She saw in the magistrate's face an +expression which, since her marriage, she had seen in no eyes but +Kolb's; and for a beautiful woman like Eve, this expression is the +criterion by which men are judged. When passion, or self-interest, or +age dims that spark of unquestioning fealty that gleams in a young +man's eyes, a woman feels a certain mistrust of him, and begins to +observe him critically. The Cointets, Cerizet, and Petit-Claud--all +the men whom Eve felt instinctively to be her enemies--had turned +hard, indifferent eyes on her; with the deputy-magistrate, therefore, +she felt at ease, although, in spite of his kindly courtesy, he swept +all her hopes away by his first words. + +"It is not certain, madame, that the Court-Royal will reverse the +judgment of the court restricting your lien on your husband's +property, for payment of moneys due to you by the terms of your +marriage-contract, to household goods and chattels. Your privilege +ought not to be used to defraud the other creditors. But in any case, +you will be allowed to take your share of the proceeds with the other +creditors, and your father-in-law likewise, as a privileged creditor, +for arrears of rent. When the court has given the order, other points +may be raised as to the 'contribution,' as we call it, when a schedule +of the debts is drawn up, and the creditors are paid a dividend in +proportion to their claims. + +"Then M. Petit-Claud is bringing us to bankruptcy," she cried. + +"Petit-Claud is carrying out your husband's instructions," said the +magistrate; "he is anxious to gain time, so his attorney says. In my +opinion, you would perhaps do better to waive the appeal and buy in at +the sale the indispensable implements for carrying on the business; +you and your father-in-law together might do this, you to the extent +of your claim through your marriage contract, and he for his arrears +of rent. But that would be bringing the matter to an end too soon +perhaps. The lawyers are making a good thing out of your case." + +"But then I should be entirely in M. Sechard's father's hands. I +should owe him the hire of the machinery as well as the house-rent; +and my husband would still be open to further proceedings from M. +Metivier, for M. Metivier would have had almost nothing." + +"That is true, madame." + +"Very well, then we should be even worse off than we are." + +"The arm of the law, madame, is at the creditor's disposal. You have +received three thousand francs, and you must of necessity repay the +money." + +"Oh, sir, can you think that we are capable----" Eve suddenly came to +a stop. She saw that her justification might injure her brother. + +"Oh! I know quite well that it is an obscure affair, that the debtors +on the one side are honest, scrupulous, and even behaving handsomely; +and the creditor, on the other, is only a cat's-paw----" + +Eve, aghast, looked at him with bewildered eyes. + +"You can understand," he continued, with a look full of homely +shrewdness, "that we on the bench have plenty of time to think over +all that goes on under our eyes, while the gentlemen in court are +arguing with each other." + +Eve went home in despair over her useless effort. That evening at +seven o'clock, Doublon came with the notification of imprisonment for +debt. The proceedings had reached the acute stage. + +"After this, I can only go out after nightfall," said David. + +Eve and Mme. Chardon burst into tears. To be in hiding was for them a +shameful thing. As for Kolb and Marion, they were more alarmed for +David because they had long since made up their minds that there was +no guile in their master's nature; so frightened were they on his +account, that they came upstairs under pretence of asking whether they +could do anything, and found Eve and Mme. Chardon in tears; the three +whose life had been so straightforward hitherto were overcome by the +thought that David must go into hiding. And how, moreover, could they +hope to escape the invisible spies who henceforth would dog every +least movement of a man, unluckily so absent-minded? + +"Gif montame vill vait ein liddle kvarter hour, she can regonnoitre +der enemy's camp," put in Kolb. "You shall see dot I oonderstand mein +pizness; for gif I look like ein German, I am ein drue Vrenchman, and +vat is more, I am ver' conning." + +"Oh! madame, do let him go," begged Marion. "He is only thinking of +saving his master; he hasn't another thought in his head. Kolb is not +an Alsacien, he is--eh! well--a regular Newfoundland dog for rescuing +folk." + +"Go, my good Kolb," said David; "we have still time to do something." + +Kolb hurried off to pay a visit to the bailiff; and it so fell out +that David's enemies were in Doublon's office, holding a council as to +the best way of securing him. + +The arrest of a debtor is an unheard-of thing in the country, an +abnormal proceeding if ever there was one. Everybody, in the first +place, knows everybody else, and creditor and debtor being bound to +meet each other daily all their lives long, nobody likes to take this +odious course. When a defaulter--to use the provincial term for a +debtor, for they do not mince their words in the provinces when +speaking of this legalized method of helping yourself to another man's +goods--when a defaulter plans a failure on a large scale, he takes +sanctuary in Paris. Paris is a kind of City of Refuge for provincial +bankrupts, an almost impenetrable retreat; the writ of the pursuing +bailiff has no force beyond the limits of his jurisdiction, and there +are other obstacles rendering it almost invalid. Wherefore the Paris +bailiff is empowered to enter the house of a third party to seize the +person of the debtor, while for the bailiff of the provinces the +domicile is absolutely inviolable. The law probably makes this +exception as to Paris, because there it is the rule for two or more +families to live under the same roof; but in the provinces the bailiff +who wishes to make forcible entry must have an order from the Justice +of the Peace; and so wide a discretion is allowed the Justice of the +Peace, that he is practically able to give or withhold assistance to +the bailiffs. To the honor of the Justices, it should be said, that +they dislike the office, and are by no means anxious to assist blind +passions or revenge. + +There are, besides, other and no less serious difficulties in the way +of arrest for debt--difficulties which tend to temper the severity of +legislation, and public opinion not infrequently makes a dead letter +of the law. In great cities there are poor or degraded wretches +enough; poverty and vice know no scruples, and consent to play the +spy, but in a little country town, people know each other too well to +earn wages of the bailiff; the meanest creature who should lend +himself to dirty work of this kind would be forced to leave the place. +In the absence of recognized machinery, therefore, the arrest of a +debtor is a problem presenting no small difficulty; it becomes a kind +of strife of ingenuity between the bailiff and the debtor, and matter +for many pleasant stories in the newspapers. + +Cointet the elder did not choose to appear in the affair; but the fat +Cointet openly said that he was acting for Metivier, and went to +Doublon, taking Cerizet with him. Cerizet was his foreman now, and had +promised his co-operation in return for a thousand-franc note. Doublon +could reckon upon two of his understrappers, and thus the Cointets had +four bloodhounds already on the victim's track. At the actual time of +arrest, Doublon could furthermore count upon the police force, who are +bound, if required, to assist a bailiff in the performance of his +duty. The two men, Doublon himself, and the visitors were all closeted +together in the private office, beyond the public office, on the +ground floor. + +A tolerably wide-paved lobby, a kind of passage-way, led to the public +office. The gilded scutcheons of the court, with the word "Bailiff" +printed thereon in large black letters, hung outside on the house wall +on either side the door. Both office windows gave upon the street, and +were protected by heavy iron bars; but the private office looked into +the garden at the back, wherein Doublon, an adorer of Pomona, grew +espaliers with marked success. Opposite the office door you beheld the +door of the kitchen, and, beyond the kitchen, the staircase that +ascended to the first story. The house was situated in a narrow street +at the back of the new Law Courts, then in process of construction, +and only finished after 1830.--These details are necessary if Kolb's +adventures are to be intelligible to the reader. + +It was Kolb's idea to go to the bailiff, to pretend to be willing to +betray his master, and in this way to discover the traps which would +be laid for David. Kolb told the servant who opened the door that he +wanted to speak to M. Doublon on business. The servant was busy +washing up her plates and dishes, and not very well pleased at Kolb's +interruption; she pushed open the door of the outer office, and bade +him wait there till her master was at liberty; then, as he was a +stranger to her, she told the master in the private office that "a +man" wanted to speak to him. Now, "a man" so invariably means "a +peasant," that Doublon said, "Tell him to wait," and Kolb took a seat +close to the door of the private office. There were voices talking +within. + +"Ah, by the by, how do you mean to set about it? For, if we can catch +him to-morrow, it will be so much time saved." It was the fat Cointet +who spoke. + +"Nothing easier; the gaffer has come fairly by his nickname," said +Cerizet. + +At the sound of the fat Cointet's voice, Kolb guessed at once that +they were talking about his master, especially as the sense of the +words began to dawn upon him; but, when he recognized Cerizet's tones, +his astonishment grew more and more. + +"Und dat fellow haf eaten his pread!" he thought, horror-stricken. + +"We must do it in this way, boys," said Doublon. "We will post our +men, at good long intervals, about the Rue de Beaulieu and the Place +du Murier in every direction, so that we can follow the gaffer (I like +that word) without his knowledge. We will not lose sight of him until +he is safe inside the house where he means to lie in hiding (as he +thinks); there we will leave him in peace for awhile; then some fine +day we will come across him before sunrise or sunset." + +"But what is he doing now, at this moment? He may be slipping through +our fingers," said the fat Cointet. + +"He is in his house," answered Doublon; "if he left it, I should know. +I have one witness posted in the Place du Murier, another at the +corner of the Law Courts, and another thirty paces from the house. If +our man came out, they would whistle; he could not make three paces +from his door but I should know of it at once from the signal." + +(Bailiffs speak of their understrappers by the polite title of +"witnesses.") + +Here was better hap than Kolb had expected! He went noiselessly out of +the office, and spoke to the maid in the kitchen. + +"Meestair Touplon ees encaged for som time to kom," he said; "I vill +kom back early to-morrow morning." + +A sudden idea had struck the Alsacien, and he proceeded to put it into +execution. Kolb had served in a cavalry regiment; he hurried off to +see a livery stable-keeper, an acquaintance of his, picked out a +horse, had it saddled, and rushed back to the Place du Murier. He +found Madame Eve in the lowest depths of despondency. + +"What is it, Kolb?" asked David, when the Alsacien's face looked in +upon them, scared but radiant. + +"You have scountrels all arount you. De safest way ees to hide de +master. Haf montame thought of hiding the master anywheres?" + +When Kolb, honest fellow, had explained the whole history of Cerizet's +treachery, of the circle traced about the house, and of the fat +Cointet's interest in the affair, and given the family some inkling of +the schemes set on foot by the Cointets against the master,--then +David's real position gradually became fatally clear. + +"It is the Cointet's doing!" cried poor Eve, aghast at the news; +"_they_ are proceeding against you! that accounts for Metivier's +hardness. . . . They are paper-makers--David! they want your secret!" + +"But what can we do to escape them?" exclaimed Mme. Chardon. + +"If de misdress had some liddle blace vere the master could pe +hidden," said Kolb; "I bromise to take him dere so dot nopody shall +know." + +"Wait till nightfall, and go to Basine Clerget," said Eve. "I will go +now and arrange it all with her. In this case, Basine will be like +another self to me." + +"Spies will follow you," David said at last, recovering some presence +of mind. "How can we find a way of communicating with Basine if none +of us can go to her?" + +"Montame kan go," said Kolb. "Here ees my scheme--I go out mit der +master, ve draws der vischtlers on our drack. Montame kan go to +Montemoiselle Clerchet; nopody vill vollow her. I haf a horse; I take +de master oop behint; und der teufel is in it if they katches us." + +"Very well; good-bye, dear," said poor Eve, springing to her husband's +arms; "none of us can go to see you, the risk is too great. We must +say good-bye for the whole time that your imprisonment lasts. We will +write to each other; Basine will post your letters, and I will write +under cover to her." + +No sooner did David and Kolb come out of the house than they heard a +sharp whistle, and were followed to the livery stable. Once there, +Kolb took his master up behind him, with a caution to keep tight hold. + +"Veestle avay, mind goot vriends! I care not von rap," cried Kolb. +"You vill not datch an old trooper," and the old cavalry man clapped +both spurs to his horse, and was out into the country and the darkness +not merely before the spies could follow, but before they had time to +discover the direction that he took. + +Eve meanwhile went out on the tolerably ingenious pretext of asking +advise of Postel, sat awhile enduring the insulting pity that spends +itself in words, left the Postel family, and stole away unseen to +Basine Clerget, told her troubles, and asked for help and shelter. +Basine, for greater safety, had brought Eve into her bedroom, and now +she opened the door of a little closet, lighted only by a skylight in +such a way that prying eyes could not see into it. The two friends +unstopped the flue which opened into the chimney of the stove in the +workroom, where the girls heated their irons. Eve and Basine spread +ragged coverlets over the brick floor to deaden any sound that David +might make, put in a truckle bed, a stove for his experiments, and a +table and a chair. Basine promised to bring food in the night; and as +no one had occasion to enter her room, David might defy his enemies +one and all, or even detectives. + +"At last!" Eve said, with her arms about her friend, "at last he is in +safety." + +Eve went back to Postel to submit a fresh doubt that had occurred to +her, she said. She would like the opinion of such an experienced +member of the Chamber of Commerce; she so managed that he escorted her +home, and listened patiently to his commiseration. + +"Would this have happened if you had married me?"--all the little +druggist's remarks were pitched in this key. + +Then he went home again to find Mme. Postel jealous of Mme. Sechard, +and furious with her spouse for his polite attention to that beautiful +woman. The apothecary advanced the opinion that little red-haired +women were preferable to tall, dark women, who, like fine horses, were +always in the stable, he said. He gave proofs of his sincerity, no +doubt, for Mme. Postel was very sweet to him next day. + +"We may be easy," Eve said to her mother and Marion, whom she found +still "in a taking," in the latter's phrase. + +"Oh! they are gone," said Marion, when Eve looked unthinkingly round +the room. + + + +One league out of Angouleme on the main road to Paris, Kolb stopped. + +"Vere shall we go?" + +"To Marsac," said David; "since we are on the way already, I will try +once more to soften my father's heart." + +"I would rader mount to der assault of a pattery," said Kolb, "your +resbected fader haf no heart whatefer." + +The ex-pressman had no belief in his son; he judged him from the +outside point of view, and waited for results. He had no idea, to +begin with, that he had plundered David, nor did he make allowance for +the very different circumstances under which they had begun life; he +said to himself, "I set him up with a printing-house, just as I found +it myself; and he, knowing a thousand times more than I did, cannot +keep it going." He was mentally incapable of understanding his son; he +laid the blame of failure upon him, and even prided himself, as it +were on his superiority to a far greater intellect than his own, with +the thought, "I am securing his bread for him." + +Moralists will never succeed in making us comprehend the full extent +of the influence of sentiment upon self-interest, an influence every +whit as strong as the action of interest upon our sentiments; for +every law of our nature works in two ways, and acts and reacts upon +us. + +David, on his side, understood his father, and in his sublime charity +forgave him. Kolb and David reached Marsac at eight o'clock, and +suddenly came in upon the old man as he was finishing his dinner, +which, by force of circumstances, came very near bedtime. + +"I see you because there is no help for it," said old Sechard with a +sour smile. + +"Und how should you and mein master meet? He soars in der shkies, and +you are always mit your vines! You bay for him, that's vot you are a +fader for----" + +"Come, Kolb, off with you. Put up the horse at Mme. Courtois' so as to +save inconvenience here; fathers are always in the right, remember +that." + +Kolb went off, growling like a chidden dog, obedient but protesting; +and David proposed to give his father indisputable proof of his +discovery, while reserving his secret. He offered to give him an +interest in the affair in return for money paid down; a sufficient sum +to release him from his present difficulties, with or without a +further amount of capital to be employed in developing the invention. + +"And how are you going to prove to me that you can make good paper +that costs nothing out of nothing, eh?" asked the ex-printer, giving +his son a glance, vinous, it may be, but keen, inquisitive, and +covetous; a look like a flash of lightning from a sodden cloud; for +the old "bear," faithful to his traditions, never went to bed without +a nightcap, consisting of a couple of bottles of excellent old wine, +which he "tippled down" of an evening, to use his own expression. + +"Nothing simpler," said David; "I have none of the paper about me, for +I came here to be out of Doublon's way; and having come so far, I +thought I might as well come to you at Marsac as borrow of a +money-lender. I have nothing on me but my clothes. Shut me up somewhere +on the premises, so that nobody can come in and see me at work, and----" + +"What? you will not let me see you at your work then?" asked the old +man, with an ugly look at his son. + +"You have given me to understand plainly, father, that in matters of +business there is no question of father and son----" + +"Ah! you distrust the father that gave you life!" + +"No; the other father who took away the means of earning a +livelihood." + +"Each for himself, you are right!" said the old man. "Very good, I +will put you in the cellar." + +"I will go down there with Kolb. You must let me have a large pot for +my pulp," said David; then he continued, without noticing the quick +look his father gave him,--"and you must find artichoke and asparagus +stalks for me, and nettles, and the reeds that you cut by the stream +side, and to-morrow morning I will come out of your cellar with some +splendid paper." + +"If you can do that," hiccoughed the "bear," "I will let you have, +perhaps--I will see, that is, if I can let you have--pshaw! +twenty-five thousand francs. On condition, mind, that you make as +much for me every year." + +"Put me to the proof, I am quite willing," cried David. "Kolb! take +the horse and go to Mansle, quick, buy a large hair sieve for me of a +cooper, and some glue of the grocer, and come back again as soon as +you can." + +"There! drink," said old Sechard, putting down a bottle of wine, a +loaf, and the cold remains of the dinner. "You will need your +strength. I will go and look for your bits of green stuff; green rags +you use for your pulp, and a trifle too green, I am afraid." + +Two hours later, towards eleven o'clock that night, David and Kolb +took up their quarters in a little out-house against the cellar wall; +they found the floor paved with runnel tiles, and all the apparatus +used in Angoumois for the manufacture of Cognac brandy. + +"Pans and firewood! Why, it is as good as a factory made on purpose!" +cried David. + +"Very well, good-night," said old Sechard; "I shall lock you in, and +let both the dogs loose; nobody will bring you any paper, I am sure. +You show me those sheets to-morrow, and I give you my word I will be +your partner and the business will be straightforward and properly +managed." + +David and Kolb, locked into the distillery, spent nearly two hours in +macerating the stems, using a couple of logs for mallets. The fire +blazed up, the water boiled. About two o'clock in the morning, Kolb +heard a sound which David was too busy to notice, a kind of deep +breath like a suppressed hiccough. Snatching up one of the two lighted +dips, he looked round the walls, and beheld old Sechard's empurpled +countenance filling up a square opening above a door hitherto hidden +by a pile of empty casks in the cellar itself. The cunning old man had +brought David and Kolb into his underground distillery by the outer +door, through which the casks were rolled when full. The inner door +had been made so that he could roll his puncheons straight from the +cellar into the distillery, instead of taking them round through the +yard. + +"Aha! thees eies not fair blay, you vant to shvindle your son!" cried +the Alsacien. "Do you kow vot you do ven you trink ein pottle of vine? +You gif goot trink to ein bad scountrel." + +"Oh, father!" cried David. + +"I came to see if you wanted anything," said old Sechard, half sobered +by this time. + +"Und it was for de inderest vot you take in us dot you brought der +liddle ladder!" commented Kolb, as he pushed the casks aside and flung +open the door; and there, in fact, on a short step-ladder, the old man +stood in his shirt. + +"Risking your health!" said David. + +"I think I must be walking in my sleep," said old Sechard, coming down +in confusion. "Your want of confidence in your father set me dreaming; +I dreamed you were making a pact with the Devil to do impossible +things." + +"Der teufel," said Kolb; "dot is your own bassion for de liddle +goldfinches." + +"Go back to bed again, father," said David; "lock us in if you will, +but you may save yourself the trouble of coming down again. Kolb will +mount guard." + +At four o'clock in the morning David came out of the distillery; he +had been careful to leave no sign of his occupation behind him; but he +brought out some thirty sheets of paper that left nothing to be +desired in fineness, whiteness, toughness, and strength, all of them +bearing by way of water-mark the impress of the uneven hairs of the +sieve. The old man took up the samples and put his tongue to them, the +lifelong habit of the pressman, who tests papers in this way. He felt +it between his thumb and finger, crumpled and creased it, put it +through all the trials by which a printer assays the quality of a +sample submitted to him, and when it was found wanting in no respect, +he still would not allow that he was beaten. + +"We have yet to know how it takes an impression," he said, to avoid +praising his son. + +"Funny man!" exclaimed Kolb. + +The old man was cool enough now. He cloaked his feigned hesitation +with paternal dignity. + +"I wish to tell you in fairness, father, that even now it seems to me +that paper costs more than it ought to do; I want to solve the problem +of sizing it in the pulping-trough. I have just that one improvement +to make." + +"Oho! so you are trying to trick me!" + +"Well, shall I tell you? I can size the pulp as it is, but so far I +cannot do it evenly, and the surface is as rough as a burr!" + +"Very good, size your pulp in the trough, and you shall have my +money." + +"Mein master will nefer see de golor of your money," declared Kolb. + +"Father," he began, "I have never borne you any grudge for making over +the business to me at such an exorbitant valuation; I have seen the +father through it all. I have said to myself--'The old man has worked +very hard, and he certainly gave me a better bringing up than I had a +right to expect; let him enjoy the fruits of his toil in peace, and in +his own way.--I even gave up my mother's money to you. I began +encumbered with debt, and bore all the burdens that you put upon me +without a murmur. Well, harassed for debts that were not of my making, +with no bread in the house, and my feet held to the flames, I have +found out the secret. I have struggled on patiently till my strength +is exhausted. It is perhaps your duty to help me, but do not give _me_ +a thought; think of a woman and a little one" (David could not keep +back the tears at this); "think of them, and give them help and +protection.--Kolb and Marion have given me their savings; will you do +less?" he cried at last, seeing that his father was as cold as the +impression-stone. + +"And that was not enough for you," said the old man, without the +slightest sense of shame; "why, you would waste the wealth of the +Indies! Good-night! I am too ignorant to lend a hand in schemes got up +on purpose to exploit me. A monkey will never gobble down a bear" +(alluding to the workshop nicknames); "I am a vinegrower, I am not a +banker. And what is more, look you, business between father and son +never turns out well. Stay and eat your dinner here; you shan't say +that you came for nothing." + +There are some deep-hearted natures that can force their own pain down +into inner depths unsuspected by those dearest to them; and with them, +when anguish forces its way to the surface and is visible, it is only +after a mighty upheaval. David's nature was one of these. Eve had +thoroughly understood the noble character of the man. But now that the +depths had been stirred, David's father took the wave of anguish that +passed over his son's features for a child's trick, an attempt to "get +round" his father, and his bitter grief for mortification over the +failure of the attempt. Father and son parted in anger. + +David and Kolb reached Angouleme on the stroke of midnight. They came +back on foot, and steathily, like burglars. Before one o'clock in the +morning David was installed in the impenetrable hiding-place prepared +by his wife in Basine Clerget's house. No one saw him enter it, and +the pity that henceforth should shelter David was the most resourceful +pity of all--the pity of a work-girl. + +Kolb bragged that day that he had saved his master on horseback, and +only left him in a carrier's van well on the way to Limoges. A +sufficient provision of raw material had been laid up in Basine's +cellar, and Kolb, Marion, Mme. Sechard, and her mother had no +communication with the house. + +Two days after the scene at Marsac, old Sechard came hurrying to +Angouleme and his daughter-in-law. Covetousness had brought him. There +were three clear weeks ahead before the vintage began, and he thought +he would be on the look-out for squalls, to use his own expression. To +this end he took up his quarters in one of the attics which he had +reserved by the terms of the lease, wilfully shutting his eyes to the +bareness and want that made his son's home desolate. If they owed him +rent, they could well afford to keep him. He ate his food from a +tinned iron plate, and made no marvel at it. "I began in the same +way," he told his daughter-in-law, when she apologized for the absence +of silver spoons. + +Marion was obliged to run into debt for necessaries for them all. Kolb +was earning a franc for daily wage as a brick-layer's laborer; and at +last poor Eve, who, for the sake of her husband and child, had +sacrificed her last resources to entertain David's father, saw that +she had only ten francs left. She had hoped to the last to soften the +old miser's heart by her affectionate respect, and patience, and +pretty attentions; but old Sechard was obdurate as ever. When she saw +him turn the same cold eyes on her, the same look that the Cointets +had given her, and Petit-Claud and Cerizet, she tried to watch and +guess old Sechard's intentions. Trouble thrown away! Old Sechard, +never sober, never drunk, was inscrutable; intoxication is a double +veil. If the old man's tipsiness was sometimes real, it was quite +often feigned for the purpose of extracting David's secret from his +wife. Sometimes he coaxed, sometimes he frightened his +daughter-in-law. + +"I will drink up my property; _I will buy an annuity_," he would +threaten when Eve told him that she knew nothing. + +The humiliating struggle was wearing her out; she kept silence at +last, lest she should show disrespect to her husband's father. + +"But, father," she said one day when driven to extremity, "there is a +very simple way of finding out everything. Pay David's debts; he will +come home, and you can settle it between you." + +"Ha! that is what you want to get out of me, is it?" he cried. "It is +as well to know!" + +But if Sechard had no belief in his son, he had plenty of faith in the +Cointets. He went to consult them, and the Cointets dazzled him of set +purpose, telling him that his son's experiments might mean millions of +francs. + +"If David can prove that he has succeeded, I shall not hesitate to go +into partnership with him, and reckon his discovery as half the +capital," the tall Cointet told him. + +The suspicious old man learned a good deal over nips of brandy with +the work-people, and something more by questioning Petit-Claud and +feigning stupidity; and at length he felt convinced that the Cointets +were the real movers behind Metivier; they were plotting to ruin +Sechard's printing establishment, and to lure him (Sechard) on to pay +his son's debts by holding out the discovery as a bait. The old man of +the people did not suspect that Petit-Claud was in the plot, nor had +he any idea of the toils woven to ensnare the great secret. A day came +at last when he grew angry and out of patience with the +daughter-in-law who would not so much as tell him where David was +hiding; he determined to force the laboratory door, for he had +discovered that David was wont to make his experiments in the workshop +where the rollers were melted down. + +He came downstairs very early one morning and set to work upon the +lock. + +"Hey! Papa Sechard, what are you doing there?" Marion called out. (She +had risen at daybreak to go to her papermill, and now she sprang +across to the workshop.) + +"I am in my own house, am I not?" said the old man, in some confusion. + +"Oh, indeed, are you turning thief in your old age? You are not drunk +this time either----I shall go straight to the mistress and tell her." + +"Hold your tongue, Marion," said Sechard, drawing two crowns of six +francs each from his pocket. "There----" + +"I will hold my tongue, but don't you do it again," said Marion, +shaking her finger at him, "or all Angouleme shall hear of it." + +The old man had scarcely gone out, however, when Marion went up to her +mistress. + +"Look, madame," she said, "I have had twelve francs out of your +father-in-law, and here they are----" + +"How did you do it?" + +"What was he wanting to do but to take a look at the master's pots and +pans and stuff, to find out the secret, forsooth. I knew quite well +that there was nothing in the little place, but I frightened him and +talked as if he were setting about robbing his son, and he gave me +twelve francs to say nothing about it." + +Just at that moment Basine came in radiant, and with a letter for her +friend, a letter from David written on magnificent paper, which she +handed over when they were alone. + + + "MY ADORED EVE,--I am writing to you the first letter on my first + sheet of paper made by the new process. I have solved the problem + of sizing the pulp in the trough at last. A pound of pulp costs + five sous, even supposing that the raw material is grown on good + soil with special culture; three francs' worth of sized pulp will + make a ream of paper, at twelve pounds to the ream. I am quite + sure that I can lessen the weight of books by one-half. The + envelope, the letter, and samples enclosed are all manufactured in + different ways. I kiss you; you shall have wealth now to add to + our happiness, everything else we had before." + + +"There!" said Eve, handing the samples to her father-in-law, "when the +vintage is over let your son have the money, give him a chance to make +his fortune, and you shall be repaid ten times over; he has succeeded +at last!" + +Old Sechard hurried at once to the Cointets. Every sample was tested +and minutely examined; the prices, from three to ten francs per ream, +were noted on each separate slip; some were sized, others unsized; +some were of almost metallic purity, others soft as Japanese paper; in +color there was every possible shade of white. If old Sechard and the +two Cointets had been Jews examining diamonds, their eyes could not +have glistened more eagerly. + +"Your son is on the right track," the fat Cointet said at length. + +"Very well, pay his debts," returned old Sechard. + +"By all means, if he will take us into partnership," said the tall +Cointet. + +"You are extortioners!" cried old Sechard. "You have been suing him +under Metivier's name, and you mean me to buy you off; that is the +long and the short of it. Not such a fool, gentlemen----" + +The brothers looked at one another, but they contrived to hide their +surprise at the old miser's shrewdness. + +"We are not millionaires," said fat Cointet; "we do not discount bills +for amusement. We should think ourselves well off if we could pay +ready money for our bits of accounts for rags, and we still give bills +to our dealer." + +"The experiment ought to be tried first on a much larger scale," the +tall Cointet said coldly; "sometimes you try a thing with a saucepan +and succeed, and fail utterly when you experiment with bulk. You +should help your son out of difficulties." + +"Yes; but when my son is at liberty, would he take me as his partner?" + +"That is no business of ours," said the fat Cointet. "My good man, do +you suppose that when you have paid some ten thousand francs for your +son, that there is an end of it? It will cost two thousand francs to +take out a patent; there will be journeys to Paris; and before going +to any expense, it would be prudent to do as my brother suggests, and +make a thousand reams or so; to try several whole batches to make +sure. You see, there is nothing you must be so much on your guard +against as an inventor." + +"I have a liking for bread ready buttered myself," added the tall +Cointet. + +All through that night the old man ruminated over this dilemma--"If I +pay David's debts, he will be set at liberty, and once set at liberty, +he need not share his fortune with me unless he chooses. He knows very +well that I cheated him over the first partnership, and he will not +care to try a second; so it is to my interest to keep him shut up, the +wretched boy." + +The Cointets knew enough of Sechard senior to see that they should +hunt in couples. All three said to themselves--"Experiments must be +tried before the discovery can take any practical shape. David Sechard +must be set at liberty before those experiments can be made; and David +Sechard, set at liberty, will slip through our fingers." + +Everybody involved, moreover, had his own little afterthought. + +Petit-Claud, for instance, said, "As soon as I am married, I will slip +my neck out of the Cointets' yoke; but till then I shall hold on." + +The tall Cointet thought, "I would rather have David under lock and +key, and then I should be master of the situation." + +Old Sechard, too, thought, "If I pay my son's debts, he will repay me +with a 'Thank you!'" + +Eve, hard pressed (for the old man threatened now to turn her out of +the house), would neither reveal her husband's hiding-place, nor even +send proposals of a safe-conduct. She could not feel sure of finding +so safe a refuge a second time. + +"Set your son at liberty," she told her father-in-law, "and then you +shall know everything." + +The four interested persons sat, as it were, with a banquet spread +before them, none of them daring to begin, each one suspicious and +watchful of his neighbor. A few days after David went into hiding, +Petit-Claud went to the mill to see the tall Cointet. + +"I have done my best," he said; "David has gone into prison of his own +accord somewhere or other; he is working out some improvement there in +peace. It is no fault of mine if you have not gained your end; are you +going to keep your promise?" + +"Yes, if we succeed," said the tall Cointet. "Old Sechard was here +only a day or two ago; he came to ask us some questions as to +paper-making. The old miser has got wind of his son's invention; he +wants to turn it to his own account, so there is some hope of a +partnership. You are with the father and the son----" + +"Be the third person in the trinity and give them up," smiled +Petit-Claud. + +"Yes," said Cointet. "When you have David in prison, or bound to us by +a deed of partnership, you shall marry Mlle. de la Haye." + +"Is that your _ultimatum_?" + +"My _sine qua non_," said Cointet, "since we are speaking in foreign +languages." + +"Then here is mine in plain language," Petit-Claud said drily. + +"Ah! let us have it," answered Cointet, with some curiosity. + +"You will present me to-morrow to Mme. de Sononches, and do something +definite for me; you will keep your word, in short; or I will clear +off Sechard's debts myself, sell my practice, and go into partnership +with him. I will not be duped. You have spoken out, and I am doing the +same. I have given proof, give me proof of your sincerity. You have +all, and I have nothing. If you won't do fairly by me, I know your +cards, and I shall play for my own hand." + +The tall Cointet took his hat and umbrella, his face at the same time +taking its Jesuitical expression, and out he went, bidding Petit-Claud +come with him. + +"You shall see, my friend, whether I have prepared your way for you," +said he. + +The shrewd paper-manufacturer saw his danger at a glance; and saw, +too, that with a man like Petit-Claud it was better to play above +board. Partly to be prepared for contingencies, partly to satisfy his +conscience, he had dropped a word or two to the point in the ear of +the ex-consul-general, under the pretext of putting Mlle. de la Haye's +financial position before that gentleman. + +"I have the man for Francoise," he had said; "for with thirty thousand +francs of _dot_, a girl must not expect too much nowadays." + +"We will talk it over later on," answered Francis du Hautoy, +ex-consul-general. "Mme. de Senonches' positon has altered very much +since Mme. de Bargeton went away; we very likely might marry Francoise +to some elderly country gentleman." + +"She would disgrace herself if you did," Cointet returned in his dry +way. "Better marry her to some capable, ambitious young man; you could +help him with your influence, and he would make a good position for +his wife." + +"We shall see," said Francis du Hautoy; "her godmother ought to be +consulted first, in any case." + +When M. de Bargeton died, his wife sold the great house in the Rue du +Minage. Mme. de Senonches, finding her own house scarcely large +enough, persuaded M. de Senonches to buy the Hotel de Bargeton, the +cradle of Lucien Chardon's ambitions, the scene of the earliest events +in his career. Zephirine de Senonches had it in mind to succeed to +Mme. de Bargeton; she, too, would be a kind of queen in Angouleme; she +would have "a salon," and be a great lady, in short. There was a +schism in Angouleme, a strife dating from the late M. de Bargeton's +duel with M. de Chandour. Some maintained that Louise de Negrepelisse +was blameless, others believed in Stanislas de Chandour's scandals. +Mme. de Senonches declared for the Bargetons, and began by winning +over that faction. Many frequenters of the Hotel de Bargeton had been +so accustomed for years to their nightly game of cards in the house +that they could not leave it, and Mme. de Senonches turned this fact +to account. She received every evening, and certainly gained all the +ground lost by Amelie de Chandour, who set up for a rival. + +Francis du Hautoy, living in the inmost circle of nobility in +Angouleme, went so far as to think of marrying Francoise to old M. de +Severac, Mme. du Brossard having totally failed to capture that +gentleman for her daughter; and when Mme. de Bargeton reappeared as +the prefect's wife, Zephirine's hopes for her dear goddaughter waxed +high, indeed. The Comtesse du Chatelet, so she argued, would be sure +to use her influence for her champion. + +Boniface Cointet had Angouleme at his fingers' ends; he saw all the +difficulties at a glance, and resolved to sweep them out of the way by +a bold stroke that only a Tartuffe's brain could invent. The puny +lawyer was not a little amused to find his fellow-conspirator keeping +his word with him; not a word did Petit-Claud utter; he respected the +musings of his companion, and they walked the whole way from the +paper-mill to the Rue du Minage in silence. + +"Monsieur and madame are at breakfast"--this announcement met the +ill-timed visitors on the steps. + +"Take in our names, all the same," said the tall Cointet; and feeling +sure of his position, he followed immediately behind the servant and +introduced his companion to the elaborately-affected Zephirine, who +was breakfasting in company with M. Francis du Hautoy and Mlle. de la +Haye. M. de Senonches had gone, as usual, for a day's shooting over M. +de Pimentel's land. + +"M. Petit-Claud is the young lawyer of whom I spoke to you, madame; he +will go through the trust accounts when your fair ward comes of age." + +The ex-diplomatist made a quick scrutiny of Petit-Claud, who, for his +part, was looking furtively at the "fair ward." As for Zephirine, who +heard of the matter for the first time, her surprise was so great that +she dropped her fork. + +Mlle. de la Haye, a shrewish young woman with an ill-tempered face, a +waist that could scarcely be called slender, a thin figure, and +colorless, fair hair, in spite of a certain little air that she had, +was by no means easy to marry. The "parentage unknown" on her birth +certificate was the real bar to her entrance into the sphere where her +godmother's affection stove to establish her. Mlle. de la Haye, +ignorant of her real position, was very hard to please; the richest +merchant in L'Houmeau had found no favor in her sight. Cointet saw the +sufficiently significant expression of the young lady's face at the +sight of the little lawyer, and turning, beheld a precisely similar +grimace on Petit-Claud's countenance. Mme. de Senonches and Francis +looked at each other, as if in search of an excuse for getting rid of +the visitors. All this Cointet saw. He asked M. du Hautoy for the +favor of a few minutes' speech with him, and the pair went together +into the drawing-room. + +"Fatherly affection is blinding you, sir," he said bluntly. "You will +not find it an easy thing to marry your daughter; and, acting in your +interest throughout, I have put you in a position from which you +cannot draw back; for I am fond of Francoise, she is my ward. Now +--Petit-Claud knows _everything_! His overweening ambition is a +guarantee for our dear child's happiness; for, in the first place, +Francoise will do as she likes with her husband; and, in the second, +he wants your influence. You can ask the new prefect for the post of +crown attorney for him in the court here. M. Milaud is definitely +appointed to Nevers, Petit-Claud will sell his practice, you will have +no difficulty in obtaining a deputy public prosecutor's place for him; +and it will not be long before he becomes attorney for the crown, +president of the court, deputy, what you will." + +Francis went back to the dining-room and behaved charmingly to his +daughter's suitor. He gave Mme. de Senonches a look, and brought the +scene to a close with an invitation to dine with them on the morrow; +Petit-Claud must come and discuss the business in hand. He even went +downstairs and as far as the corner with the visitors, telling +Petit-Claud that after Cointet's recommendation, both he and Mme. de +Senonches were disposed to approve all that Mlle. de la Haye's trustee +had arranged for the welfare of that little angel. + +"Oh!" cried Petit-Claud, as they came away, "what a plain girl! I have +been taken in----" + +"She looks a lady-like girl," returned Cointet, "and besides, if she +were a beauty, would they give her to you? Eh! my dear fellow, thirty +thousand francs and the influence of Mme. de Senonches and the +Comtesse du Chatelet! Many a small landowner would be wonderfully glad +of the chance, and all the more so since M. Francis du Hautoy is never +likely to marry, and all that he has will go to the girl. Your +marriage is as good as settled." + +"How?" + +"That is what I am just going to tell you," returned Cointet, and he +gave his companion an account of his recent bold stroke. "M. Milaud is +just about to be appointed attorney for the crown at Nevers, my dear +fellow," he continued; "sell your practice, and in ten years' time you +will be Keeper of the Seals. You are not the kind of a man to draw +back from any service required of you by the Court." + +"Very well," said Petit-Claud, his zeal stirred by the prospect of +such a career, "very well, be in the Place du Murier to-morrow at +half-past four; I will see old Sechard in the meantime; we will have a +deed of partnership drawn up, and the father and the son shall be +bound thereby, and delivered to the third person of the trinity +--Cointet, to wit." + + + +To return to Lucien in Paris. On the morrow of the loss announced in +his letter, he obtained a _visa_ for his passport, bought a stout holly +stick, and went to the Rue d'Enfer to take a place in the little +market van, which took him as far as Longjumeau for half a franc. He +was going home to Angouleme. At the end of the first day's tramp he +slept in a cowshed, two leagues from Arpajon. He had come no farther +than Orleans before he was very weary, and almost ready to break down, +but there he found a boatman willing to bring him as far as Tours for +three francs, and food during the journey cost him but forty sous. +Five days of walking brought him from Tours to Poitiers, and left him +with but five francs in his pockets, but he summoned up all his +remaining strength for the journey before him. + +He was overtaken by night in the open country, and had made up his +mind to sleep out of doors, when a traveling carriage passed by, +slowly climbing the hillside, and, all unknown to the postilion, the +occupants, and the servant, he managed to slip in among the luggage, +crouching in between two trunks lest he should be shaken off by the +jolting of the carriage--and so he slept. + +He awoke with the sun shining into his eyes, and the sound of voices +in his ears. The carriage had come to a standstill. Looking about him, +he knew that he was at Mansle, the little town where he had waited for +Mme. de Bargeton eighteen months before, when his heart was full of +hope and love and joy. A group of post-boys eyed him curiously and +suspiciously, covered with dust as he was, wedged in among the +luggage. Lucien jumped down, but before he could speak two travelers +stepped out of the caleche, and the words died away on his lips; for +there stood the new Prefect of the Charente, Sixte du Chatelet, and +his wife, Louise de Negrepelisse. + +"Chance gave us a traveling-companion, if we had but known!" said the +Countess. "Come in with us, monsieur." + +Lucien gave the couple a distant bow and a half-humbled half-defiant +glance; then he turned away into a cross-country road in search of +some farmhouse, where he might make a breakfast on milk and bread, and +rest awhile, and think quietly over the future. He still had three +francs left. On and on he walked with the hurrying pace of fever, +noticing as he went, down by the riverside, that the country grew more +and more picturesque. It was near mid-day when he came upon a sheet of +water with willows growing about the margin, and stopped for awhile to +rest his eyes on the cool, thick-growing leaves; and something of the +grace of the fields entered into his soul. + +In among the crests of the willows, he caught a glimpse of a mill +near-by on a branch stream, and of the thatched roof of the mill-house +where the house-leeks were growing. For all ornament, the quaint +cottage was covered with jessamine and honeysuckle and climbing hops, +and the garden about it was gay with phloxes and tall, juicy-leaved +plants. Nets lay drying in the sun along a paved causeway raised above +the highest flood level, and secured by massive piles. Ducks were +swimming in the clear mill-pond below the currents of water roaring +over the wheel. As the poet came nearer he heard the clack of the +mill, and saw the good-natured, homely woman of the house knitting on +a garden bench, and keeping an eye upon a little one who was chasing +the hens about. + +Lucien came forward. "My good woman," he said, "I am tired out; I have +a fever on me, and I have only three francs; will you undertake to +give me brown bread and milk, and let me sleep in the barn for a week? +I shall have time to write to my people, and they will either come to +fetch me or send me money." + +"I am quite willing, always supposing that my husband has no +objection.--Hey! little man!" + +The miller came up, gave Lucien a look over, and took his pipe out of +his mouth to remark, "Three francs for a weeks board? You might as +well pay nothing at all." + +"Perhaps I shall end as a miller's man," thought the poet, as his eyes +wandered over the lovely country. Then the miller's wife made a bed +ready for him, and Lucien lay down and slept so long that his hostess +was frightened. + +"Courtois," she said, next day at noon, "just go in and see whether +that young man is dead or alive; he has been lying there these +fourteen hours." + +The miller was busy spreading out his fishing-nets and lines. "It is +my belief," he said, "that the pretty fellow yonder is some starveling +play-actor without a brass farthing to bless himself with." + +"What makes you think that, little man?" asked the mistress of the +mill. + +"Lord, he is not a prince, nor a lord, nor a member of parliament, nor +a bishop; why are his hands as white as if he did nothing?" + +"Then it is very strange that he does not feel hungry and wake up," +retorted the miller's wife; she had just prepared breakfast for +yesterday's chance guest. "A play-actor, is he?" she continued. "Where +will he be going? It is too early yet for the fair at Angouleme." + +But neither the miller nor his wife suspected that (actors, princes, +and bishops apart) there is a kind of being who is both prince and +actor, and invested besides with a magnificent order of priesthood +--that the Poet seems to do nothing, yet reigns over all humanity when +he can paint humanity. + +"What can he be?" Courtois asked of his wife. + +"Suppose it should be dangerous to take him in?" queried she. + +"Pooh! thieves look more alive than that; we should have been robbed +by this time," returned her spouse. + +"I am neither a prince nor a thief, nor a bishop nor an actor," Lucien +said wearily; he must have overheard the colloquy through the window, +and now he suddenly appeared. "I am poor, I am tired out, I have come +on foot from Paris. My name is Lucien de Rubempre, and my father was +M. Chardon, who used to have Postel's business in L'Houmeau. My sister +married David Sechard, the printer in the Place du Murier at +Angouleme." + +"Stop a bit," said the miller, "that printer is the son of the old +skinflint who farms his own land at Marsac, isn't he?" + +"The very same," said Lucien. + +"He is a queer kind of father, he is!" Courtois continued. "He is +worth two hundred thousand francs and more, without counting his +money-box, and he has sold his son up, they say." + +When body and soul have been broken by a prolonged painful struggle, +there comes a crisis when a strong nature braces itself for greater +effort; but those who give way under the strain either die or sink +into unconsciousness like death. That hour of crisis had struck for +Lucien; at the vague rumor of the catastrophe that had befallen David +he seemed almost ready to succumb. "Oh! my sister!" he cried. "Oh, +God! what have I done? Base wretch that I am!" + +He dropped down on the wooden bench, looking white and powerless as a +dying man; the miller's wife brought out a bowl of milk and made him +drink, but he begged the miller to help him back to his bed, and asked +to be forgiven for bringing a dying man into their house. He thought +his last hour had come. With the shadow of death, thoughts of religion +crossed a brain so quick to conceive picturesque fancies; he would see +the cure, he would confess and receive the last sacraments. The moan, +uttered in the faint voice by a young man with such a comely face and +figure, went to Mme. Courtois' heart. + +"I say, little man, just take the horse and go to Marsac and ask Dr. +Marron to come and see this young man; he is in a very bad way, it +seems to me, and you might bring the cure as well. Perhaps they may +know more about that printer in the Place du Murier than you do, for +Postel married M. Marron's daughter." + +Courtois departed. The miller's wife tried to make Lucien take food; +like all country-bred folk, she was full of the idea that sick folk +must be made to eat. He took no notice of her, but gave way to a +violent storm of remorseful grief, a kind of mental process of +counter-irritation, which relieved him. + +The Courtois' mill lies a league away from Marsac, the town of the +district, and the half-way between Mansle and Angouleme; so it was not +long before the good miller came back with the doctor and the cure. +Both functionaries had heard rumors coupling Lucien's name with the +name of Mme. de Bargeton; and now when the whole department was +talking of the lady's marriage to the new Prefect and her return to +Angouleme as the Comtesse du Chatelet, both cure and doctor were +consumed with a violent curiosity to know why M. de Bargeton's widow +had not married the young poet with whom she had left Angouleme. And +when they heard, furthermore, that Lucien was at the mill, they were +eager to know whether the poet had come to the rescue of his +brother-in-law. Curiosity and humanity alike prompted them to go at +once to the dying man. Two hours after Courtois set out, Lucien heard +the rattle of old iron over the stony causeway, the country doctor's +ramshackle chaise came up to the door, and out stepped MM. Marron, for +the cure was the doctor's uncle. Lucien's bedside visitors were as +intimate with David's father as country neighbors usually are in a +small vine-growing township. The doctor looked at the dying man, felt +his pulse, and examined his tongue; then he looked at the miller's +wife, and smiled reassuringly. + +"Mme. Courtois," said he, "if, as I do not doubt, you have a bottle of +good wine somewhere in the cellar, and a fat eel in your fish-pond, +put them before your patient, it is only exhaustion; there is nothing +the matter with him. Our great man will be on his feet again +directly." + +"Ah! monsieur," said Lucien, "it is not the body, it is the mind that +ails. These good people have told me tidings that nearly killed me; I +have just heard the bad news of my sister, Mme. Sechard. Mme. Courtois +says that your daughter is married to Postel, monsieur, so you must +know something of David Sechard's affairs; oh, for heaven's sake, +monsieur, tell me what you know!" + +"Why, he must be in prison," began the doctor; "his father would not +help him----" + +"_In prison_!" repeated Lucien, "and why?" + +"Because some bills came from Paris; he had overlooked them, no doubt, +for he does not pay much attention to his business, they say," said +Dr. Marron. + +"Pray leave me with M. le Cure," said the poet, with a visible change +of countenance. The doctor and the miller and his wife went out of the +room, and Lucien was left alone with the old priest. + +"Sir," he said, "I feel that death is near, and I deserve to die. I am +a very miserable wretch; I can only cast myself into the arms of +religion. I, sir, _I_ have brought all these troubles on my sister and +brother, for David Sechard has been a brother to me. I drew those +bills that David could not meet! . . . I have ruined him. In my +terrible misery, I forgot the crime. A millionaire put an end to the +proceedings, and I quite believed that he had met the bills; but +nothing of the kind has been done, it seems." And Lucien told the tale +of his sorrows. The story, as he told it in his feverish excitement, +was worthy of the poet. He besought the cure to go to Angouleme and to +ask for news of Eve and his mother, Mme. Chardon, and to let him know +the truth, and whether it was still possible to repair the evil. + +"I shall live till you come back, sir," he added, as the hot tears +fell. "If my mother, and sister, and David do not cast me off, I shall +not die." + +Lucien's remorse was terrible to see, the tears, the eloquence, the +young white face with the heartbroken, despairing look, the tales of +sorrow upon sorrow till human strength could no more endure, all these +things aroused the cure's pity and interest. + +"In the provinces, as in Paris," he said, "you must believe only half +of all that you hear. Do not alarm yourself; a piece of hearsay, three +leagues away from Angouleme, is sure to be far from the truth. Old +Sechard, our neighbor, left Marsac some days ago; very likely he is +busy settling his son's difficulties. I am going to Angouleme; I will +come back and tell you whether you can return home; your confessions +and repentance will help to plead your cause." + +The cure did not know that Lucien had repented so many times during +the last eighteen months, that penitence, however impassioned, had +come to be a kind of drama with him, played to perfection, played so +far in all good faith, but none the less a drama. To the cure +succeeded the doctor. He saw that the patient was passing through a +nervous crisis, and the danger was beginning to subside. The +doctor-nephew spoke as comfortably as the cure-uncle, and at length +the patient was persuaded to take nourishment. + +Meanwhile the cure, knowing the manners and customs of the +countryside, had gone to Mansle; the coach from Ruffec to Angouleme +was due to pass about that time, and he found a vacant place in it. He +would go to his grand-nephew Postel in L'Houmeau (David's former +rival) and make inquiries of him. From the assiduity with which the +little druggist assisted his venerable relative to alight from the +abominable cage which did duty as a coach between Ruffec and +Angouleme, it was apparent to the meanest understanding that M. and +Mme. Postel founded their hopes of future ease upon the old cure's +will. + +"Have you breakfasted? Will you take something? We did not in the +least expect you! This is a pleasant surprise!" Out came questions +innumerable in a breath. + +Mme. Postel might have been born to be the wife of an apothecary in +L'Houmeau. She was a common-looking woman, about the same height as +little Postel himself, such good looks as she possessed being entirely +due to youth and health. Her florid auburn hair grew very low upon her +forehead. Her demeanor and language were in keeping with homely +features, a round countenance, the red cheeks of a country damsel, and +eyes that might almost be described as yellow. Everything about her +said plainly enough that she had been married for expectations of +money. After a year of married life, therefore, she ruled the house; +and Postel, only too happy to have discovered the heiress, meekly +submitted to his wife. Mme. Leonie Postel, _nee_ Marron, was nursing her +first child, the darling of the old cure, the doctor, and Postel, a +repulsive infant, with a strong likeness to both parents. + +"Well, uncle," said Leonie, "what has brought you to Angouleme, since +you will not take anything, and no sooner come in than you talk of +going?" + +But when the venerable ecclesiastic brought out the names of David +Sechard and Eve, little Postel grew very red, and Leonie, his wife, +felt it incumbent upon her to give him a jealous glance--the glance +that a wife never fails to give when she is perfectly sure of her +husband, and gives a look into the past by way of a caution for the +future. + +"What have yonder folk done to you, uncle, that you should mix +yourself up in their affairs?" inquired Leonie, with very perceptible +tartness. + +"They are in trouble, my girl," said the cure, and he told the Postels +about Lucien at the Courtois' mill. + +"Oh! so that is the way he came back from Paris, is it?" exclaimed +Postel. "Yet he had some brains, poor fellow, and he was ambitious, +too. He went out to look for wool, and comes home shorn. But what does +he want here? His sister is frightfully poor; for all these geniuses, +David and Lucien alike, know very little about business. There was +some talk of him at the Tribunal, and, as judge, I was obliged to sign +the warrant of execution. It was a painful duty. I do not know whether +the sister's circumstances are such that Lucien can go to her; but in +any case the little room that he used to occupy here is at liberty, +and I shall be pleased to offer it to him." + +"That is right, Postel," said the priest; he bestowed a kiss on the +infant slumbering in Leonie's arms, and, adjusting his cocked hat, +prepared to walk out of the shop. + +"You will dine with us, uncle, of course," said Mme. Postel; "if once +you meddle in these people's affairs, it will be some time before you +have done. My husband will drive you back again in his little +pony-cart." + +Husband and wife stood watching their valued, aged relative on his way +into Angouleme. "He carries himself well for his age, all the same," +remarked the druggist. + +By this time David had been in hiding for eleven days in a house only +two doors away from the druggist's shop, which the worthy ecclesiastic +had just quitted to climb the steep path into Angouleme with the news +of Lucien's present condition. + +When the Abbe Marron debouched upon the Place du Murier he found three +men, each one remarkable in his own way, and all of them bearing with +their whole weight upon the present and future of the hapless +voluntary prisoner. There stood old Sechard, the tall Cointet, and his +confederate, the puny limb of the law, three men representing three +phases of greed as widely different as the outward forms of the +speakers. The first had it in his mind to sell his own son; the +second, to betray his client; and the third, while bargaining for both +iniquities, was inwardly resolved to pay for neither. It was nearly +five o'clock. Passers-by on their way home to dinner stopped a moment +to look at the group. + +"What the devil can old Sechard and the tall Cointet have to say to +each other?" asked the more curious. + +"There was something on foot concerning that miserable wretch that +leaves his wife and child and mother-in-law to starve," suggested +some. + +"Talk of sending a boy to Paris to learn his trade!" said a provincial +oracle. + +"M. le Cure, what brings you here, eh?" exclaimed old Sechard, +catching sight of the Abbe as soon as he appeared. + +"I have come on account of your family," answered the old man. + +"Here is another of my son's notions!" exclaimed old Sechard. + +"It would not cost you much to make everybody happy all round," said +the priest, looking at the windows of the printing-house. Mme. +Sechard's beautiful face appeared at that moment between the curtains; +she was hushing her child's cries by tossing him in her arms and +singing to him. + +"Are you bringing news of my son?" asked old Sechard, "or what is more +to the purpose--money?" + +"No," answered M. Marron, "I am bringing the sister news of her +brother." + +"Of Lucien?" cried Petit-Claud. + +"Yes. He walked all the way from Paris, poor young man. I found him at +the Courtois' house; he was worn out with misery and fatigue. Oh! he +is very much to be pitied." + +Petit-Claud took the tall Cointet by the arm, saying aloud, "If we are +going to dine with Mme. de Senonches, it is time to dress." When they +had come away a few paces, he added, for his companion's benefit, +"Catch the cub, and you will soon have the dam; we have David now----" + +"I have found you a wife, find me a partner," said the tall Cointet +with a treacherous smile. + +"Lucien is an old school-fellow of mine; we used to be chums. I shall +be sure to hear something from him in a week's time. Have the banns +put up, and I will engage to put David in prison. When he is on the +jailer's register I shall have done my part." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the tall Cointet under his breath, "we might have the +patent taken out in our name; that would be the thing!" + +A shiver ran through the meagre little attorney when he heard those +words. + +Meanwhile Eve beheld her father-in-law enter with the Abbe Marron, who +had let fall a word which unfolded the whole tragedy. + +"Here is our cure, Mme. Sechard," the old man said, addressing his +daughter-in-law, "and pretty tales about your brother he has to tell +us, no doubt!" + +"Oh!" cried poor Eve, cut to the heart; "what can have happened now?" + +The cry told so unmistakably of many sorrows, of great dread on so +many grounds, that the Abbe Marron made haste to say, "Reassure +yourself, madame; he is living." + +Eve turned to the vinegrower. + +"Father," she said, "perhaps you will be good enough to go to my +mother; she must hear all that this gentleman has to tell us of +Lucien." + +The old man went in search of Mme. Chardon, and addressed her in this +wise: + +"Go and have it out with the Abbe Marron; he is a good sort, priest +though he is. Dinner will be late, no doubt. I shall come back again +in an hour," and the old man went out. Insensible as he was to +everything but the clink of money and the glitter of gold, he left +Mme. Chardon without caring to notice the effect of the shock that he +had given her. + +Mme. Chardon had changed so greatly during the last eighteen months, +that in that short time she no longer looked like the same woman. The +troubles hanging over both of her children, her abortive hopes for +Lucien, the unexpected deterioration in one in whose powers and +honesty she had for so long believed,--all these things had told +heavily upon her. Mme. Chardon was not only noble by birth, she was +noble by nature; she idolized her children; consequently, during the +last six months she had suffered as never before since her widowhood. +Lucien might have borne the name of Lucien de Rubempre by royal +letters patent; he might have founded the family anew, revived the +title, and borne the arms; he might have made a great name--he had +thrown the chance away; nay, he had fallen into the mire! + +For Mme. Chardon the mother was a harder judge than Eve the sister. +When she heard of the bills, she looked upon Lucien as lost. A mother +is often fain to shut her eyes, but she always knows the child that +she held at her breast, the child that has been always with her in the +house; and so when Eve and David discussed Lucien's chances of success +in Paris, and Lucien's mother to all appearance shared Eve's +illusions, in her inmost heart there was a tremor of fear lest David +should be right, for a mother's consciousness bore a witness to the +truth of his words. So well did she know Eve's sensitive nature, that +she could not bring herself to speak of her fears; she was obliged to +choke them down and keep such silence as mothers alone can keep when +they know how to love their children. + +And Eve, on her side, had watched her mother, and saw the ravages of +hidden grief with a feeling of dread; her mother was not growing old, +she was failing from day to day. Mother and daughter lived a live of +generous deception, and neither was deceived. The brutal old +vinegrower's speech was the last drop that filled the cup of +affliction to overflowing. The words struck a chill to Mme. Chardon's +heart. + +"Here is my mother, monsieur," said Eve, and the Abbe, looking up, saw +a white-haired woman with a face as thin and worn as the features of +some aged nun, and yet grown beautiful with the calm and sweet +expression that devout submission gives to the faces of women who walk +by the will of God, as the saying is. Then the Abbe understood the +lives of the mother and daughter, and had no more sympathy left for +Lucien; he shuddered to think of all that the victims had endured. + +"Mother," said Eve, drying her eyes as she spoke, "poor Lucien is not +very far away, he is at Marsac." + +"And why is he not here?" asked Mme. Chardon. + +Then the Abbe told the whole story as Lucien had told it to him--the +misery of the journey, the troubles of the last days in Paris. He +described the poet's agony of mind when he heard of the havoc wrought +at home by his imprudence, and his apprehension as to the reception +awaiting him at Angouleme. + +"He has doubts of us; has it come to this?" said Mme. Chardon. + +"The unhappy young man has come back to you on foot, enduring the most +terrible hardships by the way; he is prepared to enter the humblest +walks in life--if so he may make reparation." + +"Monsieur," Lucien's sister said, "in spite of the wrong he has done +us, I love my brother still, as we love the dead body when the soul +has left it; and even so, I love him more than many sisters love their +brothers. He has made us poor indeed; but let him come to us, he shall +share the last crust of bread, anything indeed that he has left us. +Oh, if he had never left us, monsieur, we should not have lost our +heart's treasure." + +"And the woman who took him from us brought him back on her carriage!" +exclaimed Mme. Chardon. "He went away sitting by Mme. de Bargeton's +side in her caleche, and he came back behind it." + +"Can I do anything for you?" asked the good cure, seeking an +opportunity to take leave. + +"A wound in the purse is not fatal, they say, monsieur," said Mme. +Chardon, "but the patient must be his own doctor." + +"If you have sufficient influence with my father-in-law to induce him +to help his son, you would save a whole family," said Eve. + +"He has no belief in you, and he seemed to me to be very much +exasperated against your husband," answered the old cure. He retained +an impression, from the ex-pressman's rambling talk, that the +Sechards' affairs were a kind of wasps' nest with which it was +imprudent to meddle, and his mission being fulfilled, he went to dine +with his nephew Postel. That worthy, like the rest of Angouleme, +maintained that the father was in the right, and soon dissipated any +little benevolence that the old gentleman was disposed to feel towards +the son and his family. + +"With those that squander money something may be done," concluded +little Postel, "but those that make experiments are the ruin of you." + +The cure went home; his curiosity was thoroughly satisfied, and this +is the end and object of the exceeding interest taken in other +people's business in the provinces. In the course of the evening the +poet was duly informed of all that had passed in the Sechard family, +and the journey was represented as a pilgrimage undertaken from +motives of the purest charity. + +"You have run your brother-in-law and sister into debt to the amount +of ten or twelve thousand francs," said the Abbe as he drew to an end, +"and nobody hereabouts has that trifling amount to lend a neighbor, my +dear sir. We are not rich in Angoumois. When you spoke to me of your +bills, I thought that a much smaller amount was involved." + +Lucien thanked the old man for his good offices. "The promise of +forgiveness which you have brought is for me a priceless gift." + +Very early the next morning Lucien set out from Marsac, and reached +Angouleme towards nine o'clock. He carried nothing but his +walking-stick; the short jacket that he wore was considerably the worst +for his journey, his black trousers were whitened with dust, and a pair +of worn boots told sufficiently plainly that their owner belonged to the +hapless tribe of tramps. He knew well enough that the contrast between +his departure and return was bound to strike his fellow-townsmen; he +did not try to hide the fact from himself. But just then, with his +heart swelling beneath the oppression of remorse awakened in him by +the old cure's story, he accepted his punishment for the moment, and +made up his mind to brave the eyes of his acquaintances. Within +himself he said, "I am behaving heroically." + +Poetic temperaments of this stamp begin as their own dupes. He walked +up through L'Houmeau, shame at the manner of his return struggling +with the charm of old associations as he went. His heart beat quickly +as he passed Postel's shop; but, very luckily for him, the only +persons inside it were Leonie and her child. And yet, vanity was still +so strong in him, that he could feel glad that his father's name had +been painted out on the shop-front; for Postel, since his marriage, +had redecorated his abode, and the word "Pharmacy" now alone appeared +there, in the Paris fashion, in big letters. + +When Lucien reached the steps by the Palet Gate, he felt the influence +of his native air, his misfortunes no longer weighed upon him. "I +shall see them again!" he said to himself, with a thrill of delight. + +He reached the Place du Murier, and had not met a soul, a piece of +luck that he scarcely hoped for, he who once had gone about his native +place with a conqueror's air. Marion and Kolb, on guard at the door, +flew out upon the steps, crying out, "Here he is!" + +Lucien saw the familiar workshop and courtyard, and on the staircase +met his mother and sister, and for a moment, while their arms were +about him, all three almost forgot their troubles. In family life we +almost always compound with our misfortunes; we make a sort of bed to +rest upon; and, if it is hard, hope to make it tolerable. If Lucien +looked the picture of despair, poetic charm was not wanting to the +picture. His face had been tanned by the sunlight of the open road, +and the deep sadness visible in his features overshadowed his poet's +brow. The change in him told so plainly of sufferings endured, his +face was so worn by sharp misery, that no one could help pitying him. +Imagination had fared forth into the world and found sad reality at +the home-coming. Eve was smiling in the midst of her joy, as the +saints smile upon martyrdom. The face of a young and very fair woman +grows sublimely beautiful at the touch of grief; Lucien remembered the +innocent girlish face that he saw last before he went to Paris, and +the look of gravity that had come over it spoke so eloquently that he +could not but feel a painful impression. The first quick, natural +outpouring of affection was followed at once by a reaction on either +side; they were afraid to speak; and when Lucien almost involuntarily +looked round for another who should have been there, Eve burst into +tears, and Lucien did the same, but Mme. Chardon's haggard face showed +no sign of emotion. Eve rose to her feet and went downstairs, partly +to spare her brother a word of reproach, partly to speak to Marion. + +"Lucien is so fond of strawberries, child, we must find some +strawberries for him." + +"Oh, I was sure that you would want to welcome M. Lucien; you shall +have a nice little breakfast and a good dinner, too." + +"Lucien," said Mme. Chardon when the mother and son were left alone, +"you have a great deal to repair here. You went away that we all might +be proud of you; you have plunged us into want. You have all but +destroyed your brother's opportunity of making a fortune that he only +cared to win for the sake of his new family. Nor is this all that you +have destroyed----" said the mother. + +There was a dreadful pause; Lucien took his mother's reproaches in +silence. + +"Now begin to work," Mme. Chardon went on more gently. "You tried to +revive the noble family of whom I come; I do not blame you for it. But +the man who undertakes such a task needs money above all things, and +must bear a high heart in him; both were wanting in your case. We +believed in you once, our belief has been shaken. This was a +hard-working, contented household, making its way with difficulty; you +have troubled their peace. The first offence may be forgiven, but it +must be the last. We are in a very difficult position here; you must be +careful, and take your sister's advice, Lucien. The school of trouble +is a very hard one, but Eve has learned much by her lessons; she has +grown grave and thoughtful, she is a mother. In her devotion to our +dear David she has taken all the family burdens upon herself; indeed, +through your wrongdoing she has come to be my only comfort." + +"You might be still more severe, my mother," Lucien said, as he kissed +her. "I accept your forgiveness, for I will not need it a second +time." + +Eve came into the room, saw her brother's humble attitude, and knew +that he had been forgiven. Her kindness brought a smile for him to her +lips, and Lucien answered with tear-filled eyes. A living presence +acts like a charm, changing the most hostile positions of lovers or of +families, no matter how just the resentment. Is it that affection +finds out the ways of the heart, and we love to fall into them again? +Does the phenomenon come within the province of the science of +magnetism? Or is it reason that tells us that we must either forgive +or never see each other again? Whether the cause be referred to +mental, physical, or spiritual conditions, everyone knows the effect; +every one has felt that the looks, the actions or gestures of the +beloved awaken some vestige of tenderness in those most deeply sinned +against and grievously wronged. Though it is hard for the mind to +forget, though we still smart under the injury, the heart returns to +its allegiance in spite of all. Poor Eve listened to her brother's +confidences until breakfast-time; and whenever she looked at him she +was no longer mistress of her eyes; in that intimate talk she could +not control her voice. And with the comprehension of the conditions of +literary life in Paris, she understood that the struggle had been too +much for Lucien's strength. The poet's delight as he caressed his +sister's child, his deep grief over David's absence, mingled with joy +at seeing his country and his own folk again, the melancholy words +that he let fall,--all these things combined to make that day a +festival. When Marion brought in the strawberries, he was touched to +see that Eve had remembered his taste in spite of her distress, and +she, his sister, must make ready a room for the prodigal brother and +busy herself for Lucien. It was a truce, as it were, to misery. Old +Sechard himself assisted to bring about this revulsion of feeling in +the two women--"You are making as much of him as if he were bringing +you any amount of money!" + +"And what has my brother done that we should not make much of him?" +cried Eve, jealously screening Lucien. + +Nevertheless, when the first expansion was over, shades of truth came +out. It was not long before Lucien felt the difference between the old +affection and the new. Eve respected David from the depths of her +heart; Lucien was beloved for his own sake, as we love a mistress +still in spite of the disasters she causes. Esteem, the very +foundation on which affection is based, is the solid stuff to which +affection owes I know not what of certainty and security by which we +live; and this was lacking between Mme. Chardon and her son, between +the sister and the brother. Mother and daughter did not put entire +confidence in him, as they would have done if he had not lost his +honor; and he felt this. The opinion expressed in d'Arthez's letter +was Eve's own estimate of her brother; unconsciously she revealed it +by her manner, tones, and gestures. Oh! Lucien was pitied, that was +true; but as for all that he had been, the pride of the household, the +great man of the family, the hero of the fireside,--all this, like +their fair hopes of him, was gone, never to return. They were so +afraid of his heedlessness that he was not told where David was +hidden. Lucien wanted to see his brother; but this Eve, insensible to +the caresses which accompanied his curious questionings, was not the +Eve of L'Houmeau, for whom a glance from him had been an order that +must be obeyed. When Lucien spoke of making reparation, and talked as +though he could rescue David, Eve only answered: + +"Do not interfere; we have enemies of the most treacherous and +dangerous kind." + +Lucien tossed his head, as one who should say, "I have measured myself +against Parisians," and the look in his sister's eyes said +unmistakably, "Yes, but you were defeated." + +"Nobody cares for me now," Lucien thought. "In the home circle, as in +the world without, success is a necessity." + +The poet tried to explain their lack of confidence in him; he had not +been at home two days before a feeling of vexation rather than of +angry bitterness gained hold on him. He applied Parisian standards to +the quiet, temperate existence of the provinces, quite forgetting that +the narrow, patient life of the household was the result of his own +misdoings. + +"They are _bourgeoises_, they cannot understand me," he said, setting +himself apart from his sister and mother and David, now that they +could no longer be deceived as to his real character and his future. + +Many troubles and shocks of fortune had quickened the intuitive sense +in both the women. Eve and Mme. Chardon guessed the thoughts in +Lucien's inmost soul; they felt that he misjudged them; they saw him +mentally isolating himself. + +"Paris has changed him very much," they said between themselves. They +were indeed reaping the harvest of egoism which they themselves had +fostered. + +It was inevitable but that the leaven should work in all three; and +this most of all in Lucien, because he felt that he was so heavily to +blame. As for Eve, she was just the kind of sister to beg an erring +brother to "Forgive me for your trespasses;" but when the union of two +souls had been as perfect since life's very beginnings, as it had been +with Eve and Lucien, any blow dealt to that fair ideal is fatal. +Scoundrels can draw knives on each other and make it up again +afterwards, while a look or a word is enough to sunder two lovers for +ever. In the recollection of an almost perfect life of heart and heart +lies the secret of many an estrangement that none can explain. Two may +live together without full trust in their hearts if only their past +holds no memories of complete and unclouded love; but for those who +once have known that intimate life, it becomes intolerable to keep +perpetual watch over looks and words. Great poets know this; Paul and +Virginie die before youth is over; can we think of Paul and Virginie +estranged? Let us know that, to the honor of Lucien and Eve, the grave +injury done was not the source of the pain; it was entirely a matter +of feeling upon either side, for the poet in fault, as for the sister +who was in no way to blame. Things had reached the point when the +slightest misunderstanding, or little quarrel, or a fresh +disappointment in Lucien would end in final estrangement. Money +difficulties may be arranged, but feelings are inexorable. + +Next day Lucien received a copy of the local paper. He turned pale +with pleasure when he saw his name at the head of one of the first +"leaders" in that highly respectable sheet, which like the provincial +academies that Voltaire compared to a well-bred miss, was never talked +about. + + + "Let Franche-Comte boast of giving the light to Victor Hugo, to + Charles Nodier, and Cuvier," ran the article, "Brittany of + producing a Chateaubriand and a Lammenais, Normandy of Casimir + Delavigne, and Touraine of the author of _Eloa_; Angoumois that + gave birth, in the days of Louis XIII., to our illustrious + fellow-countryman Guez, better known under the name of Balzac, + our Angoumois need no longer envy Limousin her Dupuytren, nor + Auvergne, the country of Montlosier, nor Bordeaux, birthplace of + so many great men; for we too have our poet!--The writer of the + beautiful sonnets entitled the _Marguerites_ unites his poet's fame + to the distinction of a prose writer, for to him we also owe the + magnificent romance of _The Archer of Charles IX._ Some day our + nephews will be proud to be the fellow-townsmen of Lucien Chardon, + a rival of Petrarch!!!" + + +(The country newspapers of those days were sown with notes of +admiration, as reports of English election speeches are studded with +"cheers" in brackets.) + + + "In spite of his brilliant success in Paris, our young poet has + not forgotten the Hotel de Bargeton, the cradle of his triumphs; + nor the fact that the wife of M. le Comte du Chatelet, our + Prefect, encouraged his early footsteps in the pathway of the + Muses. He has come back among us once more! All L'Houmeau was + thrown into excitement yesterday by the appearance of our Lucien + de Rubempre. The news of his return produced a profound sensation + throughout the town. Angouleme certainly will not allow L'Houmeau + to be beforehand in doing honor to the poet who in journalism and + literature has so gloriously represented our town in Paris. Lucien + de Rubempre, a religious and Royalist poet, has braved the fury of + parties; he has come home, it is said, for repose after the + fatigue of a struggle which would try the strength of an even + greater intellectual athlete than a poet and a dreamer. + + "There is some talk of restoring our great poet to the title of + the illustrious house of de Rubempre, of which his mother, Madame + Chardon, is the last survivor, and it is added that Mme. la + Comtesse du Chatelet was the first to think of this eminently + politic idea. The revival of an ancient and almost extinct family + by young talent and newly won fame is another proof that the + immortal author of the Charter still cherishes the desire + expressed by the words 'Union and oblivion.' + + "Our poet is staying with his sister, Mme. Sechard." + + +Under the heading "Angouleme" followed some items of news:-- + + + "Our Prefect, M. le Comte du Chatelet, Gentleman in Ordinary to + His Majesty, has just been appointed Extraordinary Councillor of + State. + + "All the authorities called yesterday on M. le Prefet. + + "Mme. la Comtesse du Chatelet will receive on Thursdays. + + "The Mayor of Escarbas, M. de Negrepelisse, the representative of + the younger branch of the d'Espard family, and father of Mme. du + Chatelet, recently raised to the rank of a Count and Peer of + France and a Commander of the Royal Order of St. Louis, has been + nominated for the presidency of the electoral college of Angouleme + at the forthcoming elections." + + +"There!" said Lucien, taking the paper to his sister. Eve read the +article with attention, and returned with the sheet with a thoughtful +air. + +"What do you say to that?" asked he, surprised at a reserve that +seemed so like indifference. + +"The Cointets are proprietors of that paper, dear," she said; "they +put in exactly what they please, and it is not at all likely that the +prefecture or the palace have forced their hands. Can you imagine that +your old rival the prefect would be generous enough to sing your +praises? Have you forgotten that the Cointets are suing us under +Metivier's name? and that they are trying to turn David's discovery to +their own advantage? I do not know the source of this paragraph, but +it makes me uneasy. You used to rouse nothing but envious feeling and +hatred here; a prophet has no honor in his own country, and they +slandered you, and now in a moment it is all changed----" + +"You do not know the vanity of country towns," said Lucien. "A whole +little town in the south turned out not so long ago to welcome a young +man that had won the first prize in some competition; they looked on +him as a budding great man." + +"Listen, dear Lucien; I do not want to preach to you, I will say +everything in a very few words--you must suspect every little thing +here." + +"You are right," said Lucien, but he was surprised at his sister's +lack of enthusiasm. He himself was full of delight to find his +humiliating and shame-stricken return to Angouleme changed into a +triumph in this way. + +"You have no belief in the little fame that has cost so dear!" he said +again after a long silence. Something like a storm had been gathering +in his heart during the past hour. For all answer Eve gave him a look, +and Lucien felt ashamed of his accusation. + +Dinner was scarcely over when a messenger came from the prefecture +with a note addressed to M. Chardon. That note appeared to decide the +day for the poet's vanity; the world contending against the family for +him had won. + + +"M. le Comte Sixte du Chatelet and Mme. la Comtesse du Chatelet +request the honor of M. Lucien Chardon's company at dinner on the +fifteenth of September. R. S. V. P." + + +Enclosed with the invitation there was a card-- + + + LE COMTE SIXTE DU CHATELET, + Gentleman of the Bedchamber, Prefect of the Charente, + Councillor of State. + + +"You are in favor," said old Sechard; "they are talking about you in +the town as if you were somebody! Angouleme and L'Houmeau are +disputing as to which shall twist wreaths for you." + +"Eve, dear," Lucien whispered to his sister, "I am exactly in the same +condition as I was before in L'Houmeau when Mme. de Bargeton sent me +the first invitation--I have not a dress suit for the prefect's +dinner-party." + +"Do you really mean to accept the invitation?" Eve asked in alarm, and +a dispute sprang up between the brother and sister. Eve's provincial +good sense told her that if you appear in society, it must be with a +smiling face and faultless costume. "What will come of the prefect's +dinner?" she wondered. "What has Lucien to do with the great people of +Angouleme? Are they plotting something against him?" but she kept +these thoughts to herself. + +Lucien spoke the last word at bedtime: "You do not know my influence. +The prefect's wife stands in fear of a journalist; and besides, Louise +de Negrepelisse lives on in the Comtesse du Chatelet, and a woman with +her influence can rescue David. I am going to tell her about my +brother's invention, and it would be a mere nothing to her to obtain a +subsidy of ten thousand francs from the Government for him." + +At eleven o'clock that night the whole household was awakened by the +town band, reinforced by the military band from the barracks. The +Place du Murier was full of people. The young men of Angouleme were +giving Lucien Chardon de Rubempre a serenade. Lucien went to his +sister's window and made a speech after the last performance. + +"I thank my fellow-townsmen for the honor that they do me," he said in +the midst of a great silence; "I will strive to be worthy of it; they +will pardon me if I say no more; I am so much moved by this incident +that I cannot speak." + +"Hurrah for the writer of _The Archer of Charles IX._! . . . Hurrah for +the poet of the _Marguerites_! . . . Long live Lucien de Rubempre!" + +After these three salvos, taken up by some few voices, three crowns +and a quantity of bouquets were adroitly flung into the room through +the open window. Ten minutes later the Place du Murier was empty, and +silence prevailed in the streets. + +"I would rather have ten thousand francs," said old Sechard, fingering +the bouquets and garlands with a satirical expression. "You gave them +daisies, and they give you posies in return; you deal in flowers." + +"So that is your opinion of the honors shown me by my fellow-townsmen, +is it?" asked Lucien. All his melancholy had left him, his face was +radiant with good humor. "If you knew mankind, Papa Sechard, you would +see that no moment in one's life comes twice. Such a triumph as this +can only be due to genuine enthusiasm! . . . My dear mother, my good +sister, this wipes out many mortifications." + +Lucien kissed them; for when joy overflows like a torrent flood, we +are fain to pour it out into a friend's heart. "When an author is +intoxicated with success, he will hug his porter if there is nobody +else on hand," according to Bixiou. + +"Why, darling, why are you crying?" he said, looking into Eve's face. +"Ah! I know, you are crying for joy!" + +"Oh me!" said her mother, shaking her head as she spoke. "Lucien has +forgotten everything already; not merely his own troubles, but ours as +well." + +Mother and daughter separated, and neither dared to utter all her +thoughts. + +In a country eaten up with the kind of social insubordination +disguised by the word Equality, a triumph of any kind whatsoever is a +sort of miracle which requires, like some other miracles for that +matter, the co-operation of skilled labor. Out of ten ovations offered +to ten living men, selected for this distinction by a grateful +country, you may be quite sure that nine are given from considerations +connected as remotely as possible with the conspicuous merits of the +renowned recipient. What was Voltaire's apotheosis at the +Theatre-Francais but the triumph of eighteenth century philosophy? A +triumph in France means that everybody else feels that he is adorning +his own temples with the crown that he sets on the idol's head. + +The women's presentiments proved correct. The distinguished +provincial's reception was antipathetic to Angoumoisin immobility; it +was too evidently got up by some interested persons or by enthusiastic +stage mechanics, a suspicious combination. Eve, moreover, like most of +her sex, was distrustful by instinct, even when reason failed to +justify her suspicions to herself. "Who can be so fond of Lucien that +he could rouse the town for him?" she wondered as she fell asleep. +"The _Marguerites_ are not published yet; how can they compliment him on +a future success?" + +The ovation was, in fact, the work of Petit-Claud. + +Petit-Claud had dined with Mme. de Senonches, for the first time, on +the evening of the day that brought the cure of Marsac to Angouleme +with the news of Lucien's return. That same evening he made formal +application for the hand of Mlle. de la Haye. It was a family dinner, +one of the solemn occasions marked not so much by the number of the +guests as by the splendor of their toilettes. Consciousness of the +performance weighs upon the family party, and every countenance looks +significant. Francoise was on exhibition. Mme. de Senonches had +sported her most elaborate costume for the occasion; M. du Hautoy wore +a black coat; M. de Senonches had returned from his visit to the +Pimentels on the receipt of a note from his wife, informing him that +Mme. du Chatelet was to appear at their house for the first time since +her arrival, and that a suitor in form for Francoise would appear on +the scenes. Boniface Cointet also was there, in his best maroon coat +of clerical cut, with a diamond pin worth six thousand francs +displayed in his shirt frill--the revenge of the rich merchant upon a +poverty-stricken aristocracy. + +Petit-Claud himself, scoured and combed, had carefully removed his +gray hairs, but he could not rid himself of his wizened air. The puny +little man of law, tightly buttoned into his clothes, reminded you of +a torpid viper; for if hope had brought a spark of life into his +magpie eyes, his face was icily rigid, and so well did he assume an +air of gravity, that an ambitious public prosecutor could not have +been more dignified. + +Mme. de Senonches had told her intimate friends that her ward would +meet her betrothed that evening, and that Mme. du Chatelet would +appear at the Hotel de Senonches for the first time; and having +particularly requested them to keep these matters secret, she expected +to find her rooms crowded. The Comte and Comtesse du Chatelet had left +cards everywhere officially, but they meant the honor of a personal +visit to play a part in their policy. So aristocratic Angouleme was in +such a prodigious ferment of curiosity, that certain of the Chandour +camp proposed to go to the Hotel de Bargeton that evening. (They +persistently declined to call the house by its new name.) + +Proofs of the Countess' influence had stirred up ambition in many +quarters; and not only so, it was said that the lady had changed so +much for the better that everybody wished to see and judge for +himself. Petit-Claud learned great news on the way to the house; +Cointet told him that Zephirine had asked leave to present her dear +Francoise's betrothed to the Countess, and that the Countess had +granted the favor. Petit-Claud had seen at once that Lucien's return +put Louise de Negrepelisse in a false position; and now, in a moment, +he flattered himself that he saw a way to take advantage of it. + +M. and Mme. de Senonches had undertaken such heavy engagements when +they bought the house, that, in provincial fashion, they thought it +imprudent to make any changes in it. So when Madame du Chatelet was +announced, Zephirine went up to her with--"Look, dear Louise, you are +still in your old home!" indicating, as she spoke, the little +chandelier, the paneled wainscot, and the furniture, which once had +dazzled Lucien. + +"I wish least of all to remember it, dear," Madame la Prefete answered +graciously, looking round on the assemblage. + +Every one admitted that Louise de Negrepelisse was not like the same +woman. If the provincial had undergone a change, the woman herself had +been transformed by those eighteen months in Paris, by the first +happiness of a still recent second marriage, and the kind of dignity +that power confers. The Comtesse du Chatelet bore the same resemblance +to Mme. de Bargeton that a girl of twenty bears to her mother. + +She wore a charming cap of lace and flowers, fastened by a +diamond-headed pin; the ringlets that half hid the contours of her face +added to her look of youth, and suited her style of beauty. Her foulard +gown, designed by the celebrated Victorine, with a pointed bodice, +exquisitely fringed, set off her figure to advantage; and a silken +lace scarf, adroitly thrown about a too long neck, partly concealed +her shoulders. She played with the dainty scent-bottle, hung by a +chain from her bracelet; she carried her fan and her handkerchief with +ease--pretty trifles, as dangerous as a sunken reef for the provincial +dame. The refined taste shown in the least details, the carriage and +manner modeled upon Mme. d'Espard, revealed a profound study of the +Faubourg Saint-Germain. + +As for the elderly beau of the Empire, he seemed since his marriage to +have followed the example of the species of melon that turns from +green to yellow in a night. All the youth that Sixte had lost seemed +to appear in his wife's radiant countenance; provincial pleasantries +passed from ear to ear, circulating the more readily because the women +were furious at the new superiority of the sometime queen of +Angouleme; and the persistent intruder paid the penalty of his wife's +offence. + +The rooms were almost as full as on that memorable evening of Lucien's +readings from Chenier. Some faces were missing: M. de Chandour and +Amelie, M. de Pimental and the Rastignacs--and M. de Bargeton was no +longer there; but the Bishop came, as before, with his vicars-general +in his train. Petit-Claud was much impressed by the sight of the great +world of Angouleme. Four months ago he had no hope of entering the +circle, to-day he felt his detestation of "the classes" sensibly +diminished. He thought the Comtesse du Chatelet a most fascinating +woman. "It is she who can procure me the appointment of deputy public +prosecutor," he said to himself. + +Louise chatted for an equal length of time with each of the women; her +tone varied with the importance of the person addressed and the +position taken up by the latter with regard to her journey to Paris +with Lucien. The evening was half over when she withdrew to the +boudoir with the Bishop. Zephirine came over to Petit-Claud, and laid +her hand on his arm. His heart beat fast as his hostess brought him to +the room where Lucien's troubles first began, and were now about to +come to a crisis. + +"This is M. Petit-Claud, dear; I recommend him to you the more warmly +because anything that you may do for him will doubtless benefit my +ward." + +"You are an attorney, are you not, monsieur?" said the august +Negrepelisse, scanning Petit-Claud. + +"Alas! yes, _Madame la Comtesse_." (The son of the tailor in L'Houmeau +had never once had occasion to use those three words in his life +before, and his mouth was full of them.) "But it rests with you, +Madame la Comtesse, whether or no I shall act for the Crown. M. Milaud +is going to Nevers, it is said----" + +"But a man is usually second deputy and then first deputy, is he not?" +broke in the Countess. "I should like to see you in the first deputy's +place at once. But I should like first to have some assurance of your +devotion to the cause of our legitimate sovereigns, to religion, and +more especially to M. de Villele, if I am to interest myself on your +behalf to obtain the favor." + +Petit-Claud came nearer. "Madame," he said in her ear, "I am the man +to yield the King absolute obedience." + +"That is just what _we_ want to-day," said the Countess, drawing back a +little to make him understand that she had no wish for promises given +under his breath. "So long as you satisfy Mme. de Senonches, you can +count upon me," she added, with a royal movement of her fan. + +Petit-Claud looked toward the door of the boudoir, and saw Cointet +standing there. "Madame," he said, "Lucien is here, in Angouleme." + +"Well, sir?" asked the Countess, in tones that would have put an end +to all power of speech in an ordinary man. + +"Mme. la Comtesse does not understand," returned Petit-Claud, bringing +out that most respectful formula again. "How does Mme. la Comtesse +wish that the great man of her making should be received in Angouleme? +There is no middle course; he must be received or despised here." + +This was a dilemma to which Louise de Negrepelisse had never given a +thought; it touched her closely, yet rather for the sake of the past +than of the future. And as for Petit-Claud, his plan for arresting +David Sechard depended upon the lady's actual feelings towards Lucien. +He waited. + +"M. Petit-Claud," said the Countess, with haughty dignity, "you mean +to be on the side of the Government. Learn that the first principle of +government is this--never to have been in the wrong, and that the +instinct of power and the sense of dignity is even stronger in women +than in governments." + +"That is just what I thought, madame," he answered quickly, observing +the Countess meanwhile with attention the more profound because it was +scarcely visible. "Lucien came here in the depths of misery. But if he +must receive an ovation, I can compel him to leave Angouleme by the +means of the ovation itself. His sister and brother-in-law, David +Sechard, are hard pressed for debts." + +In the Countess' haughty face there was a swift, barely perceptible +change; it was not satisfaction, but the repression of satisfaction. +Surprised that Petit-Claud should have guessed her wishes, she gave +him a glance as she opened her fan, and Francoise de la Haye's +entrance at that moment gave her time to find an answer. + +"It will not be long before you are public prosecutor, monsieur," she +said, with a significant smile. That speech did not commit her in any +way, but it was explicit enough. Francoise had come in to thank the +Countess. + +"Oh! madame, then I shall owe the happiness of my life to you," she +exclaimed, bending girlishly to add in the Countess' ear, "To marry a +petty provincial attorney would be like being burned by slow fires." + +It was Francis, with his knowledge of officialdom, who had prompted +Zephirine to make this set upon Louise. + +"In the very earliest days after promotion," so the ex-consul-general +told his fair friend, "everybody, prefect, or monarch, or man of +business, is burning to exert his influence for his friends; but a +patron soon finds out the inconveniences of patronage, and then turns +from fire to ice. Louise will do more now for Petit-Claud than she +would do for her husband in three months' time." + +"Madame la Comtesse is thinking of all that our poet's triumph +entails?" continued Petit-Claud. "She should receive Lucien before +there is an end of the nine-days' wonder." + +The Countess terminated the audience with a bow, and rose to speak +with Mme. de Pimentel, who came to the boudoir. The news of old +Negrepelisse's elevation to a marquisate had greatly impressed the +Marquise; she judged it expedient to be amiable to a woman so clever +as to rise the higher for an apparent fall. + +"Do tell me, dear, why you took the trouble to put your father in the +House of Peers?" said the Marquise, in the course of a little +confidential conversation, in which she bent the knee before the +superiority of "her dear Louise." + +"They were all the more ready to grant the favor because my father has +no son to succeed him, dear, and his vote will always be at the +disposal of the Crown; but if we should have sons, I quite expect that +my oldest will succeed to his grandfather's name, title, and peerage." + +Mme. de Pimentel saw, to her annoyance, that it was idle to expect a +mother ambitious for children not yet in existence to further her own +private designs of raising M. de Pimentel to a peerage. + +"I have the Countess," Petit-Claud told Cointet when they came away. +"I can promise you your partnership. I shall be deputy prosecutor +before the month is out, and Sechard will be in your power. Try to +find a buyer for my connection; it has come to be the first in +Angouleme in my hands during the last five months----" + +"Once put _you_ on the horse, and there is no need to do more," said +Cointet, half jealous of his own work. + +The causes of Lucien's triumphant reception in his native town must +now be plain to everybody. Louise du Chatelet followed the example of +that King of France who left the Duke of Orleans unavenged; she chose +to forget the insults received in Paris by Mme. de Bargeton. She would +patronize Lucien, and overwhelming him with her patronage, would +completely crush him and get rid of him by fair means. Petit-Claud +knew the whole tale of the cabals in Paris through town gossip, and +shrewdly guessed how a woman must hate the man who would not love when +she was fain of his love. + +The ovation justified the past of Louise de Negrepelisse. The next day +Petit-Claud appeared at Mme. Sechard's house, heading a deputation of +six young men of the town, all of them Lucien's schoolfellows. He +meant to finish his work, to intoxicate Lucien completely, and to have +him in his power. Lucien's old schoolfellows at the Angouleme +grammar-school wished to invite the author of the _Marguerites_ and +_The Archer of Charles IX._ to a banquet given in honor of the great +man arisen from their ranks. + +"Come, this is your doing, Petit-Claud!" exclaimed Lucien. + +"Your return has stirred our conceit," said Petit-Claud; "we made it a +point of honor to get up a subscription, and we will have a tremendous +affair for you. The masters and the headmaster will be there, and, at +the present rate, we shall, no doubt, have the authorities too." + +"For what day?" asked Lucien. + +"Sunday next." + +"That is quite out of the question," said Lucien. "I cannot accept an +invitation for the next ten days, but then I will gladly----" + +"Very well," said Petit-Claud, "so be it then, in ten days' time." + +Lucien behaved charmingly to his old schoolfellows, and they regarded +him with almost respectful admiration. He talked away very wittily for +half an hour; he had been set upon a pedestal, and wished to justify +the opinion of his fellow-townsmen; so he stood with his hands thrust +into his pockets, and held forth from the height to which he had been +raised. He was modest and good-natured, as befitted genius in +dressing-gown and slippers; he was the athlete, wearied by a wrestling +bout with Paris, and disenchanted above all things; he congratulated +the comrades who had never left the dear old province, and so forth, +and so forth. They were delighted with him. He took Petit-Claud aside, +and asked him for the real truth about David's affairs, reproaching +him for allowing his brother-in-law to go into hiding, and tried to +match his wits against the little lawyer. Petit-Claud made an effort +over himself, and gave his acquaintance to understand that he +(Petit-Claud) was only an insignificant little country attorney, with +no sort of craft nor subtlety. + +The whole machinery of modern society is so infinitely more complex +than in ancient times, that the subdivision of human faculty is the +result. The great men of the days of old were perforce universal +geniuses, appearing at rare intervals like lighted torches in an +antique world. In the course of ages the intellect began to work on +special lines, but the great man still could "take all knowledge for +his province." A man "full cautelous," as was said of Louis XI., for +instance, could apply that special faculty in every direction, but +to-day the single quality is subdivided, and every profession has its +special craft. A peasant or a pettifogging solicitor might very easily +overreach an astute diplomate over a bargain in some remote country +village; and the wiliest journalist may prove the veriest simpleton in +a piece of business. Lucien could but be a puppet in the hands of +Petit-Claud. + +That guileful practitioner, as might have been expected, had written +the article himself; Angouleme and L'Houmeau, thus put on their +mettle, thought it incumbent upon them to pay honor to Lucien. His +fellow-citizens, assembled in the Place du Murier, were Cointets' +workpeople from the papermills and printing-house, with a sprinkling +of Lucien's old schoolfellows and the clerks in the employ of +Messieurs Petit-Claud and Cachan. As for the attorney himself, he was +once more Lucien's chum of old days; and he thought, not without +reason, that before very long he should learn David's whereabouts in +some unguarded moment. And if David came to grief through Lucien's +fault, the poet would find Angouleme too hot to hold him. Petit-Claud +meant to secure his hold; he posed, therefore, as Lucien's inferior. + +"What better could I have done?" he said accordingly. "My old chum's +sister was involved, it is true, but there are some positions that +simply cannot be maintained in a court of law. David asked me on the +first of June to ensure him a quiet life for three months; he had a +quiet life until September, and even so I have kept his property out +of his creditors' power, for I shall gain my case in the Court-Royal; +I contend that the wife is a privileged creditor, and her claim is +absolute, unless there is evidence of intent to defraud. As for you, +you have come back in misfortune, but you are a genius."--(Lucien +turned about as if the incense were burned too close to his face.) +--"Yes, my dear fellow, a _genius_. I have read your _Archer of +Charles IX._; it is more than a romance, it is literature. Only two +living men could have written the preface--Chateaubriand and Lucien." + +Lucien accepted that d'Arthez had written the preface. Ninety-nine +writers out of a hundred would have done the same. + +"Well, nobody here seemed to have heard of you!" Petit-Claud +continued, with apparent indignation. "When I saw the general +indifference, I made up my mind to change all that. I wrote that +article in the paper----" + +"What? did you write it?" exclaimed Lucien. + +"I myself. Angouleme and L'Houmeau were stirred to rivalry; I arranged +for a meeting of your old schoolfellows, and got up yesterday's +serenade; and when once the enthusiasm began to grow, we started a +committee for the dinner. 'If David is in hiding,' said I to myself, +'Lucien shall be crowned at any rate.' And I have done even better +than that," continued Petit-Claud; "I have seen the Comtesse du +Chatelet and made her understand that she owes it to herself to +extricate David from his position; she can do it, and she ought to do +it. If David had really discovered the secret of which he spoke to me, +the Government ought to lend him a hand, it would not ruin the +Government; and think what a fine thing for a prefect to have half the +credit of the great invention for the well-timed help. It would set +people talking about him as an enlightened administrator.--Your sister +has taken fright at our musketry practice; she was scared of the +smoke. A battle in the law-courts costs quite as much as a battle on +the field; but David has held his ground, he has his secret. They +cannot stop him, and they will not pull him up now." + +"Thanks, my dear fellow; I see that I can take you into my confidence; +you shall help me to carry out my plan." + +Petit-Claud looked at Lucien, and his gimlet face was a point of +interrogation. + +"I intend to rescue Sechard," Lucien said, with a certain importance. +"I brought his misfortunes upon him; I mean to make full +reparation. . . . I have more influence over Louise----" + +"Who is Louise?" + +"The Comtesse du Chatelet!" + +Petit-Claud started. + +"I have more influence over her than she herself suspects," said +Lucien; "only, my dear fellow, if I can do something with your +authorities here, I have no decent clothes."--Petit-Claud made as +though he would offer his purse. + +"Thank you," said Lucien, grasping Petit-Claud's hand. "In ten days' +time I will pay a visit to the Countess and return your call." + +The shook hands like old comrades, and separated. + +"He ought to be a poet" said Petit-Claud to himself; "he is quite +mad." + +"There are no friends like one's school friends; it is a true saying," +Lucien thought at he went to find his sister. + +"What can Petit-Claud have promised to do that you should be so +friendly with him, my Lucien?" asked Eve. "Be on your guard with him." + +"With _him_?" cried Lucien. "Listen, Eve," he continued, seeming to +bethink himself; "you have no faith in me now; you do not trust me, so +it is not likely you will trust Petit-Claud; but in ten or twelve days +you will change your mind," he added, with a touch of fatuity. And he +went to his room, and indited the following epistle to Lousteau:-- + + + _Lucien to Lousteau._ + + "MY FRIEND,--Of the pair of us, I alone can remember that bill for + a thousand francs that I once lent you; and I know how things will + be with you when you open this letter too well, alas! not to add + immediately that I do not expect to be repaid in current coin of + the realm; no, I will take it in credit from you, just as one + would ask Florine for pleasure. We have the same tailor; + therefore, you can order a complete outfit for me on the shortest + possible notice. I am not precisely wearing Adam's costume, but I + cannot show myself here. To my astonishment, the honors paid by + the departments to a Parisian celebrity awaited me. I am the hero + of a banquet, for all the world as if I were a Deputy of the Left. + Now, after that, do you understand that I must have a black coat? + Promise to pay; have it put down to your account, try the + advertisement dodge, rehearse an unpublished scene between Don + Juan and M. Dimanche, for I must have a gala suit at all costs. I + have nothing, nothing but rags: start with that; it is August, the + weather is magnificent, ergo see that I receive by the end of the + week a charming morning suit, dark bronze-green jacket, and three + waistcoats, one a brimstone yellow, one a plaid, and the third + must be white; furthermore, let there be three pairs of trousers + of the most fetching kind--one pair of white English stuff, one + pair of nankeen, and a third of thin black kerseymere; lastly, + send a black dress-coat and a black satin waistcoat. If you have + picked up another Florine somewhere, I beg her good offices for + two cravats. So far this is nothing; I count upon you and your + skill in these matters; I am not much afraid of the tailor. But + the ingenuity of poverty, assuredly the most active of all poisons + at work in the system of man (_id est_ the Parisian), an ingenuity + that would catch Satan himself napping, has failed so far to + discover a way to obtain a hat on credit!--How many a time, my + dear friend, have we deplored this! When one of us shall bring a + hat that costs one thousand francs into fashion, then, and not + till then, can we afford to wear them; until that day comes we are + bound to have cash enough in our pockets to pay for a hat. Ah! + what an ill turn the Comedie-Francaise did us with, 'Lafleur, you + will put gold in my pockets!' + + "I write with a profound sense of all the difficulties involved by + the demand. Enclose with the above a pair of boots, a pair of + pumps, a hat, half a dozen pairs of gloves. 'Tis asking the + impossible; I know it. But what is a literary life but a + periodical recurrence of the impossible? Work the miracle, write a + long article, or play some small scurvy trick, and I will hold + your debt as fully discharged--this is all I say to you. It is a + debt of honor after all, my dear fellow, and due these twelve + months; you ought to blush for yourself if you have any blushes + left. + + "Joking apart, my dear Lousteau, I am in serious difficulties, as + you may judge for yourself when I tell you that Mme. de Bargeton + has married Chatelet, and Chatelet is prefect of Angouleme. The + precious pair can do a good deal for my brother-in-law; he is in + hiding at this moment on account of that letter of exchange, and + the horrid business is all my doing. So it is a question of + appearing before Mme. la Prefete and regaining my influence at all + costs. It is shocking, is it not, that David Sechard's fate should + hang upon a neat pair of shoes, a pair of open-worked gray silk + stockings (mind you, remember them), and a new hat? I shall give + out that I am sick and ill, and take to my bed, like Duvicquet, to + save the trouble of replying to the pressing invitations of my + fellow-townsmen. My fellow-townsmen, dear boy, have treated me to + a fine serenade. _My fellow-townsmen_, forsooth! I begin to wonder + how many fools go to make up that word, since I learned that two + or three of my old schoolfellows worked up the capital of the + Angoumois to this pitch of enthusiasm. + + "If you could contrive to slip a few lines as to my reception in + among the news items, I should be several inches taller for it + here; and besides, I should make Mme. la Prefete feel that, if I + have not friends, I have some credit, at any rate, with the + Parisian press. I give up none of my hopes, and I will return the + compliment. If you want a good, solid, substantial article for + some magazine or other, I have time enough now to think something + out. I only say the word, my dear friend; I count upon you as you + may count upon me, and I am yours sincerely. + + "LUCIEN DE R. + + "P. S.--Send the things to the coach office to wait until called + for." + + +Lucien held up his head again. In this mood he wrote the letter, and +as he wrote his thoughts went back to Paris. He had spent six days in +the provinces, and the uneventful quietness of provincial life had +already entered into his soul; his mind returned to those dear old +miserable days with a vague sense of regret. The Comtesse du Chatelet +filled his thoughts for a whole week; and at last he came to attach so +much importance to his reappearance, that he hurried down to the coach +office in L'Houmeau after nightfall in a perfect agony of suspense, +like a woman who has set her last hopes upon a new dress, and waits in +despair until it arrives. + +"Ah! Lousteau, all your treasons are forgiven," he said to himself, as +he eyed the packages, and knew from the shape of them that everything +had been sent. Inside the hatbox he found a note from Lousteau:-- + + + FLORINE'S DRAWING-ROOM. + + "MY DEAR BOY,--The tailor behaved very well; but as thy profound + retrospective glance led thee to forbode, the cravats, the hats, + and the silk hosen perplexed our souls, for there was nothing in + our purse to be perplexed thereby. As said Blondet, so say we; + there is a fortune awaiting the establishment which will supply + young men with inexpensive articles on credit; for when we do not + pay in the beginning, we pay dear in the end. And by the by, did + not the great Napoleon, who missed a voyage to the Indies for want + of boots, say that, 'If a thing is easy, it is never done?' So + everything went well--except the boots. I beheld a vision of thee, + fully dressed, but without a hat! appareled in waistcoats, yet + shoeless! and bethought me of sending a pair of moccasins given to + Florine as a curiosity by an American. Florine offered the huge + sum of forty francs, that we might try our luck at play for you. + Nathan, Blondet, and I had such luck (as we were not playing for + ourselves) that we were rich enough to ask La Torpille, des + Lupeaulx's sometime 'rat,' to supper. Frascati certainly owed us + that much. Florine undertook the shopping, and added three fine + shirts to the purchases. Nathan sends you a cane. Blondet, who won + three hundred francs, is sending you a gold chain; and the gold + watch, the size of a forty-franc piece, is from La Torpille; some + idiot gave the thing to her, and it will not go. 'Trumpery + rubbish,' she says, 'like the man that owned it.' Bixiou, who came + to find us up at the _Rocher de Cancale_, wished to enclose a bottle + of Portugal water in the package. Said our first comic man, 'If + this can make him happy, let him have it!' growling it out in a + deep bass voice with the _bourgeois_ pomposity that he can act to + the life. Which things, my dear boy, ought to prove to you how + much we care for our friends in adversity. Florine, whom I have + had the weakness to forgive, begs you to send us an article on + Nathan's hat. Fare thee well, my son. I can only commiserate you + on finding yourself back in the same box from which you emerged + when you discovered your old comrade. + + "ETIENNE L." + + +"Poor fellows! They have been gambling for me," said Lucien; he was +quite touched by the letter. A waft of the breeze from an unhealthy +country, from the land where one has suffered most, may seem to bring +the odors of Paradise; and in a dull life there is an indefinable +sweetness in memories of past pain. + +Eve was struck dumb with amazement when her brother came down in his +new clothes. She did not recognize him. + +"Now I can walk out in Beaulieu," he cried; "they shall not say it of +me that I came back in rags. Look, here is a watch which I shall +return to you, for it is mine; and, like its owner, it is erratic in +its ways." + +"What a child he is!" exclaimed Eve. "It is impossible to bear you any +grudge." + +"Then do you imagine, my dear girl, that I sent for all this with the +silly idea of shining in Angouleme? I don't care _that_ for Angouleme" +(twirling his cane with the engraved gold knob). "I intend to repair +the wrong I have done, and this is my battle array." + +Lucien's success in this kind was his one real triumph; but the +triumph, be it said, was immense. If admiration freezes some people's +tongues, envy loosens at least as many more, and if women lost their +heads over Lucien, men slandered him. He might have cried, in the +words of the songwriter, "I thank thee, my coat!" He left two cards at +the prefecture, and another upon Petit-Claud. The next day, the day of +the banquet, the following paragraph appeared under the heading +"Angouleme" in the Paris newspapers:-- + + + "ANGOULEME. + + "The return of the author of _The Archer of Charles IX._ has been + the signal for an ovation which does equal honor to the town and + to M. Lucien de Rubempre, the young poet who has made so brilliant + a beginning; the writer of the one French historical novel not + written in the style of Scott, and of a preface which may be + called a literary event. The town hastened to offer him a + patriotic banquet on his return. The name of the + recently-appointed prefect is associated with the public + demonstration in honor of the author of the _Marguerites_, whose + talent received such warm encouragement from Mme. du Chatelet at + the outset of his career." + + +In France, when once the impulse is given, nobody can stop. The +colonel of the regiment offered to put his band at the disposal of the +committee. The landlord of the _Bell_ (renowned for truffled turkeys, +despatched in the most wonderful porcelain jars to the uttermost parts +of the earth), the famous innkeeper of L'Houmeau, would supply the +repast. At five o'clock some forty persons, all in state and festival +array, were assembled in his largest ball, decorated with hangings, +crowns of laurel, and bouquets. The effect was superb. A crowd of +onlookers, some hundred persons, attracted for the most part by the +military band in the yard, represented the citizens of Angouleme. + +Petit-Claud went to the window. "All Angouleme is here," he said, +looking out. + +"I can make nothing of this," remarked little Postel to his wife (they +had come out to hear the band play). "Why, the prefect and the +receiver-general, and the colonel and the superintendent of the powder +factory, and our mayor and deputy, and the headmaster of the school, +and the manager of the foundry at Ruelle, and the public prosecutor, +M. Milaud, and all the authorities, have just gone in!" + +The bank struck up as they sat down to table with variations on the +air _Vive le roy, vive la France_, a melody which has never found +popular favor. It was then five o'clock in the evening; it was eight +o'clock before dessert was served. Conspicuous among the sixty-five +dishes appeared an Olympus in confectionery, surmounted by a figure of +France modeled in chocolate, to give the signal for toasts and +speeches. + +"Gentlemen," called the prefect, rising to his feet, "the King! the +rightful ruler of France! To what do we owe the generation of poets +and thinkers who maintain the sceptre of letters in the hands of +France, if not to the peace which the Bourbons have restored----" + +"Long live the King!" cried the assembled guests (ministerialists +predominated). + +The venerable headmaster rose. + +"To the hero of the day," he said, "to the young poet who combines the +gift of the _prosateur_ with the charm and poetic faculty of Petrarch in +that sonnet-form which Boileau declares to be so difficult." + +Cheers. + +The colonel rose next. "Gentlemen, to the Royalist! for the hero of +this evening had the courage to fight for sound principles!" + +"Bravo!" cried the prefect, leading the applause. + +Then Petit-Claud called upon all Lucien's schoolfellows there present. +"To the pride of the grammar-school of Angouleme! to the venerable +headmaster so dear to us all, to whom the acknowledgment for some part +of our triumph is due!" + +The old headmaster dried his eyes; he had not expected this toast. +Lucien rose to his feet, the whole room was suddenly silent, and the +poet's face grew white. In that pause the old headmaster, who sat on +his left, crowned him with a laurel wreath. A round of applause +followed, and when Lucien spoke it was with tears in his eyes and a +sob in his throat. + +"He is drunk," remarked the attorney-general-designate to his +neighbor, Petit-Claud. + +"My dear fellow-countrymen, my dear comrades," Lucien said at last, "I +could wish that all France might witness this scene; for thus men rise +to their full stature, and in such ways as these our land demands +great deeds and noble work of us. And when I think of the little that +I have done, and of this great honor shown to me to-day, I can only +feel confused and impose upon the future the task of justifying your +reception of me. The recollection of this moment will give me renewed +strength for efforts to come. Permit me to indicate for your homage my +earliest muse and protectress, and to associate her name with that of +my birthplace; so--to the Comtesse du Chatelet and the noble town of +Angouleme!" + +"He came out of that pretty well!" said the public prosecutor, nodding +approval; "our speeches were all prepared, and his was improvised." + +At ten o'clock the party began to break up, and little knots of guests +went home together. David Sechard heard the unwonted music. + +"What is going on in L'Houmeau?" he asked of Basine. + +"They are giving a dinner to your brother-in-law, Lucien----" + +"I know that he would feel sorry to miss me there," he said. + +At midnight Petit-Claud walked home with Lucien. As they reached the +Place du Murier, Lucien said, "Come life, come death, we are friends, +my dear fellow." + +"My marriage contract," said the lawyer, "with Mlle. Francoise de la +Haye will be signed to-morrow at Mme. de Senonches' house; do me the +pleasure of coming. Mme. de Senonches implored me to bring you, and +you will meet Mme. du Chatelet; they are sure to tell her of your +speech, and she will feel flattered by it." + +"I knew what I was about," said Lucien. + +"Oh! you will save David." + +"I am sure I shall," the poet replied. + +Just at that moment David appeared as if by magic in the Place du +Murier. This was how it had come about. He felt that he was in a +rather difficult position; his wife insisted that Lucien must neither +go to David nor know of his hiding-place; and Lucien all the while was +writing the most affectionate letters, saying that in a few days' time +all should be set right; and even as Basine Clerget explained the +reason why the band played, she put two letters into his hands. The +first was from Eve. + + + "DEAREST," she wrote, "do as if Lucien were not here; do not + trouble yourself in the least; our whole security depends upon the + fact that your enemies cannot find you; get that idea firmly into + your head. I have more confidence in Kolb and Marion and Basine + than in my own brother; such is my misfortune. Alas! poor Lucien + is not the ingenuous and tender-hearted poet whom we used to know; + and it is simply because he is trying to interfere on your behalf, + and because he imagines that he can discharge our debts (and this + from pride, my David), that I am afraid of him. Some fine clothes + have been sent from Paris for him, and five gold pieces in a + pretty purse. He gave the money to me, and we are living on it. + + "We have one enemy the less. Your father has gone, thanks to + Petit-Claud. Petit-Claud unraveled his designs, and put an end to + them at once by telling him that you would do nothing without + consulting him, and that he (Petit-Claud) would not allow you to + concede a single point in the matter of the invention until you + had been promised an indemnity of thirty thousand francs; fifteen + thousand to free you from embarrassment, and fifteen thousand more + to be yours in any case, whether your invention succeeds or no. I + cannot understand Petit-Claud. I embrace you, dear, a wife's kiss + for her husband in trouble. Our little Lucien is well. How strange + it is to watch him grow rosy and strong, like a flower, in these + stormy days! Mother prays God for you now, as always, and sends + love only less tender than mine.--Your + "EVE." + + +As a matter of fact, Petit-Claud and the Cointets had taken fright at +old Sechard's peasant shrewdness, and got rid of him so much the more +easily because it was now vintage time at Marsac. Eve's letter +enclosed another from Lucien:-- + + + "MY DEAR DAVID,--Everything is going well. I am armed _cap-a-pie_; + to-day I open the campaign, and in forty-eight hours I shall have + made great progress. How glad I shall be to embrace you when you + are free again and my debts are all paid! My mother and sister + persist in mistrusting me; their suspicion wounds me to the quick. + As if I did not know already that you are hiding with Basine, for + every time that Basine comes to the house I hear news of you and + receive answers to my letters; and besides, it is plain that my + sister could not find any one else to trust. It hurts me cruelly + to think that I shall be so near you to-day, and yet that you will + not be present at this banquet in my honor. I owe my little + triumph to the vainglory of Angouleme; in a few days it will be + quite forgotten, and you alone would have taken a real pleasure in + it. But, after all, in a little while you will pardon everything + to one who counts it more than all the triumphs in the world to be + your brother, + "LUCIEN." + + +Two forces tugged sharply at David's heart; he adored his wife; and if +he held Lucien in somewhat less esteem, his friendship was scarcely +diminished. In solitude our feelings have unrestricted play; and a man +preoccupied like David, with all-absorbing thoughts, will give way to +impulses for which ordinary life would have provided a sufficient +counterpoise. As he read Lucien's letter to the sound of military +music, and heard of this unlooked-for recognition, he was deeply +touched by that expression of regret. He had known how it would be. A +very slight expression of feeling appeals irresistibly to a sensitive +soul, for they are apt to credit others with like depths. How should +the drop fall unless the cup were full to the brim? + +So at midnight, in spite of all Basine's entreaties, David must go to +see Lucien. + +"Nobody will be out in the streets at this time of night," he said; "I +shall not be seen, and they cannot arrest me. Even if I should meet +people, I can make use of Kolb's way of going into hiding. And +besides, it is so intolerably long since I saw my wife and child." + +The reasoning was plausible enough; Basine gave way, and David went. +Petit-Claud was just taking leave as he came up and at his cry of +_"Lucien!"_ the two brothers flung their arms about each other with +tears in their eyes. + +Life holds not many moments such as these. Lucien's heart went out in +response to this friendship for its own sake. There was never question +of debtor and creditor between them, and the offender met with no +reproaches save his own. David, generous and noble that he was, was +longing to bestow pardon; he meant first of all to read Lucien a +lecture, and scatter the clouds that overspread the love of the +brother and sister; and with these ends in view, the lack of money and +its consequent dangers disappeared entirely from his mind. + +"Go home," said Petit-Claud, addressing his client; "take advantage of +your imprudence to see your wife and child again, at any rate; and you +must not be seen, mind you!--How unlucky!" he added, when he was alone +in the Place du Murier. "If only Cerizet were here----" + +The buildings magniloquently styled the Angouleme Law Courts were then +in process of construction. Petit-Claud muttered these words to +himself as he passed by the hoardings, and heard a tap upon the +boards, and a voice issuing from a crack between two planks. + +"Here I am," said Cerizet; "I saw David coming out of L'Houmeau. I was +beginning to have my suspicions about his retreat, and now I am sure; +and I know where to have him. But I want to know something of Lucien's +plans before I set the snare for David; and here are you sending him +into the house! Find some excuse for stopping here, at least, and when +David and Lucien come out, send them round this way; they will think +they are quite alone, and I shall overhear their good-bye." + +"You are a very devil," muttered Petit-Claud. + +"Well, I'm blessed if a man wouldn't do anything for the thing you +promised me." + +Petit-Claud walked away from the hoarding, and paced up and down in +the Place du Murier; he watched the windows of the room where the +family sat together, and thought of his own prospects to keep up his +courage. Cerizet's cleverness had given him the chance of striking the +final blow. Petit-Claud was a double-dealer of the profoundly cautious +stamp that is never caught by the bait of a present satisfaction, nor +entangled by a personal attachment, after his first initiation into +the strategy of self-seeking and the instability of the human heart. +So, from the very first, he had put little trust in Cointet. He +foresaw that his marriage negotiations might very easily be broken +off, saw also that in that case he could not accuse Cointet of bad +faith, and he had taken his measures accordingly. But since his +success at the Hotel de Bargeton, Petit-Claud's game was above board. +A certain under-plot of his was useless now, and even dangerous to a +man with his political ambitions. He had laid the foundations of his +future importance in the following manner:-- + +Gannerac and a few of the wealthy men of business in L'Houmeau formed +a sort of Liberal clique in constant communication (through commercial +channels) with the leaders of the Opposition. The Villele ministry, +accepted by the dying Louis XVIII., gave the signal for a change of +tactics in the Opposition camp; for, since the death of Napoleon, the +liberals had ceased to resort to the dangerous expedient of +conspiracy. They were busy organizing resistance by lawful means +throughout the provinces, and aiming at securing control of the great +bulk of electors by convincing the masses. Petit-Claud, a rabid +Liberal, and a man of L'Houmeau, was the instigator, the secret +counselor, and the very life of this movement in the lower town, which +groaned under the tyranny of the aristocrats at the upper end. He was +the first to see the danger of leaving the whole press of the +department in the control of the Cointets; the Opposition must have +its organ; it would not do to be behind other cities. + +"If each one of us gives Gannerac a bill for five hundred francs, he +would have some twenty thousand francs and more; we might buy up +Sechard's printing-office, and we could do as we liked with the +master-printer if we lent him the capital," Petit-Claud had said. + +Others had taken up the idea, and in this way Petit-Claud strengthened +his position with regard to David on the one side and the Cointets on +the other. Casting about him for a tool for his party, he naturally +thought that a rogue of Cerizet's calibre was the very man for the +purpose. + +"If you can find Sechard's hiding-place and put him in our hands, +somebody will lend you twenty thousand francs to buy his business, and +very likely there will be a newspaper to print. So, set about it," he +had said. + +Petit-Claud put more faith in Cerizet's activity than in all the +Doublons in existence; and then it was that he promised Cointet that +Sechard should be arrested. But now that the little lawyer cherished +hopes of office, he saw that he must turn his back upon the Liberals; +and, meanwhile, the amount for the printing-office had been subscribed +in L'Houmeau. Petit-Claud decided to allow things to take their +natural course. + +"Pooh!" he thought, "Cerizet will get into trouble with his paper, and +give me an opportunity of displaying my talents." + +He walked up to the door of the printing-office and spoke to Kolb, the +sentinel. "Go up and warn David that he had better go now," he said, +"and take every precaution. I am going home; it is one o'clock." + +Marion came to take Kolb's place. Lucien and David came down together +and went out, Kolb a hundred paces ahead of them, and Marion at the +same distance behind. The two friends walked past the hoarding, Lucien +talking eagerly the while. + +"My plan is extremely simple, David; but how could I tell you about it +while Eve was there? She would never understand. I am quite sure that +at the bottom of Louise's heart there is a feeling that I can rouse, +and I should like to arouse it if it is only to avenge myself upon +that idiot the prefect. If our love affair only lasts for a week, I +will contrive to send an application through her for the subvention of +twenty thousand francs for you. I am going to see her again to-morrow +in the little boudoir where our old affair of the heart began; +Petit-Claud says that the room is the same as ever; I shall play my +part in the comedy; and I will send word by Basine to-morrow morning +to tell you whether the actor was hissed. You may be at liberty by +then, who knows?--Now do you understand how it was that I wanted +clothes from Paris? One cannot act the lover's part in rags." + +At six o'clock that morning Cerizet went to Petit-Claud. + +"Doublon can be ready to take his man to-morrow at noon, I will answer +for it," he said; "I know one of Mlle. Clerget's girls, do you +understand?" Cerizet unfolded his plan, and Petit-Claud hurried to +find Cointet. + +"If M. Francis du Hautoy will settle his property on Francoise, you +shall sign a deed of partnership with Sechard in two days. I shall not +be married for a week after the contract is signed, so we shall both +be within the terms of our little agreement, tit for tat. To-night, +however, we must keep a close watch over Lucien and Mme. la Comtesse +du Chatelet, for the whole business lies in that. . . . If Lucien +hopes to succeed through the Countess' influence, I have David +safe----" + +"You will be Keeper of the Seals yet, it is my belief," said Cointet. + +"And why not? No one objects to M. de Peyronnet," said Petit-Claud. He +had not altogether sloughed his skin of Liberalism. + +Mlle. de la Haye's ambiguous position brought most of the upper town +to the signing of the marriage contract. The comparative poverty of +the young couple and the absence of a _corbeille_ quickened the interest +that people love to exhibit; for it is with beneficence as with +ovations, we prefer the deeds of charity which gratify self-love. The +Marquise de Pimentel, the Comtesse du Chatelet, M. de Senonches, and +one or two frequenters of the house had given Francoise a few wedding +presents, which made great talk in the city. These pretty trifles, +together with the trousseau which Zephirine had been preparing for the +past twelve months, the godfather's jewels, and the usual wedding +gifts, consoled Francoise and roused the curiosity of some mothers of +daughters. + +Petit-Claud and Cointet had both remarked that their presence in the +Angouleme Olympus was endured rather than courted. Cointet was +Francoise's trustee and quasi-guardian; and if Petit-Claud was to sign +the contract, Petit-Claud's presence was as necessary as the +attendance of the man to be hanged at an execution; but though, once +married, Mme. Petit-Claud might keep her right of entry to her +godmother's house, Petit-Claud foresaw some difficulty on his own +account, and resolved to be beforehand with these haughty personages. + +He felt ashamed of his parents. He had sent his mother to stay at +Mansle; now he begged her to say that she was out of health and to +give her consent in writing. So humiliating was it to be without +relations, protectors, or witnesses to his signature, that Petit-Claud +thought himself in luck that he could bring a presentable friend at +the Countess' request. He called to take up Lucien, and they drove to +the Hotel de Bargeton. + +On that memorable evening the poet dressed to outshine every man +present. Mme. de Senonches had spoken of him as the hero of the hour, +and a first interview between two estranged lovers is the kind of +scene that provincials particularly love. Lucien had come to be the +lion of the evening; he was said to be so handsome, so much changed, +so wonderful, that every well-born woman in Angouleme was curious to +see him again. Following the fashion of the transition period between +the eighteenth century small clothes and the vulgar costume of the +present day, he wore tight-fitting black trousers. Men still showed +their figures in those days, to the utter despair of lean, +clumsily-made mortals; and Lucien was an Apollo. The open-work gray +silk stockings, the neat shoes, and the black satin waistcoat were +scrupulously drawn over his person, and seemed to cling to him. His +forehead looked the whiter by contrast with the thick, bright curls +that rose above it with studied grace. The proud eyes were radiant. +The hands, small as a woman's, never showed to better advantage than +when gloved. He had modeled himself upon de Marsay, the famous +Parisian dandy, holding his hat and cane in one hand, and keeping the +other free for the very occasional gestures which illustrated his +talk. + +Lucien had quite intended to emulate the famous false modesty of those +who bend their heads to pass beneath the Porte Saint-Denis, and to +slip unobserved into the room; but Petit-Claud, having but one friend, +made him useful. He brought Lucien almost pompously through a crowded +room to Mme. de Senonches. The poet heard a murmur as he passed; not +so very long ago that hum of voices would have turned his head, to-day +he was quite different; he did not doubt that he himself was greater +than the whole Olympus put together. + +"Madame," he said, addressing Mme. de Senonches, "I have already +congratulated my friend Petit-Claud (a man with the stuff in him of +which Keepers of the Seals are made) on the honor of his approaching +connection with you, slight as are the ties between godmother and +goddaughter----" (this with the air of a man uttering an epigram, by +no means lost upon any woman in the room, for every woman was +listening without appearing to do so.) "And as for myself," he +continued, "I am delighted to have the opportunity of paying my homage +to you." + +He spoke easily and fluently, as some great lord might speak under the +roof of his inferiors; and as he listened to Zephirine's involved +reply, he cast a glance over the room to consider the effect that he +wished to make. The pause gave him time to discover Francis du Hautoy +and the prefect; to bow gracefully to each with the proper shade of +difference in his smile, and, finally, to approach Mme. du Chatelet as +if he had just caught sight of her. That meeting was the real event of +the evening. No one so much as thought of the marriage contract lying +in the adjoining bedroom, whither Francoise and the notary led guest +after guest to sign the document. Lucien made a step towards Louise de +Negrepelisse, and then spoke with that grace of manner now associated, +for her, with memories of Paris. + +"Do I owe to you, madame, the pleasure of an invitation to dine at the +Prefecture the day after to-morrow?" he said. + +"You owe it solely to your fame, monsieur," Louise answered drily, +somewhat taken aback by the turn of a phrase by which Lucien +deliberately tried to wound her pride. + +"Ah! Madame la Comtesse, I cannot bring you the guest if the man is in +disgrace," said Lucien, and, without waiting for an answer, he turned +and greeted the Bishop with stately grace. + +"Your lordship's prophecy has been partially fulfilled," he said, and +there was a winning charm in his tones; "I will endeavor to fulfil it +to the letter. I consider myself very fortunate since this evening +brings me an opportunity of paying my respects to you." + +Lucien drew the Bishop into a conversation that lasted for ten +minutes. The women looked on Lucien as a phenomenon. His unexpected +insolence had struck Mme. du Chatelet dumb; she could not find an +answer. Looking round the room, she saw that every woman admired +Lucien; she watched group after group repeating the phrases by which +Lucien crushed her with seeming disdain, and her heart contracted with +a spasm of mortification. + +"Suppose that he should not come to the Prefecture after this, what +talk there would be!" she thought. "Where did he learn this pride? Can +Mlle. des Touches have taken a fancy for him? . . . He is so handsome. +They say that she hurried to see him in Paris the day after that +actress died. . . . Perhaps he has come to the rescue of his +brother-in-law, and happened to be behind our caleche at Mansle by +accident. Lucien looked at us very strangely that morning." + +A crowd of thoughts crossed Louise's brain, and unluckily for her, she +continued to ponder visibly as she watched Lucien. He was talking with +the Bishop as if he were the king of the room; making no effort to +find any one out, waiting till others came to him, looking round about +him with varying expression, and as much at his ease as his model de +Marsay. M. de Senonches appeared at no great distance, but Lucien +still stood beside the prelate. + +At the end of ten minutes Louise could contain herself no longer. She +rose and went over to the Bishop and said: + +"What is being said, my lord, that you smile so often?" + +Lucien drew back discreetly, and left Mme. du Chatelet with his +lordship. + +"Ah! Mme. la Comtesse, what a clever young fellow he is! He was +explaining to me that he owed all he is to you----" + +"_I_ am not ungrateful, madame," said Lucien, with a reproachful +glance that charmed the Countess. + +"Let us have an understanding," she said, beckoning him with her fan. +"Come into the boudoir. My Lord Bishop, you shall judge between us." + +"She has found a funny task for his lordship," said one of the +Chandour camp, sufficiently audibly. + +"Judge between us!" repeated Lucien, looking from the prelate to the +lady; "then, is one of us in fault?" + +Louise de Negrepelisse sat down on the sofa in the familiar boudoir. +She made the Bishop sit on one side and Lucien on the other, then she +began to speak. But Lucien, to the joy and surprise of his old love, +honored her with inattention; her words fell unheeded on his ears; he +sat like Pasta in _Tancredi_, with the words _O patria!_ upon her lips, +the music of the great cavatina _Dell Rizzo_ might have passed into his +face. Indeed, Coralie's pupil had contrived to bring the tears to his +eyes. + +"Oh! Louise, how I loved you!" he murmured, careless of the Bishop's +presence, heedless of the conversation, as soon as he knew that the +Countess had seen the tears. + +"Dry your eyes, or you will ruin me here a second time," she said in +an aside that horrified the prelate. + +"And once is enough," was Lucien's quick retort. "That speech from +Mme. d'Espard's cousin would dry the eyes of a weeping Magdalene. Oh +me! for a little moment old memories, and lost illusions, and my +twentieth year came back to me, and you have----" + +His lordship hastily retreated to the drawing-room at this; it seemed +to him that his dignity was like to be compromised by this sentimental +pair. Every one ostentatiously refrained from interrupting them, and a +quarter of an hour went by; till at last Sixte du Chatelet, vexed by +the laughter and talk, and excursions to the boudoir door, went in +with a countenance distinctly overclouded, and found Louise and Lucien +talking excitedly. + +"Madame," said Sixte in his wife's ear, "you know Angouleme better +than I do, and surely you should think of your position as Mme. la +Prefete and of the Government?" + +"My dear," said Louise, scanning her responsible editor with a +haughtiness that made him quake, "I am talking with M. de Rubempre of +matters which interest you. It is a question of rescuing an inventor +about to fall a victim to the basest machinations; you will help us. +As to those ladies yonder, and their opinion of me, you shall see how +I will freeze the venom of their tongues." + +She came out of the boudoir on Lucien's arm, and drew him across to +sign the contract with a great lady's audacity. + +"Write your name after mine," she said, handing him the pen. And +Lucien submissively signed in the place indicated beneath her name. + +"M. de Senonches, would you have recognized M. de Rubempre?" she +continued, and the insolent sportsman was compelled to greet Lucien. + +She returned to the drawing-room on Lucien's arm, and seated him on +the awe-inspiring central sofa between herself and Zephirine. There, +enthroned like a queen, she began, at first in a low voice, a +conversation in which epigram evidently was not wanting. Some of her +old friends, and several women who paid court to her, came to join the +group, and Lucien soon became the hero of the circle. The Countess +drew him out on the subject of life in Paris; his satirical talk +flowed with spontaneous and incredible spirit; he told anecdotes of +celebrities, those conversational luxuries which the provincial +devours with such avidity. His wit was as much admired as his good +looks. And Mme. la Comtesse Sixte du Chatelet, preparing Lucien's +triumph so patiently, sat like a player enraptured with the sound of +his instrument; she gave him opportunities for a reply; she looked +round the circle for applause so openly, that not a few of the women +began to think that their return together was something more than a +coincidence, and that Lucien and Louise, loving with all their hearts, +had been separated by a double treason. Pique, very likely, had +brought about this ill-starred match with Chatelet. And a reaction set +in against the prefect. + +Before the Countess rose to go at one o'clock in the morning, she +turned to Lucien and said in a low voice, "Do me the pleasure of +coming punctually to-morrow evening." Then, with the friendliest +little nod, she went, saying a few words to Chatelet, who was looking +for his hat. + +"If Mme. du Chatelet has given me a correct idea of the state of +affairs, count on me, my dear Lucien," said the prefect, preparing to +hurry after his wife. She was going away without him, after the Paris +fashion. "Your brother-in-law may consider that his troubles are at an +end," he added as he went. + +"M. le Comte surely owes me so much," smiled Lucien. + +Cointet and Petit-Claud heard these farewell speeches. + +"Well, well, we are done for now," Cointet muttered in his +confederate's ear. Petit-Claud, thunderstruck by Lucien's success, +amazed by his brilliant wit and varying charm, was gazing at Francoise +de la Haye; the girl's whole face was full of admiration for Lucien. +"Be like your friend," she seemed to say to her betrothed. A gleam of +joy flitted over Petit-Claud's countenance. + +"We still have a whole day before the prefect's dinner; I will answer +for everything." + +An hour later, as Petit-Claud and Lucien walked home together, Lucien +talked of his success. "Well, my dear fellow, I came, I saw, I +conquered! Sechard will be very happy in a few hours' time." + +"Just what I wanted to know," thought Petit-Claud. Aloud he said--"I +thought you were simply a poet, Lucien, but you are a Lauzun too, that +is to say--twice a poet," and they shook hands--for the last time, as +it proved. + +"Good news, dear Eve," said Lucien, waking his sister, "David will +have no debts in less than a month!" + +"How is that?" + +"Well, my Louise is still hidden by Mme. du Chatelet's petticoat. She +loves me more than ever; she will send a favorable report of our +discovery to the Minister of the Interior through her husband. So we +have only to endure our troubles for one month, while I avenge myself +on the prefect and complete the happiness of his married life." + +Eve listened, and thought that she must be dreaming. + +"I saw the little gray drawing-room where I trembled like a child two +years ago; it seemed as if scales fell from my eyes when I saw the +furniture and the pictures and the faces again. How Paris changes +one's ideas!" + +"Is that a good thing?" asked Eve, at last beginning to understand. + +"Come, come; you are still asleep. We will talk about it to-morrow +after breakfast." + +Cerizet's plot was exceedingly simple, a commonplace stratagem +familiar to the provincial bailiff. Its success entirely depends upon +circumstances, and in this case it was certain, so intimate was +Cerizet's knowledge of the characters and hopes of those concerned. +Cerizet had been a kind of Don Juan among the young work-girls, ruling +his victims by playing one off against another. Since he had been the +Cointet's extra foreman, he had singled out one of Basine Clerget's +assistants, a girl almost as handsome as Mme. Sechard. Henriette +Signol's parents owned a small vineyard two leagues out of Angouleme, +on the road to Saintes. The Signols, like everybody else in the +country, could not afford to keep their only child at home; so they +meant her to go out to service, in country phrase. The art of +clear-starching is a part of every country housemaid's training; and +so great was Mme. Prieur's reputation, that the Signols sent Henriette +to her as apprentice, and paid for their daughter's board and lodging. + +Mme. Prieur was one of the old-fashioned mistresses, who consider that +they fill a parent's place towards their apprentices. They were part +of the family; she took them with her to church, and looked +scrupulously after them. Henriette Signol was a tall, fine-looking +girl, with bold eyes, and long, thick, dark hair, and the pale, very +fair complexion of girls in the South--white as a magnolia flower. For +which reasons Henriette was one of the first on whom Cerizet cast his +eyes; but Henriette came of "honest farmer folk," and only yielded at +last to jealousy, to bad example, and the treacherous promise of +subsequent marriage. By this time Cerizet was the Cointet's foreman. +When he learned that the Signols owned a vineyard worth some ten or +twelve thousand francs, and a tolerably comfortable cottage, he +hastened to make it impossible for Henriette to marry any one else. +Affairs had reached this point when Petit-Claud held out the prospect +of a printing office and twenty thousand francs of borrowed capital, +which was to prove a yoke upon the borrower's neck. Cerizet was +dazzled, the offer turned his head; Henriette Signol was now only an +obstacle in the way of his ambitions, and he neglected the poor girl. +Henriette, in her despair, clung more closely to her seducer as he +tried to shake her off. When Cerizet began to suspect that David was +hiding in Basine's house, his views with regard to Henriette underwent +another change, though he treated her as before. A kind of frenzy +works in a girl's brain when she must marry her seducer to conceal her +dishonor, and Cerizet was on the watch to turn this madness to his own +account. + +During the morning of the day when Lucien had set himself to reconquer +his Louise, Cerizet told Basine's secret to Henriette, giving her to +understand at the same time that their marriage and future prospects +depended upon the discovery of David's hiding-place. Thus instructed, +Henriette easily made certain of the fact that David was in Basine +Clerget's inner room. It never occurred to the girl that she was doing +wrong to act the spy, and Cerizet involved her in the guilt of +betrayal by this first step. + +Lucien was still sleeping while Cerizet, closeted with Petit-Claud, +heard the history of the important trifles with which all Angouleme +presently would ring. + +The Cointets' foreman gave a satisfied nod as Petit-Claud came to an +end. "Lucien surely has written you a line since he came back, has he +not?" he asked. + +"This is all that I have," answered the lawyer, and he held out a note +on Mme. Sechard's writing-paper. + +"Very well," said Cerizet, "let Doublon be in wait at the Palet Gate +about ten minutes before sunset; tell him to post his gendarmes, and +you shall have our man." + +"Are you sure of _your_ part of the business?" asked Petit-Claud, +scanning Cerizet. + +"I rely on chance," said the ex-street boy, "and she is a saucy huzzy; +she does not like honest folk. + +"You must succeed," said Cerizet. "You have pushed me into this dirty +business; you may as well let me have a few banknotes to wipe off the +stains."--Then detecting a look that he did not like in the attorney's +face, he continued, with a deadly glance, "If you have cheated me, +sir, if you don't buy the printing-office for me within a week--you +will leave a young widow;" he lowered his voice. + +"If we have David on the jail register at six o'clock, come round to +M. Gannerac's at nine, and we will settle your business," said +Petit-Claud peremptorily. + +"Agreed. Your will shall be done, governor," said Cerizet. + +Cerizet understood the art of washing paper, a dangerous art for the +Treasury. He washed out Lucien's four lines and replaced them, +imitating the handwriting with a dexterity which augured ill for his +own future:-- + + + "MY DEAR DAVID,--Your business is settled; you need not fear to go + to the prefect. You can go out at sunset. I will come to meet you + and tell you what to do at the prefecture.--Your brother, + "LUCIEN." + + +At noon Lucien wrote to David, telling him of his evening's success. +The prefect would be sure to lend his influence, he said; he was full +of enthusiasm over the invention, and was drawing up a report that +very day to send to the Government. Marion carried the letter to +Basine, taking some of Lucien's linen to the laundry as a pretext for +the errand. + +Petit-Claud had told Cerizet that a letter would in all probability be +sent. Cerizet called for Mlle. Signol, and the two walked by the +Charente. Henriette's integrity must have held out for a long while, +for the walk lasted for two hours. A whole future of happiness and +ease and the interests of a child were at stake, and Cerizet asked a +mere trifle of her. He was very careful besides to say nothing of the +consequences of that trifle. She was only to carry a letter and a +message, that was all; but it was the greatness of the reward for the +trifling service that frightened Henriette. Nevertheless, Cerizet +gained her consent at last; she would help him in his stratagem. + +At five o'clock Henriette must go out and come in again, telling +Basine Clerget that Mme. Sechard wanted to speak to her at once. +Fifteen minutes after Basine's departure she must go upstairs, knock +at the door of the inner room, and give David the forged note. That +was all. Cerizet looked to chance to manage the rest. + + + +For the first time in twelve months, Eve felt the iron grasp of +necessity relax a little. She began at last to hope. She, too, would +enjoy her brother's visit; she would show herself abroad on the arm of +a man feted in his native town, adored by the women, beloved by the +proud Comtesse du Chatelet. She dressed herself prettily, and proposed +to walk out after dinner with her brother to Beaulieu. In September +all Angouleme comes out at that hour to breathe the fresh air. + +"Oh! that is the beautiful Mme. Sechard," voices said here and there. + +"I should never have believed it of her," said a woman. + +"The husband is in hiding, and the wife walks abroad," said Mme. +Postel for young Mme. Sechard's benefit. + +"Oh, let us go home," said poor Eve; "I have made a mistake." + +A few minutes before sunset, the sound of a crowd rose from the steps +that lead down to L'Houmeau. Apparently some crime had been committed, +for persons coming from L'Houmeau were talking among themselves. +Curiosity drew Lucien and Eve towards the steps. + +"A thief has just been arrested no doubt, the man looks as pale as +death," one of these passers-by said to the brother and sister. The +crowd grew larger. + +Lucien and Eve watched a group of some thirty children, old women and +men, returning from work, clustering about the gendarmes, whose +gold-laced caps gleamed above the heads of the rest. About a hundred +persons followed the procession, the crowd gathering like a storm +cloud. + +"Oh! it is my husband!" Eve cried out. + +_"David!"_ exclaimed Lucien. + +"It is his wife," said voices, and the crowd made way. + +"What made you come out?" asked Lucien. + +"Your letter," said David, haggard and white. + +"I knew it!" said Eve, and she fainted away. Lucien raised his sister, +and with the help of two strangers he carried her home; Marion laid +her in bed, and Kolb rushed off for a doctor. Eve was still insensible +when the doctor arrived; and Lucien was obliged to confess to his +mother that he was the cause of David's arrest; for he, of course, +knew nothing of the forged letter and Cerizet's stratagem. Then he +went up to his room and locked himself in, struck dumb by the +malediction in his mother's eyes. + +In the dead of night he wrote one more letter amid constant +interruptions; the reader can divine the agony of the writer's mind +from those phrases, jerked out, as it were, one by one:-- + + + "MY BELOVED SISTER,--We have seen each other for the last time. My + resolution is final, and for this reason. In many families there + is one unlucky member, a kind of disease in their midst. I am that + unlucky one in our family. The observation is not mine; it was + made at a friendly supper one evening at the _Rocher de Cancale_ by + a diplomate who has seen a great deal of the world. While we + laughed and joked, he explained the reason why some young lady or + some other remained unmarried, to the astonishment of the world + --it was 'a touch of her father,' he said, and with that he unfolded + his theory of inherited weaknesses. He told us how such and such a + family would have flourished but for the mother; how it was that a + son had ruined his father, or a father had stripped his children + of prospects and respectability. It was said laughingly, but we + thought of so many cases in point in ten minutes that I was struck + with the theory. The amount of truth in it furnished all sorts of + wild paradoxes, which journalists maintain cleverly enough for + their own amusement when there is nobody else at hand to mystify. + I bring bad luck to our family. My heart is full of love for you, + yet I behave like an enemy. The blow dealt unintentionally is the + cruelest blow of all. While I was leading a bohemian life in + Paris, a life made up of pleasure and misery; taking good + fellowship for friendship, forsaking my true friends for those who + wished to exploit me, and succeeded; forgetful of you, or + remembering you only to cause you trouble,--all that while you + were walking in the humble path of hard work, making your way + slowly but surely to the fortune which I tried so madly to snatch. + While you grew better, I grew worse; a fatal element entered into + my life through my own choice. Yes, unbounded ambition makes an + obscure existence simply impossible for me. I have tastes and + remembrances of past pleasures that poison the enjoyments within + my reach; once I should have been satisfied with them, now it is + too late. Oh, dear Eve, no one can think more hardly of me than I + do myself; my condemnation is absolute and pitiless. The struggle + in Paris demands steady effort; my will power is spasmodic, my + brain works intermittently. The future is so appalling that I do + not care to face it, and the present is intolerable. + + "I wanted to see you again. I should have done better to stay in + exile all my days. But exile without means of subsistence would be + madness; I will not add another folly to the rest. Death is better + than a maimed life; I cannot think of myself in any position in + which my overweening vanity would not lead me into folly. + + "Some human beings are like the figure 0, another must be put + before it, and they acquire ten times their value. I am nothing + unless a strong inexorable will is wedded to mine. Mme. de + Bargeton was in truth my wife; when I refused to leave Coralie for + her I spoiled my life. You and David might have been excellent + pilots for me, but you are not strong enough to tame my weakness, + which in some sort eludes control. I like an easy life, a life + without cares; to clear an obstacle out of my way I can descend to + baseness that sticks at nothing. I was born a prince. I have more + than the requisite intellectual dexterity for success, but only by + moments; and the prizes of a career so crowded by ambitious + competitors are to those who expend no more than the necessary + strength, and retain a sufficient reserve when they reach the + goal. + + "I shall do harm again with the best intentions in the world. Some + men are like oaks, I am a delicate shrub it may be, and I + forsooth, must needs aspire to be a forest cedar. + + "There you have my bankrupt's schedule. The disproportion between + my powers and my desires, my want of balance, in short, will bring + all my efforts to nothing. There are many such characters among + men of letters, many men whose intellectual powers and character + are always at variance, who will one thing and wish another. What + would become of me? I can see it all beforehand, as I think of + this and that great light that once shone on Paris, now utterly + forgotten. On the threshold of old age I shall be a man older than + my age, needy and without a name. My whole soul rises up against + the thought of such a close; I will not be a social rag. Ah, dear + sister, loved and worshiped at least as much for your severity at + the last as for your tenderness at the first--if we have paid so + dear for my joy at seeing you all once more, you and David may + perhaps some day think that you could grudge no price however high + for a little last happiness for an unhappy creature who loved you. + Do not try to find me, Eve; do not seek to know what becomes of + me. My intellect for once shall be backed by my will. + Renunciation, my angel, is daily death of self; my renunciation + will only last for one day; I will take advantage now of that + day. . . . + + "_Two o'clock_. + + "Yes, I have quite made up my mind. Farewell for ever, dear Eve. + There is something sweet in the thought that I shall live only in + your hearts henceforth, and I wish no other burying place. Once + more, farewell. . . . That is the last word from your brother + + "LUCIEN." + + +Lucien read the letter over, crept noiselessly down stairs, and left +it in the child's cradle; amid falling tears he set a last kiss on the +forehead of his sleeping sister; then he went out. He put out his +candle in the gray dusk, took a last look at the old house, stole +softly along the passage, and opened the street door; but in spite of +his caution, he awakened Kolb, who slept on a mattress on the workshop +floor. + +"Who goes there?" cried Kolb. + +"It is I, Lucien; I am going away, Kolb." + +"You vould haf done better gif you at nefer kom," Kolb muttered +audibly. + +"I should have done better still if I had never come into the world," +Lucien answered. "Good-bye, Kolb; I don't bear you any grudge for +thinking as I think myself. Tell David that I was sorry I could not +bid him good-bye, and say that this was my last thought." + +By the time the Alsacien was up and dressed, Lucien had shut the house +door, and was on his way towards the Charente by the Promenade de +Beaulieu. He might have been going to a festival, for he had put on +his new clothes from Paris and his dandy's trinkets for a drowning +shroud. Something in Lucien's tone had struck Kolb. At first the man +thought of going to ask his mistress whether she knew that her brother +had left the house; but as the deepest silence prevailed, he concluded +that the departure had been arranged beforehand, and lay down again +and slept. + +Little, considering the gravity of the question, has been written on +the subject of suicide; it has not been studied. Perhaps it is a +disease that cannot be observed. Suicide is one effect of a sentiment +which we will call self-esteem, if you will, to prevent confusion by +using the word "honor." When a man despises himself, and sees that +others despise him, when real life fails to fulfil his hopes, then +comes the moment when he takes his life, and thereby does homage to +society--shorn of his virtues or his splendor, he does not care to +face his fellows. Among atheists--Christians being without the +question of suicide--among atheists, whatever may be said to the +contrary, none but a base coward can take up a dishonored life. + +There are three kinds of suicide--the first is only the last and acute +stage of a long illness, and this kind belongs distinctly to +pathology; the second is the suicide of despair; and the third the +suicide based on logical argument. Despair and deductive reasoning had +brought Lucien to this pass, but both varieties are curable; it is +only the pathological suicide that is inevitable. Not infrequently you +find all three causes combined, as in the case of Jean-Jacques +Rousseau. + +Lucien having made up his mind fell to considering methods. The poet +would fain die as became a poet. At first he thought of throwing +himself into the Charente and making an end then and there; but as he +came down the steps from Beaulieu for the last time, he heard the +whole town talking of his suicide; he saw the horrid sight of a +drowned dead body, and thought of the recognition and the inquest; +and, like some other suicides, felt that vanity reached beyond death. + +He remembered the day spent at Courtois' mill, and his thoughts +returned to the round pool among the willows that he saw as he came +along by the little river, such a pool as you often find on small +streams, with a still, smooth surface that conceals great depths +beneath. The water is neither green nor blue nor white nor tawny; it +is like a polished steel mirror. No sword-grass grows about the +margin; there are no blue water forget-me-nots, nor broad lily leaves; +the grass at the brim is short and thick, and the weeping willows that +droop over the edge grow picturesquely enough. It is easy to imagine a +sheer precipice beneath filled with water to the brim. Any man who +should have the courage to fill his pockets with pebbles would not +fail to find death, and never be seen thereafter. + +At the time while he admired the lovely miniature of a landscape, the +poet had thought to himself, "'Tis a spot to make your mouth water +for a _noyade_." + +He thought of it now as he went down into L'Houmeau; and when he took +his way towards Marsac, with the last sombre thoughts gnawing at his +heart, it was with the firm resolve to hide his death. There should be +no inquest held over him, he would not be laid in earth; no one should +see him in the hideous condition of the corpse that floats on the +surface of the water. Before long he reached one of the slopes, common +enough on all French highroads, and commonest of all between Angouleme +and Poitiers. He saw the coach from Bordeaux to Paris coming up at +full speed behind him, and knew that the passengers would probably +alight to walk up the hill. He did not care to be seen just then. +Turning off sharply into a beaten track, he began to pick the flowers +in a vineyard hard by. + +When Lucien came back to the road with a great bunch of the yellow +stone-crop which grows everywhere upon the stony soil of the +vineyards, he came out upon a traveler dressed in black from head to +foot. The stranger wore powder, there were silver buckles on his shoes +of Orleans leather, and his brown face was scarred and seamed as if he +had fallen into the fire in infancy. The traveler, so obviously +clerical in his dress, was walking slowly and smoking a cigar. He +turned as Lucien jumped down from the vineyard into the road. The deep +melancholy on the handsome young face, the poet's symbolical flowers, +and his elegant dress seemed to strike the stranger. He looked at +Lucien with something of the expression of a hunter that has found his +quarry at last after long and fruitless search. He allowed Lucien to +come alongside in nautical phrase; then he slackened his pace, and +appeared to look along the road up the hill; Lucien, following the +direction of his eyes, saw a light traveling carriage with two horses, +and a post-boy standing beside it. + +"You have allowed the coach to pass you, monsieur; you will lose your +place unless you care to take a seat in my caleche and overtake the +mail, for it is rather quicker traveling post than by the public +conveyance." The traveler spoke with extreme politeness and a very +marked Spanish accent. + +Without waiting for an answer, he drew a cigar-case from his pocket, +opened it, and held it out to Lucien. + +"I am not on a journey," said Lucien, "and I am too near the end of my +stage to indulge in the pleasure of smoking----" + +"You are very severe with yourself," returned the Spaniard. "Though I +am a canon of the cathedral of Toledo, I occasionally smoke a +cigarette. God gave us tobacco to allay our passions and our pains. +You seem to be downcast, or at any rate, you carry the symbolical +flower of sorrow in your hand, like the rueful god Hymen. Come! all +your troubles will vanish away with the smoke," and again the +ecclesiastic held out his little straw case; there was something +fascinating in his manner, and kindliness towards Lucien lighted up +his eyes. + +"Forgive me, father" Lucien answered stiffly; "there is no cigar that +can scatter my troubles." Tears came to his eyes at the words. + +"It must surely be Divine Providence that prompted me to take a little +exercise to shake off a traveler's morning drowsiness," said the +churchman. "A divine prompting to fulfil my mission here on earth by +consoling you.--What great trouble can you have at your age?" + +"Your consolations, father, can do nothing for me. You are a Spaniard, +I am a Frenchman; you believe in the commandments of the Church, I am +an atheist." + +"_Santa Virgen del Pilar_! you are an atheist!" cried the other, laying +a hand on Lucien's arm with maternal solicitude. "Ah! here is one of +the curious things I promised myself to see in Paris. We, in Spain, do +not believe in atheists. There is no country but France where one can +have such opinions at nineteen years." + +"Oh! I am an atheist in the fullest sense of the word. I have no +belief in God, in society, in happiness. Take a good look at me, +father; for in a few hours' time life will be over for me. My last sun +has risen," said Lucien; with a sort of rhetorical effect he waved his +hand towards the sky. + +"How so; what have you done that you must die? Who has condemned you +to die?" + +"A tribunal from which there is no appeal--I myself." + +"You, child!" cried the priest. "Have you killed a man? Is the +scaffold waiting for you? Let us reason together a little. If you are +resolved, as you say, to return to nothingness, everything on earth is +indifferent to you, is it not?" + +Lucien bowed assent. + +"Very well, then; can you not tell me about your troubles? Some little +affair of the heart has taken a bad turn, no doubt?" + +Lucien shrugged his shoulders very significantly. + +"Are you resolved to kill yourself to escape dishonor, or do you +despair of life? Very good. You can kill yourself at Poitiers quite as +easily as at Angouleme, and at Tours it will be no harder than at +Poitiers. The quicksands of the Loire never give up their prey----" + +"No, father," said Lucien; "I have settled it all. Not three weeks ago +I chanced upon the most charming raft that can ferry a man sick and +tired of this life into the other world----" + +"The other world? You are not an atheist." + +"Oh! by another world I mean my next transformation, animal or plant." + +"Have you some incurable disease?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Ah! now we come to the point. What is it?" + +"Poverty." + +The priest looked at Lucien. "The diamond does not know its own +value," he said, and there was an inexpressible charm, and a touch of +something like irony in his smile. + +"None but a priest could flatter a poor man about to die," exclaimed +Lucien. + +"You are not going to die," the Spaniard returned authoritatively. + +"I have heard many times of men that were robbed on the highroad, but +I have never yet heard of one that found a fortune there," said +Lucien. + +"You will hear of one now," said the priest, glancing towards the +carriage to measure the time still left for their walk together. +"Listen to me," he continued, with his cigar between his teeth; "if +you are poor, that is no reason why you should die. I need a +secretary, for mine has just died at Barcelona. I am in the same +position as the famous Baron Goertz, minister of Charles XII. He was +traveling toward Sweden (just as I am going to Paris), and in some +little town or other he chanced upon the son of a goldsmith, a young +man of remarkable good looks, though they could scarcely equal yours. +. . . Baron Goertz discerned intelligence in the young man (just as I +see poetry on your brow); he took him into his traveling carriage, as +I shall take you very shortly; and of a boy condemned to spend his +days in burnishing spoons and forks and making trinkets in some little +town like Angouleme, he made a favorite, as you shall be mine. + +"Arrived at Stockholm, he installed his secretary and overwhelmed him +with work. The young man spent his nights in writing, and, like all +great workers, he contracted a bad habit, a trick--he took to chewing +paper. The late M. de Malesherbes use to rap people over the knuckles; +and he did this once, by the by, to somebody or other whose suit +depended upon him. The handsome young secretary began by chewing blank +paper, found it insipid for a while, and acquired a taste for +manuscript as having more flavor. People did not smoke as yet in those +days. At last, from flavor to flavor, he began to chew parchment and +swallow it. Now, at that time a treaty was being negotiated between +Russia and Sweden. The States-General insisted that Charles XII. +should make peace (much as they tried in France to make Napoleon treat +for peace in 1814) and the basis of these negotiations was the treaty +between the two powers with regard to Finland. Goertz gave the +original into his secretary's keeping; but when the time came for +laying the draft before the States-General, a trifling difficulty +arose; the treaty was not to be found. The States-General believed +that the Minister, pandering to the King's wishes, had taken it into +his head to get rid of the document. Baron Goertz was, in fact, +accused of this, and the secretary owned that he had eaten the treaty. +He was tried and convicted and condemned to death.--But you have not +come to that yet, so take a cigar and smoke till we reach the +caleche." + +Lucien took a cigar and lit it, Spanish fashion, at the priest's +cigar. "He is right," he thought; "I can take my life at any time." + +"It often happens that a young man's fortunes take a turn when despair +is darkest," the Spaniard continued. "That is what I wished to tell +you, but I preferred to prove it by a case in point. Here was the +handsome young secretary lying under sentence of death, and his case +the more desperate because, as he had been condemned by the +States-General, the King could not pardon him, but he connived at his +escape. The secretary stole away in a fishing-boat with a few crowns +in his pocket, and reached the court of Courland with a letter of +introduction from Goertz, explaining his secretary's adventures and +his craze for paper. The Duke of Courland was a spendthrift; he had a +steward and a pretty wife--three several causes of ruin. He placed the +charming young stranger with his steward. + +"If you can imagine that the sometime secretary had been cured of his +depraved taste by a sentence of death, you do not know the grip that a +man's failings have upon him; let a man discover some satisfaction for +himself, and the headsman will not keep him from it.--How is it that +the vice has this power? Is it inherent strength in the vice, or +inherent weakness in human nature? Are there certain tastes that +should be regarded as verging on insanity? For myself, I cannot help +laughing at the moralists who try to expel such diseases by fine +phrases.--Well, it so fell out that the steward refused a demand for +money; and the Duke taking fright at this, called for an audit. Sheer +imbecility! Nothing easier than to make out a balance-sheet; the +difficulty never lies there. The steward gave his secretary all the +necessary documents for compiling a schedule of the civil list of +Courland. He had nearly finished it when, in the dead of night, the +unhappy paper-eater discovered that he was chewing up one of the +Duke's discharges for a considerable sum. He had eaten half the +signature! Horror seized upon him; he fled to the Duchess, flung +himself at her feet, told her of his craze, and implored the aid of +his sovereign lady, implored her in the middle of the night. The +handsome young face made such an impression on the Duchess that she +married him as soon as she was left a widow. And so in the mid- +eighteenth century, in a land where the king-at-arms is king, the +goldsmith's son became a prince, and something more. On the death of +Catherine I. he was regent; he ruled the Empress Anne, and tried to be +the Richelieu of Russia. Very well, young man; now know this--if you +are handsomer than Biron, I, simple canon that I am, am worth more +than a Baron Goertz. So get in; we will find a duchy of Courland for +you in Paris, or failing the duchy, we shall certainly find the +duchess." + +The Spanish priest laid a hand on Lucien's arm, and literally forced +him into the traveling carriage. The postilion shut the door. + +"Now speak; I am listening," said the canon of Toledo, to Lucien's +bewilderment. "I am an old priest; you can tell me everything, there +is nothing to fear. So far we have only run through our patrimony or +squandered mamma's money. We have made a flitting from our creditors, +and we are honor personified down to the tips of our elegant little +boots. . . . Come, confess, boldly; it will be just as if you were +talking to yourself." + +Lucien felt like that hero of an Eastern tale, the fisher who tried to +drown himself in mid-ocean, and sank down to find himself a king of +countries under the sea. The Spanish priest seemed so really +affectionate, that the poet hesitated no longer; between Angouleme and +Ruffec he told the story of his whole life, omitting none of his +misdeeds, and ended with the final catastrophe which he had brought +about. The tale only gained in poetic charm because this was the third +time he had told it in the past fortnight. Just as he made an end they +passed the house of the Rastignac family. + +"Young Rastignac left that place for Paris," said Lucien; "he is +certainly not my equal, but he has had better luck." + +The Spaniard started at the name. "Oh!" he said. + +"Yes. That shy little place belongs to his father. As I was telling +you just now, he was the lover of Mme. de Nucingen, the famous +banker's wife. I drifted into poetry; he was cleverer, he took the +practical side." + +The priest stopped the caleche; and was so far curious as to walk down +the little avenue that led to the house, showing more interest in the +place than Lucien expected from a Spanish ecclesiastic. + +"Then, do you know the Rastignacs?" asked Lucien. + +"I know every one in Paris," said the Spaniard, taking his place again +in the carriage. "And so for want of ten or twelve thousand francs, +you were about to take your life; you are a child, you know neither +men nor things. A man's future is worth the value that he chooses to +set upon it, and you value yours at twelve thousand francs! Well, I +will give more than that for you any time. As for your +brother-in-law's imprisonment, it is the merest trifle. If this dear +M. Sechard has made a discovery, he will be a rich man some day, and a +rich man has never been imprisoned for debt. You do not seem to me to +be strong in history. History is of two kinds--there is the official +history taught in schools, a lying compilation _ad usum delphini_; and +there is the secret history which deals with the real causes of events +--a scandalous chronicle. Let me tell you briefly a little story which +you have not heard. There was, once upon a time, a man, young and +ambitious, and a priest to boot. He wanted to enter upon a political +career, so he fawned on the Queen's favorite; the favorite took an +interest in him, gave him the rank of minister, and a seat at the +council board. One evening somebody wrote to the young aspirant, +thinking to do him a service (never do a service, by the by, unless +you are asked), and told him that his benefactor's life was in danger. +The King's wrath was kindled against his rival; to-morrow, if the +favorite went to the palace, he would certainly be stabbed; so said +the letter. Well, now, young man, what would you have done?" + +"I should have gone at once to warn my benefactor," Lucien exclaimed +quickly. + +"You are indeed the child which your story reveals!" said the priest. +"Our man said to himself, 'If the King is resolved to go to such +lengths, it is all over with my benefactor; I must receive this letter +too late;' so he slept on till the favorite was stabbed----" + +"He was a monster!" said Lucien, suspecting that the priest meant to +sound him. + +"So are all great men; this one was the Cardinal de Richelieu, and his +benefactor was the Marechal d'Ancre. You really do not know your +history of France, you see. Was I not right when I told you that +history as taught in schools is simply a collection of facts and +dates, more than doubtful in the first place, and with no bearing +whatever on the gist of the matter. You are told that such a person as +Jeanne Darc once existed; where is the use of that? Have you never +drawn your own conclusions from that fact? never seen that if France +had accepted the Angevin dynasty of the Plantagenets, the two peoples +thus reunited would be ruling the world to-day, and the islands that +now brew political storms for the continent would be French provinces? +. . . Why, have you so much as studied the means by which simple +merchants like the Medicis became Grand Dukes of Tuscany?" + +"A poet in France is not bound to be 'as learned as a Benedictine,'" +said Lucien. + +"Well, they became Grand-Dukes as Richelieu became a minister. If you +had looked into history for the causes of events instead of getting +the headings by heart, you would have found precepts for your guidance +in this life. These real facts taken at random from among so many +supply you with the axiom--'Look upon men, and on women most of all, +as your instruments; but never let them see this.' If some one higher +in place can be useful to you, worship him as your god; and never +leave him until he has paid the price of your servility to the last +farthing. In your intercourse with men, in short, be grasping and mean +as a Jew; all that the Jew does for money, you must do for power. And +besides all this, when a man has fallen from power, care no more for +him than if he had ceased to exist. And do you ask why you must do +these things? You mean to rule the world, do you not? You must begin +by obeying and studying it. Scholars study books; politicians study +men, and their interests and the springs of action. Society and +mankind in masses are fatalists; they bow down and worship the +accomplished fact. Do you know why I am giving you this little history +lesson? It seems to me that your ambition is boundless----" + +"Yes, father." + +"I saw that myself," said the priest. "But at this moment you are +thinking, 'Here is this Spanish canon inventing anecdotes and +straining history to prove to me that I have too much virtue----'" + +Lucien began to smile; his thoughts had been read so clearly. + +"Very well, let us take facts that every schoolboy knows. One day +France is almost entirely overrun by the English; the King has only a +single province left. Two figures arise from among the people--a poor +herd girl, that very Jeanne Darc of whom we were speaking, and a +burgher named Jacques Coeur. The girl brings the power of virginity, +the strength of her arm; the burgher gives his gold, and the kingdom +is saved. The maid is taken prisoner, and the King, who could have +ransomed her, leaves her to be burned alive. The King allows his +courtier to accuse the great burgher of capital crime, and they rob +him and divide all his wealth among themselves. The spoils of an +innocent man, hunted down, brought to bay, and driven into exile by +the Law, went to enrich five noble houses; and the father of the +Archbishop of Bourges left the kingdom for ever without one sou of all +his possessions in France, and no resource but moneys remitted to +Arabs and Saracens in Egypt. It is open to you to say that these +examples are out of date, that three centuries of public education +have since elapsed, and that the outlines of those ages are more or +less dim figures. Well, young man, do you believe in the last demi-god +of France, in Napoleon? One of his generals was in disgrace all +through his career; Napoleon made him a marshal grudgingly, and never +sent him on service if he could help it. That marshal was Kellermann. +Do you know the reason of the grudge? . . . Kellermann saved France +and the First Consul at Marengo by a brilliant charge; the ranks +applauded under fire and in the thick of the carnage. That heroic +charge was not even mentioned in the bulletin. Napoleon's coolness +toward Kellermann, Fouche's fall, and Talleyrand's disgrace were all +attributable to the same cause; it is the ingratitude of a Charles +VII., or a Richelieu, or ----" + +"But, father," said Lucien, "suppose that you should save my life and +make my fortune, you are making the ties of gratitude somewhat +slight." + +"Little rogue," said the Abbe, smiling as he pinched Lucien's ear with +an almost royal familiarity. "If you are ungrateful to me, it will be +because you are a strong man, and I shall bend before you. But you are +not that just yet; as a simple 'prentice you have tried to be master +too soon, the common fault of Frenchmen of your generation. Napoleon's +example has spoiled them all. You send in your resignation because you +have not the pair of epaulettes that you fancied. But have you +attempted to bring the full force of your will and every action of +your life to bear upon your one idea?" + +"Alas! no." + +"You have been inconsistent, as the English say," smiled the canon. + +"What I have been matters nothing now," said Lucien, "if I can be +nothing in the future." + +"If at the back of all your good qualities there is power _semper +virens_," continued the priest, not averse to show that he had a little +Latin, "nothing in this world can resist you. I have taken enough of a +liking for you already----" + +Lucien smiled incredulously. + +"Yes," said the priest, in answer to the smile, "you interest me as +much as if you had been my son; and I am strong enough to afford to +talk to you as openly as you have just done to me. Do you know what it +is that I like about you?--This: you have made a sort of _tabula rasa_ +within yourself, and are ready to hear a sermon on morality that you +will hear nowhere else; for mankind in the mass are even more +consummate hypocrites than any one individual can be when his +interests demand a piece of acting. Most of us spend a good part of +our lives in clearing our minds of the notions that sprang up +unchecked during our nonage. This is called 'getting our +experience.'" + +Lucien, listening, thought within himself, "Here is some old intriguer +delighted with a chance of amusing himself on a journey. He is pleased +with the idea of bringing about a change of opinion in a poor wretch +on the brink of suicide; and when he is tired of his amusement, he +will drop me. Still he understands paradox, and seems to be quite a +match for Blondet or Lousteau." + +But in spite of these sage reflections, the diplomate's poison had +sunk deeply into Lucien's soul; the ground was ready to receive it, +and the havoc wrought was the greater because such famous examples +were cited. Lucien fell under the charm of his companion's cynical +talk, and clung the more willingly to life because he felt that this +arm which drew him up from the depths was a strong one. + +In this respect the ecclesiastic had evidently won the day; and, +indeed, from time to time a malicious smile bore his cynical anecdotes +company. + +"If your system of morality at all resembles your manner of regarding +history," said Lucien, "I should dearly like to know the motive of +your present act of charity, for such it seems to be." + +"There, young man, I have come to the last head of my sermon; you will +permit me to reserve it, for in that case we shall not part company +to-day," said the canon, with the tact of the priest who sees that his +guile has succeeded. + +"Very well, talk morality," said Lucien. To himself he said, "I will +draw him out." + +"Morality begins with the law," said the priest. "If it were simply a +question of religion, laws would be superfluous; religious peoples +have few laws. The laws of statecraft are above civil law. Well, do +you care to know the inscription which a politician can read, written +at large over your nineteenth century? In 1793 the French invented the +idea of the sovereignty of the people--and the sovereignty of the +people came to an end under the absolute ruler in the Emperor. So much +for your history as a nation. Now for your private manners. Mme. +Tallien and Mme. Beauharnais both acted alike. Napoleon married the +one, and made her your Empress; the other he would never receive at +court, princess though she was. The sans-culotte of 1793 takes the +Iron Crown in 1804. The fanatical lovers of Equality or Death conspire +fourteen years afterwards with a Legitimist aristocracy to bring back +Louis XVIII. And that same aristocracy, lording it to-day in the +Faubourg Saint-Germain, has done worse--has been merchant, usurer, +pastry-cook, farmer, and shepherd. So in France systems political and +moral have started from one point and reached another diametrically +opposed; and men have expressed one kind of opinion and acted on +another. There has been no consistency in national policy, nor in the +conduct of individuals. You cannot be said to have any morality left. +Success is the supreme justification of all actions whatsoever. The +fact in itself is nothing; the impression that it makes upon others is +everything. Hence, please observe a second precept: Present a fair +exterior to the world, keep the seamy side of life to yourself, and +turn a resplendent countenance upon others. Discretion, the motto of +every ambitious man, is the watchword of our Order; take it for your +own. Great men are guilty of almost as many base deeds as poor +outcasts; but they are careful to do these things in shadow and to +parade their virtues in the light, or they would not be great men. +Your insignificant man leaves his virtues in the shade; he publicly +displays his pitiable side, and is despised accordingly. You, for +instance, have hidden your titles to greatness and made a display of +your worst failings. You openly took an actress for your mistress, +lived with her and upon her; you were by no means to blame for this; +everybody admitted that both of you were perfectly free to do as you +liked; but you ran full tilt against the ideas of the world, and the +world has not shown you the consideration that is shown to those who +obey the rules of the game. If you had left Coralie to this M. +Camusot, if you had hidden your relations with her, you might have +married Mme. de Bargeton; you would now be prefect of Angouleme and +Marquis de Rubempre. + +"Change your tactics, bring your good looks, your charm, your wit, +your poetry to the front. If you indulge in small discreditable +courses, let it be within four walls, and you will never again be +guilty of a blot on the decorations of this great theatrical scene +called society. Napoleon called this 'washing dirty linen at home.' +The corollary follows naturally on this second precept--Form is +everything. Be careful to grasp the meaning of that word 'form.' There +are people who, for want of knowing better, will help themselves to +money under pressure of want, and take it by force. These people are +called criminals; and, perforce, they square accounts with Justice. A +poor man of genius discovers some secret, some invention as good as a +treasure; you lend him three thousand francs (for that, practically, +the Cointets have done; they hold your bills, and they are about to +rob your brother-in-law); you torment him until he reveals or partly +reveals his secret; you settle your accounts with your own conscience, +and your conscience does not drag you into the assize court. + +"The enemies of social order, beholding this contrast, take occasion +to yap at justice, and wax wroth in the name of the people, because, +forsooth, burglars and fowl-stealers are sent to the hulks, while a +man who brings whole families to ruin by a fraudulent bankruptcy is +let off with a few months' imprisonment. But these hypocrites know +quite well that the judge who passes sentence on the thief is +maintaining the barrier set between the poor and the rich, and that if +that barrier were overturned, social chaos would ensue; while, in the +case of the bankrupt, the man who steals an inheritance cleverly, and +the banker who slaughters a business for his own benefit, money merely +changes hands, that is all. + +"Society, my son, is bound to draw those distinctions which I have +pointed out for your benefit. The one great point is this--you must be +a match for society. Napoleon, Richelieu, and the Medicis were a match +for their generations. And as for you, you value yourself at twelve +thousand francs! You of this generation in France worship the golden +calf; what else is the religion of your Charter that will not +recognize a man politically unless he owns property? What is this but +the command, 'Strive to be rich?' Some day, when you shall have made a +fortune without breaking the law, you will be rich; you will be the +Marquis de Rubempre, and you can indulge in the luxury of honor. You +will be so extremely sensitive on the point of honor that no one will +dare to accuse you of past shortcomings if in the process of making +your way you should happen to smirch it now and again, which I myself +should never advise," he added, patting Lucien's hand. + +"So what must you put in that comely head of yours? Simply this and +nothing more--propose to yourself a brilliant and conspicuous goal, +and go towards it secretly; let no one see your methods or your +progress. You have behaved like a child; be a man, be a hunter, lie in +wait for your quarry in the world of Paris, wait for your chance and +your game; you need not be particular nor mindful of your dignity, as +it is called; we are all of us slaves to something, to some failing of +our own or to necessity; but keep that law of laws--secrecy." + +"Father, you frighten me," said Lucien; "this seems to me to be a +highwayman's theory." + +"And you are right," said the canon, "but it is no invention of mine. +All _parvenus_ reason in this way--the house of Austria and the house of +France alike. You have nothing, you say? The Medicis, Richelieu, and +Napoleon started from precisely your standpoint; but _they_, my child, +considered that their prospects were worth ingratitude, treachery, and +the most glaring inconsistencies. You must dare all things to gain all +things. Let us discuss it. Suppose that you sit down to a game of +_bouillotte_, do you begin to argue over the rules of the game? There +they are, you accept them." + +"Come, now," thought Lucien, "he can play _bouillotte_." + +"And what do you do?" continued the priest; "do you practise openness, +that fairest of virtues? Not merely do you hide your tactics, but you +do your best to make others believe that you are on the brink of ruin +as soon as you are sure of winning the game. In short, you dissemble, +do you not? You lie to win four or five louis d'or. What would you +think of a player so generous as to proclaim that he held a hand full +of trumps? Very well; the ambitious man who carries virtue's precepts +into the arena when his antagonists have left them behind is behaving +like a child. Old men of the world might say to him, as card-players +would say to the man who declines to take advantage of his trumps, +'Monsieur, you ought not to play at _bouillotte_.' + +"Did you make the rules of the game of ambition? Why did I tell you to +be a match for society?--Because, in these days, society by degrees +has usurped so many rights over the individual, that the individual is +compelled to act in self-defence. There is no question of laws now, +their place has been taken by custom, which is to say grimacings, and +forms must always be observed." + +Lucien started with surprise. + +"Ah, my child!" said the priest, afraid that he had shocked Lucien's +innocence; "did you expect to find the Angel Gabriel in an Abbe loaded +with all the iniquities of the diplomacy and counter-diplomacy of two +kings? I am an agent between Ferdinand VII. and Louis XVIII., +two--kings who owe their crowns to profound--er--combinations, let us +say. I believe in God, but I have a still greater belief in our Order, +and our Order has no belief save in temporal power. In order to +strengthen and consolidate the temporal power, our Order upholds the +Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church, which is to say, the doctrines +which dispose the world at large to obedience. We are the Templars of +modern times; we have a doctrine of our own. Like the Templars, we have +been dispersed, and for the same reasons; we are almost a match for the +world. If you will enlist as a soldier, I will be your captain. Obey +me as a wife obeys her husband, as a child obeys his mother, and I +will guarantee that you shall be Marquis de Rubempre in less than six +months; you shall marry into one of the proudest houses in the +Faubourg Saint-Germain, and some day you shall sit on a bench with +peers of France. What would you have been at this moment if I had not +amused you by my conversation?--An undiscovered corpse in a deep bed +of mud. Well and good, now for an effort of imagination----" + +Lucien looked curiously at his protector. + +"Here, in this caleche beside the Abbe Carlos Herrera, canon of +Toledo, secret envoy from His Majesty Ferdinand VII. to his Majesty +the King of France, bearer of a despatch thus worded it may be--'When +you have delivered me, hang all those whom I favor at this moment, +more especially the bearer of this despatch, for then he can tell no +tales'--well, beside this envoy sits a young man who has nothing in +common with that poet recently deceased. I have fished you out of the +water, I have brought you to life again, you belong to me as the +creature belongs to the creator, as the efrits of fairytales belong to +the genii, as the janissary to the Sultan, as the soul to the body. I +will sustain you in the way to power with a strong hand; and at the +same time I promise that your life shall be a continual course of +pleasure, honors, and enjoyment. You shall never want for money. You +shall shine, you shall go bravely in the eyes of the world; while I, +crouching in the mud, will lay a firm foundation for the brilliant +edifice of your fortunes. For I love power for its own sake. I shall +always rejoice in your enjoyment, forbidden to me. In short, my self +shall become your self! Well, if a day should come when this pact +between man and the tempter, this agreement between the child and the +diplomatist should no longer suit your ideas, you can still look about +for some quiet spot, like that pool of which you were speaking, and +drown yourself; you will only be as you are now, or a little more or a +little less wretched and dishonored." + +"This is not like the Archbishop of Granada's homily," said Lucien as +they stopped to change horses. + +"Call this concentrated education by what name you will, my son, for +you are my son, I adopt you henceforth, and shall make you my heir; it +is the Code of ambition. God's elect are few and far between. There is +no choice, you must bury yourself in the cloister (and there you very +often find the world again in miniature) or accept the Code." + +"Perhaps it would be better not to be so wise," said Lucien, trying to +fathom this terrible priest. + +"What!" rejoined the canon. "You begin to play before you know the +rules of the game, and now you throw it up just as your chances are +best, and you have a substantial godfather to back you! And you do not +even care to play a return match? You do not mean to say that you have +no mind to be even with those who drove you from Paris?" + +Lucien quivered; the sounds that rang through every nerve seemed to +come from some bronze instrument, some Chinese gong. + +"I am only a poor priest," returned his mentor, and a grim expression, +dreadful to behold, appeared for a moment on a face burned to a +copper-red by the sun of Spain, "I am only a poor priest; but if I had +been humiliated, vexed, tormented, betrayed, and sold as you have been +by the scoundrels of whom you have told me, I should do like an Arab +of the desert--I would devote myself body and soul to vengeance. I +might end by dangling from a gibbet, garroted, impaled, guillotined in +your French fashion, I should not care a rap; but they should not have +my head until I had crushed my enemies under my heel." + +Lucien was silent; he had no wish to draw the priest out any further. + +"Some are descended from Cain and some from Abel," the canon +concluded; "I myself am of mixed blood--Cain for my enemies, Abel for +my friends. Woe to him that shall awaken Cain! After all, you are a +Frenchman; I am a Spaniard, and, what is more, a canon." + +"What a Tartar!" thought Lucien, scanning the protector thus sent to +him by Heaven. + +There was no sign of the Jesuit, nor even of the ecclesiastic, about +the Abbe Carlos Herrera. His hands were large, he was thick-set and +broad-chested, evidently he possessed the strength of a Hercules; his +terrific expression was softened by benignity assumed at will; but a +complexion of impenetrable bronze inspired feelings of repulsion +rather than attachment for the man. + +The strange diplomatist looked somewhat like a bishop, for he wore +powder on his long, thick hair, after the fashion of the Prince de +Talleyrand; a gold cross, hanging from a strip of blue ribbon with a +white border, indicated an ecclesiastical dignitary. The outlines +beneath the black silk stockings would not have disgraced an athlete. +The exquisite neatness of his clothes and person revealed an amount of +care which a simple priest, and, above all, a Spanish priest, does not +always take with his appearance. A three-cornered hat lay on the front +seat of the carriage, which bore the arms of Spain. + +In spite of the sense of repulsion, the effect made by the man's +appearance was weakened by his manner, fierce and yet winning as it +was; he evidently laid himself out to please Lucien, and the winning +manner became almost coaxing. Yet Lucien noticed the smallest trifles +uneasily. He felt that the moment of decision had come; they had +reached the second stage beyond Ruffec, and the decision meant life or +death. + +The Spaniard's last words vibrated through many chords in his heart, +and, to the shame of both, it must be said that all that was worst in +Lucien responded to an appeal deliberately made to his evil impulses, +and the eyes that studied the poet's beautiful face had read him very +clearly. Lucien beheld Paris once more; in imagination he caught again +at the reins of power let fall from his unskilled hands, and he +avenged himself! The comparisons which he himself had drawn so lately +between the life of Paris and life in the provinces faded from his +mind with the more painful motives for suicide; he was about to return +to his natural sphere, and this time with a protector, a political +intriguer unscrupulous as Cromwell. + +"I was alone, now there will be two of us," he told himself. And then +this priest had been more and more interested as he told of his sins +one after another. The man's charity had grown with the extent of his +misdoings; nothing had astonished this confessor. And yet, what could +be the motive of a mover in the intrigues of kings? Lucien at first +was fain to be content with the banal answer--the Spanish are a +generous race. The Spaniard is generous! even so the Italian is +jealous and a poisoner, the Frenchman fickle, the German frank, the +Jew ignoble, and the Englishman noble. Reverse these verdicts and you +shall arrive within a reasonable distance of the truth! The Jews have +monopolized the gold of the world; they compose _Robert the Devil_, act +_Phedre_, sing _William Tell_, give commissions for pictures and build +palaces, write _Reisebilder_ and wonderful verse; they are more powerful +than ever, their religion is accepted, they have lent money to the +Holy Father himself! As for Germany, a foreigner is often asked +whether he has a contract in writing, and this is in the smallest +matters, so tricky are they in their dealings. In France the spectacle +of national blunders has never lacked national applause for the past +fifty years; we continue to wear hats which no mortal can explain, and +every change of government is made on the express condition that +things shall remain exactly as they were before. England flaunts her +perfidy in the face of the world, and her abominable treachery is only +equaled by her greed. All the gold of two Indies passed through the +hands of Spain, and now she has nothing left. There is no country in +the world where poison is so little in request as in Italy, no country +where manners are easier or more gentle. As for the Spaniard, he has +traded largely on the reputation of the Moor. + +As the Canon of Toledo returned to the caleche, he had spoken a word +to the post-boy. "Drive post-haste," he said, "and there will be three +francs for drink-money for you." Then, seeing that Lucien hesitated, +"Come! come!" he exclaimed, and Lucien took his place again, telling +himself that he meant to try the effect of the _argumentum ad hominem_. + +"Father," he began, "after pouring out, with all the coolness in the +world, a series of maxims which the vulgar would consider profoundly +immoral----" + +"And so they are," said the priest; "that is why Jesus Christ said +that it must needs be that offences come, my son; and that is why the +world displays such horror of offences." + +"A man of your stamp will not be surprised by the question which I am +about to ask?" + +"Indeed, my son, you do not know me," said Carlos Herrera. "Do you +suppose that I should engage a secretary unless I knew that I could +depend upon his principles sufficiently to be sure that he would not +rob me? I like you. You are as innocent in every way as a +twenty-year-old suicide. Your question?" + +"Why do you take an interest in me? What price do you set on my +obedience? Why should you give me everything? What is your share?" + +The Spaniard looked at Lucien, and a smile came over his face. + +"Let us wait till we come to the next hill; we can walk up and talk +out in the open. The back seat of a traveling carriage is not the +place for confidences." + +They traveled in silence for sometime; the rapidity of the movement +seemed to increase Lucien's moral intoxication. + +"Here is a hill, father," he said at last awakening from a kind of +dream. + +"Very well, we will walk." The Abbe called to the postilion to stop, +and the two sprang out upon the road. + +"You child," said the Spaniard, taking Lucien by the arm, "have you +ever thought over Otway's _Venice Preserved_? Did you understand the +profound friendship between man and man which binds Pierre and Jaffier +each to each so closely that a woman is as nothing in comparison, and +all social conditions are changed?--Well, so much for the poet." + +"So the canon knows something of the drama," thought Lucien. "Have you +read Voltaire?" he asked. + +"I have done better," said the other; "I put his doctrine in +practice." + +"You do not believe in God?" + +"Come! it is I who am the atheist, is it?" the Abbe said, smiling. +"Let us come to practical matters, my child," he added, putting an arm +round Lucien's waist. "I am forty-six years old, I am the natural son +of a great lord; consequently, I have no family, and I have a heart. +But, learn this, carve it on that still so soft brain of yours--man +dreads to be alone. And of all kinds of isolation, inward isolation is +the most appalling. The early anchorite lived with God; he dwelt in +the spirit world, the most populous world of all. The miser lives in a +world of imagination and fruition; his whole life and all that he is, +even his sex, lies in his brain. A man's first thought, be he leper or +convict, hopelessly sick or degraded, is to find another with a like +fate to share it with him. He will exert the utmost that is in him, +every power, all his vital energy, to satisfy that craving; it is his +very life. But for that tyrannous longing, would Satan have found +companions? There is a whole poem yet to be written, a first part of +_Paradise Lost_; Milton's poem is only the apology for the revolt." + +"It would be the Iliad of Corruption," said Lucien. + +"Well, I am alone, I live alone. If I wear the priest's habit, I have +not a priest's heart. I like to devote myself to some one; that is my +weakness. That is my life, that is how I came to be a priest. I am not +afraid of ingratitude, and I am grateful. The Church is nothing to me; +it is an idea. I am devoted to the King of Spain, but you cannot give +affection to a King of Spain; he is my protector, he towers above me. +I want to love my creature, to mould him, fashion him to my use, and +love him as a father loves his child. I shall drive in your tilbury, +my boy, enjoy your success with women, and say to myself, 'This fine +young fellow, this Marquis de Rubempre, my creation whom I have +brought into this great world, is my very Self; his greatness is my +doing, he speaks or is silent with my voice, he consults me in +everything.' The Abbe de Vermont felt thus for Marie-Antoinette." + +"He led her to the scaffold." + +"He did not love the Queen," said the priest. "HE only loved the Abbe +de Vermont." + +"Must I leave desolation behind me?" + +"I have money, you shall draw on me." + +"I would do a great deal just now to rescue David Sechard," said +Lucien, in the tone of one who has given up all idea of suicide. + +"Say but one word, my son, and by to-morrow morning he shall have +money enough to set him free." + +"What! Would you give me twelve thousand francs?" + +"Ah! child, do you not see that we are traveling on at the rate of +four leagues an hour? We shall dine at Poitiers before long, and +there, if you decide to sign the pact, to give me a single proof of +obedience, a great proof that I shall require, then the Bordeaux coach +shall carry fifteen thousand francs to your sister----" + +"Where is the money?" + +The Spaniard made no answer, and Lucien said within himself, "There I +had him; he was laughing at me." + +In another moment they took their places. Neither of them said a word. +Silently the Abbe groped in the pocket of the coach, and drew out a +traveler's leather pouch with three divisions in it; thence he took a +hundred Portuguese moidores, bringing out his large hand filled with +gold three times. + +"Father, I am yours," said Lucien, dazzled by the stream of gold. + +"Child!" said the priest, and set a tender kiss on Lucien's forehead. +"There is twice as much still left in the bag, besides the money for +traveling expenses." + +"And you are traveling alone!" cried Lucien. + +"What is that?" asked the Spaniard. "I have more than a hundred +thousand crowns in drafts on Paris. A diplomatist without money is in +your position of this morning--a poet without a will of his own!" + + + +As Lucien took his place in the caleche beside the so-called Spanish +diplomatist, Eve rose to give her child a draught of milk, found the +fatal letter in the cradle, and read it. A sudden cold chilled the +damps of morning slumber, dizziness came over her, she could not see. +She called aloud to Marion and Kolb. + +"Has my brother gone out?" she asked, and Kolb answered at once with, +"Yes, Montame, pefore tay." + +"Keep this that I am going to tell you a profound secret," said Eve. +"My brother has gone no doubt to make away with himself. Hurry, both +of you, make inquiries cautiously, and look along the river." + +Eve was left alone in a dull stupor, dreadful to see. Her trouble was +at its height when Petit-Claud came in at seven o'clock to talk over +the steps to be taken in David's case. At such a time, any voice in +the world may speak, and we let them speak. + +"Our poor, dear David is in prison, madame," so began Petit-Claud. "I +foresaw all along that it would end in this. I advised him at the time +to go into partnership with his competitors the Cointets; for while +your husband has simply the idea, they have the means of putting it +into practical shape. So as soon as I heard of his arrest yesterday +evening, what did I do but hurry away to find the Cointets and try to +obtain such concessions as might satisfy you. If you try to keep the +discovery to yourselves, you will continue to live a life of shifts +and chicanery. You must give in, or else when you are exhausted and at +the last gasp, you will end by making a bargain with some capitalist +or other, and perhaps to your own detriment, whereas to-day I hope to +see you make a good one with MM. Cointet. In this way you will save +yourselves the hardships and the misery of the inventor's duel with +the greed of the capitalist and the indifference of the public. Let us +see! If the MM. Cointet should pay your debts--if, over and above your +debts, they should pay you a further sum of money down, whether or no +the invention succeeds; while at the same time it is thoroughly +understood that if it succeeds a certain proportion of the profits of +working the patent shall be yours, would you not be doing very well? +--You yourself, madame, would then be the proprietor of the plant in +the printing-office. You would sell the business, no doubt; it is quite +worth twenty thousand francs. I will undertake to find you a buyer at +that price. + +"Now if you draw up a deed of partnership with the MM. Cointet, and +receive fifteen thousand francs of capital; and if you invest it in +the funds at the present moment, it will bring you in an income of two +thousand francs. You can live on two thousand francs in the provinces. +Bear in mind, too, madame, that, given certain contingencies, there +will be yet further payments. I say 'contingencies,' because we must +lay our accounts with failure. + +"Very well," continued Petit-Claud, "now these things I am sure that I +can obtain for you. First of all, David's release from prison; +secondly, fifteen thousand francs, a premium paid on his discovery, +whether the experiments fail or succeed; and lastly, a partnership +between David and the MM. Cointet, to be taken out after private +experiment made jointly. The deed of partnership for the working of +the patent should be drawn up on the following basis: The MM. Cointet +to bear all the expenses, the capital invested by David to be confined +to the expenses of procuring the patent, and his share of the profits +to be fixed at twenty-five per cent. You are a clear-headed and very +sensible woman, qualities which are not often found combined with +great beauty; think over these proposals, and you will see that they +are very favorable." + +Poor Eve in her despair burst into tears. "Ah, sir! why did you not +come yesterday evening to tell me this? We should have been spared +disgrace and--and something far worse----" + +"I was talking with the Cointets until midnight. They are behind +Metivier, as you must have suspected. But how has something worse than +our poor David's arrest happened since yesterday evening?" + +"Here is the awful news that I found when I awoke this morning," she +said, holding out Lucien's letter. "You have just given me proof of +your interest in us; you are David's friend and Lucien's; I need not +ask you to keep the secret----" + +"You need not feel the least anxiety," said Petit-Claud, as he +returned the letter. "Lucien will not take his life. Your husband's +arrest was his doing; he was obliged to find some excuse for leaving +you, and this exit of his looks to me like a piece of stage business." + +The Cointets had gained their ends. They had tormented the inventor +and his family, until, worn out by the torture, the victims longed for +a respite, and then seized their opportunity and made the offer. Not +every inventor has the tenacity of the bull-dog that will perish with +his teeth fast set in his capture; the Cointets had shrewdly estimated +David's character. The tall Cointet looked upon David's imprisonment +as the first scene of the first act of the drama. The second act +opened with the proposal which Petit-Claud had just made. As +arch-schemer, the attorney looked upon Lucien's frantic folly as a bit +of unhoped-for luck, a chance that would finally decide the issues of +the day. + +Eve was completely prostrated by this event; Petit-Claud saw this, and +meant to profit by her despair to win her confidence, for he saw at +last how much she influenced her husband. So far from discouraging +Eve, he tried to reassure her, and very cleverly diverted her thoughts +to the prison. She should persuade David to take the Cointets into +partnership. + +"David told me, madame, that he only wished for a fortune for your +sake and your brother's; but it should be clear to you by now that to +try to make a rich man of Lucien would be madness. The youngster would +run through three fortunes." + +Eve's attitude told plainly enough that she had no more illusions left +with regard to her brother. The lawyer waited a little so that her +silence should have the weight of consent. + +"Things being so, it is now a question of you and your child," he +said. "It rests with you to decide whether an income of two thousand +francs will be enough for your welfare, to say nothing of old +Sechard's property. Your father-in-law's income has amounted to seven +or eight thousand francs for a long time past, to say nothing of +capital lying out at interest. So, after all, you have a good prospect +before you. Why torment yourself?" + +Petit-Claud left Eve Sechard to reflect upon this prospect. The whole +scheme had been drawn up with no little skill by the tall Cointet the +evening before. + +"Give them the glimpse of a possibility of money in hand," the lynx +had said, when Petit-Claud brought the news of the arrest; "once let +them grow accustomed to that idea, and they are ours; we will drive a +bargain, and little by little we shall bring them down to our price +for the secret." + +The argument of the second act of the commercial drama was in a manner +summed up in that speech. + +Mme. Sechard, heartbroken and full of dread for her brother's fate, +dressed and came downstairs. An agony of terror seized her when she +thought that she must cross Angouleme alone on the way to the prison. +Petit-Claud gave little thought to his fair client's distress. When he +came back to offer his arm, it was from a tolerably Machiavellian +motive; but Eve gave him credit for delicate consideration, and he +allowed her to thank him for it. The little attention, at such a +moment, from so hard a man, modified Mme. Sechard's previous opinion +of Petit-Claud. + +"I am taking you round by the longest way," he said, "and we shall +meet nobody." + +"For the first time in my life, monsieur, I feel that I have no right +to hold up my head before other people; I had a sharp lesson given to +me last night----" + +"It will be the first and the last." + +"Oh! I certainly shall not stay in the town now----" + +"Let me know if your husband consents to the proposals that are all +but definitely offered by the Cointets," said Petit-Claud at the gate +of the prison; "I will come at once with an order for David's release +from Cachan, and in all likelihood he will not go back again to +prison." + +This suggestion, made on the very threshold of the jail, was a piece +of cunning strategy--a _combinazione_, as the Italians call an +indefinable mixture of treachery and truth, a cunningly planned fraud +which does not break the letter of the law, or a piece of deft +trickery for which there is no legal remedy. St. Bartholomew's for +instance, was a political combination. + +Imprisonment for debt, for reasons previously explained, is such a +rare occurrence in the provinces, that there is no house of detention, +and a debtor is perforce imprisoned with the accused, convicted, and +condemned--the three graduated subdivisions of the class generically +styled criminal. David was put for the time being in a cell on the +ground floor from which some prisoner had probably been recently +discharged at the end of his time. Once inscribed on the jailer's +register, with the amount allowed by the law for a prisoner's board +for one month, David confronted a big, stout man, more powerful than +the King himself in a prisoner's eyes; this was the jailer. + +An instance of a thin jailer is unknown in the provinces. The place, +to begin with, is almost a sinecure, and a jailer is a kind of +innkeeper who pays no rent and lives very well, while his prisoners +fare very ill; for, like an innkeeper, he gives them rooms according +to their payments. He knew David by name, and what was more, knew +about David's father, and thought that he might venture to let the +printer have a good room on credit for one night; for David was +penniless. + +The prison of Angouleme was built in the Middle Ages, and has no more +changed than the old cathedral. It is built against the old _presidial_, +or ancient court of appeal, and people still call it the _maison de +justice_. It boasts the conventional prison gateway, the solid-looking, +nail-studded door, the low, worn archway which the better deserves the +qualification "cyclopean," because the jailer's peephole or _judas_ +looks out like a single eye from the front of the building. As you +enter you find yourself in a corridor which runs across the entire +width of the building, with a row of doors of cells that give upon the +prison yard and are lighted by high windows covered with a square iron +grating. The jailer's house is separated from these cells by an +archway in the middle, through which you catch a glimpse of the iron +gate of the prison yard. The jailer installed David in a cell next to +the archway, thinking that he would like to have a man of David's +stamp as a near neighbor for the sake of company. + +"This is the best room," he said. David was struck dumb with amazement +at the sight of it. + +The stone walls were tolerably damp. The windows, set high in the +wall, were heavily barred; the stone-paved floor was cold as ice, and +from the corridor outside came the sound of the measured tramp of the +warder, monotonous as waves on the beach. "You are a prisoner! you are +watched and guarded!" said the footsteps at every moment of every +hour. All these small things together produce a prodigious effect upon +the minds of honest folk. David saw that the bed was execrable, but +the first night in a prison is full of violent agitation, and only on +the second night does the prisoner notice that his couch is hard. The +jailer was graciously disposed; he naturally suggested that his +prisoner should walk in the yard until nightfall. + +David's hour of anguish only began when he was locked into his cell +for the night. Lights are not allowed in the cells. A prisoner +detained on arrest used to be subjected to rules devised for +malefactors, unless he brought a special exemption signed by the +public prosecutor. The jailer certainly might allow David to sit by +his fire, but the prisoner must go back to his cell at locking-up +time. Poor David learned the horrors of prison life by experience, the +rough coarseness of the treatment revolted him. Yet a revulsion, +familiar to those who live by thought, passed over him. He detached +himself from his loneliness, and found a way of escape in a poet's +waking dream. + +At last the unhappy man's thoughts turned to his own affairs. The +stimulating influence of a prison upon conscience and self-scrutiny is +immense. David asked himself whether he had done his duty as the head +of a family. What despairing grief his wife must feel at this moment! +Why had he not done as Marion had said, and earned money enough to +pursue his investigations at leisure? + +"How can I stay in Angouleme after such a disgrace? And when I come +out of prison, what will become of us? Where shall we go?" + +Doubts as to his process began to occur to him, and he passed through +an agony which none save inventors can understand. Going from doubt to +doubt, David began to see his real position more clearly; and to +himself he said, as the Cointets had said to old Sechard, as +Petit-Claud had just said to Eve, "Suppose that all should go well, +what does it amount to in practice? The first thing to be done is to +take out a patent, and money is needed for that--and experiments must +be tried on a large scale in a paper-mill, which means that the +discovery must pass into other hands. Oh! Petit-Claud was right!" + +A very vivid light sometimes dawns in the darkest prison. + +"Pshaw!" said David; "I shall see Petit-Claud to-morrow no doubt," and +he turned and slept on the filthy mattress covered with coarse brown +sacking. + +So when Eve unconsciously played into the hands of the enemy that +morning, she found her husband more than ready to listen to proposals. +She put her arms about him and kissed him, and sat down on the edge of +the bed (for there was but one chair of the poorest and commonest kind +in the cell). Her eyes fell on the unsightly pail in a corner, and +over the walls covered with inscriptions left by David's predecessors, +and tears filled the eyes that were red with weeping. She had sobbed +long and very bitterly, but the sight of her husband in a felon's cell +drew fresh tears. + +"And the desire of fame may lead one to this!" she cried. "Oh! my +angel, give up your career. Let us walk together along the beaten +track; we will not try to make haste to be rich, David. . . . I need +very little to be very happy, especially now, after all that we have +been through. . . . And if you only knew--the disgrace of arrest is +not the worst. . . . Look." + +She held out Lucien's letter, and when David had read it, she tried to +comfort him by repeating Petit-Claud's bitter comment. + +"If Lucien has taken his life, the thing is done by now," said David; +"if he has not made away with himself by this time, he will not kill +himself. As he himself says, 'his courage cannot last longer than a +morning----'" + +"But the suspense!" cried Eve, forgiving almost everything at the +thought of death. Then she told her husband of the proposals which +Petit-Claud professed to have received from the Cointets. David +accepted them at once with manifest pleasure. + +"We shall have enough to live upon in a village near L'Houmeau, where +the Cointets' paper-mill stands. I want nothing now but a quiet life," +said David. "If Lucien has punished himself by death, we can wait so +long as father lives; and if Lucien is still living, poor fellow, he +will learn to adapt himself to our narrow ways. The Cointets certainly +will make money by my discovery; but, after all, what am I compared +with our country? One man in it, that is all; and if the whole country +is benefited, I shall be content. There! dear Eve, neither you nor I +were meant to be successful in business. We do not care enough about +making a profit; we have not the dogged objection to parting with our +money, even when it is legally owing, which is a kind of virtue of the +counting-house, for these two sorts of avarice are called prudence and +a faculty of business." + +Eve felt overjoyed; she and her husband held the same views, and this +is one of the sweetest flowers of love; for two human beings who love +each other may not be of the same mind, nor take the same view of +their interests. She wrote to Petit-Claud telling him that they both +consented to the general scheme, and asked him to release David. Then +she begged the jailer to deliver the message. + +Ten minutes later Petit-Claud entered the dismal place. "Go home, +madame," he said, addressing Eve, "we will follow you.--Well, my dear +friend" (turning to David), "so you allowed them to catch you! Why did +you come out? How came you to make such a mistake?" + +"Eh! how could I do otherwise? Look at this letter that Lucien wrote." + +David held out a sheet of paper. It was Cerizet's forged letter. + +Petit-Claud read it, looked at it, fingered the paper as he talked, +and still taking, presently, as if through absence of mind, folded it +up and put it in his pocket. Then he linked his arm in David's, and +they went out together, the order for release having come during the +conversation. + +It was like heaven to David to be at home again. He cried like a child +when he took little Lucien in his arms and looked round his room after +three weeks of imprisonment, and the disgrace, according to provincial +notions, of the last few hours. Kolb and Marion had come back. Marion +had heard in L'Houmeau that Lucien had been seen walking along on the +Paris road, somewhere beyond Marsac. Some country folk, coming in to +market, had noticed his fine clothes. Kolb, therefore, had set out on +horseback along the highroad, and heard at last at Mansle that Lucien +was traveling post in a caleche--M. Marron had recognized him as he +passed. + +"What did I tell you?" said Petit-Claud. "That fellow is not a poet; +he is a romance in heaven knows how many chapters." + +"Traveling post!" repeated Eve. "Where can he be going this time?" + +"Now go to see the Cointets, they are expecting you," said +Petit-Claud, turning to David. + +"Ah, monsieur!" cried the beautiful Eve, "pray do your best for our +interests; our whole future lies in your hands." + +"If you prefer it, madame, the conference can be held here. I will +leave David with you. The Cointets will come this evening, and you +shall see if I can defend your interests." + +"Ah! monsieur, I should be very glad," said Eve. + +"Very well," said Petit-Claud; "this evening, at seven o'clock." + +"Thank you," said Eve; and from her tone and glance Petit-Claud knew +that he had made great progress in his fair client's confidence. + +"You have nothing to fear; you see I was right," he added. "Your +brother is a hundred miles away from suicide, and when all comes to +all, perhaps you will have a little fortune this evening. A _bona-fide_ +purchaser for the business has turned up." + +"If that is the case," said Eve, "why should we not wait awhile before +binding ourselves to the Cointets?" + +Petit-Claud saw the danger. "You are forgetting, madame," he said, +"that you cannot sell your business until you have paid M. Metivier; +for a distress warrant has been issued." + +As soon as Petit-Claud reached home he sent for Cerizet, and when the +printer's foreman appeared, drew him into the embrasure of the window. + +"To-morrow evening," he said, "you will be the proprietor of the +Sechards' printing-office, and then there are those behind you who +have influence enough to transfer the license;" (then in a lowered +voice), "but you have no mind to end in the hulks, I suppose?" + +"The hulks! What's that? What's that?" + +"Your letter to David was a forgery. It is in my possession. What +would Henriette say in a court of law? I do not want to ruin you," he +added hastily, seeing how white Cerizet's face grew. + +"You want something more of me?" cried Cerizet. + +"Well, here it is," said Petit-Claud. "Follow me carefully. You will +be a master printer in Angouleme in two months' time . . . but you +will not have paid for your business--you will not pay for it in ten +years. You will work a long while yet for those that have lent you the +money, and you will be the cat's-paw of the Liberal party. . . . Now +_I_ shall draw up your agreement with Gannerac, and I can draw it up +in such a way that you will have the business in your own hands one of +these days. But--if the Liberals start a paper, if you bring it out, +and if I am deputy public prosecutor, then you will come to an +understanding with the Cointets and publish articles of such a nature +that they will have the paper suppressed. . . . The Cointets will pay +you handsomely for that service. . . . I know, of course, that you +will be a hero, a victim of persecution; you will be a personage among +the Liberals--a Sergeant Mercier, a Paul-Louis Courier, a Manual on a +small scale. I will take care that they leave you your license. In +fact, on the day when the newspaper is suppressed, I will burn this +letter before your eyes. . . . Your fortune will not cost you much." + +A working man has the haziest notions as to the law with regard to +forgery; and Cerizet, who beheld himself already in the dock, breathed +again. + +"In three years' time," continued Petit-Claud, "I shall be public +prosecutor in Angouleme. You may have need of me some day; bear that +in mind." + +"It's agreed," said Cerizet, "but you don't know me. Burn that letter +now and trust to my gratitude." + +Petit-Claud looked Cerizet in the face. It was a duel in which one +man's gaze is a scalpel with which he essays to probe the soul of +another, and the eyes of that other are a theatre, as it were, to +which all his virtue is summoned for display. + +Petit-Claud did not utter a word. He lighted a taper and burned the +letter. "He has his way to make," he said to himself. + +"Here is one that will go through fire and water for you," said +Cerizet. + + + +David awaited the interview with the Cointets with a vague feeling of +uneasiness; not, however, on account of the proposed partnership, nor +for his own interests--he felt nervous as to their opinion of his +work. He was in something the same position as a dramatic author +before his judges. The inventor's pride in the discovery so nearly +completed left no room for any other feelings. + +At seven o'clock that evening, while Mme. du Chatelet, pleading a sick +headache, had gone to her room in her unhappiness over the rumors of +Lucien's departure; while M. de Comte, left to himself, was +entertaining his guests at dinner--the tall Cointet and his stout +brother, accompanied by Petit-Claud, opened negotiations with the +competitor who had delivered himself up, bound hand and foot. + +A difficulty awaited them at the outset. How was it possible to draw +up a deed of partnership unless they knew David's secret? And if David +divulged his secret, he would be at the mercy of the Cointets. +Petit-Claud arranged that the deed of partnership should be the first +drawn up. Thereupon the tall Cointet asked to see some specimens of +David's work, and David brought out the last sheet that he had made, +guaranteeing the price of production. + +"Well," said Petit-Claud, "there you have the basis of the agreement +ready made. You can go into partnership on the strength of those +samples, inserting a clause to protect yourselves in case the +conditions of the patent are not fulfilled in the manufacturing +process." + +"It is one thing to make samples of paper on a small scale in your own +room with a small mould, monsieur, and another to turn out a +quantity," said the tall Cointet, addressing David. "Quite another +thing, as you may judge from this single fact. We manufacture colored +papers. We buy parcels of coloring absolutely identical. Every cake of +indigo used for 'blueing' our post-demy is taken from a batch supplied +by the same maker. Well, we have never yet been able to obtain two +batches of precisely the same shade. There are variations in the +material which we cannot detect. The quantity and the quality of the +pulp modify every question at once. Suppose that you have in a caldron +a quantity of ingredients of some kind (I don't ask to know what they +are), you can do as you like with them, the treatment can be uniformly +applied, you can manipulate, knead, and pestle the mass at your +pleasure until you have a homogeneous substance. But who will +guarantee that it will be the same with a batch of five hundred reams, +and that your plan will succeed in bulk?" + +David, Eve, and Petit-Claud looked at one another; their eyes said +many things. + +"Take a somewhat similar case," continued the tall Cointet after a +pause. "You cut two or three trusses of meadow hay, and store it in a +loft before 'the heat is out of the grass,' as the peasants say; the +hay ferments, but no harm comes of it. You follow up your experiment +by storing a couple of thousand trusses in a wooden barn--and, of +course, the hay smoulders, and the barn blazes up like a lighted +match. You are an educated man," continued Cointet; "you can see the +application for yourself. So far, you have only cut your two trusses +of hay; we are afraid of setting fire to our paper-mill by bringing in +a couple of thousand trusses. In other words, we may spoil more than +one batch, make heavy losses, and find ourselves none the better for +laying out a good deal of money." + +David was completely floored by this reasoning. Practical wisdom spoke +in matter-of-fact language to theory, whose word is always for the +future. + +"Devil fetch me, if I'll sign such a deed of partnership!" the stout +Cointet cried bluntly. "You may throw away your money if you like, +Boniface; as for me, I shall keep mine. Here is my offer--to pay M. +Sechard's debts _and_ six thousand francs, and another three thousand +francs in bills at twelve and fifteen months," he added. "That will be +quite enough risk to run.--We have a balance of twelve thousand francs +against Metivier. That will make fifteen thousand francs.--That is all +that I would pay for the secret if I were going to exploit it for +myself. So this is the great discovery that you were talking about, +Boniface! Many thanks! I thought you had more sense. No, you can't +call this business." + +"The question for you," said Petit-Claud, undismayed by the explosion, +"resolves itself into this: 'Do you care to risk twenty thousand +francs to buy a secret that may make rich men of you?' Why, the risk +usually is in proportion to the profit, gentlemen. You stake twenty +thousand francs on your luck. A gambler puts down a louis at roulette +for a chance of winning thirty-six, but he knows that the louis is +lost. Do the same." + +"I must have time to think it over," said the stout Cointet; "I am not +so clever as my brother. I am a plain, straight-forward sort of chap, +that only knows one thing--how to print prayer-books at twenty sous +and sell them for two francs. Where I see an invention that has only +been tried once, I see ruin. You succeed with the first batch, you +spoil the next, you go on, and you are drawn in; for once put an arm +into that machinery, the rest of you follows," and he related an +anecdote very much to the point--how a Bordeaux merchant had ruined +himself by following a scientific man's advice, and trying to bring +the Landes into cultivation; and followed up the tale with +half-a-dozen similar instances of agricultural and commercial failures +nearer home in the departments of the Charente and Dordogne. He waxed +warm over his recitals. He would not listen to another word. +Petit-Claud's demurs, so far from soothing the stout Cointet, appeared +to irritate him. + +"I would rather give more for a certainty, if I made only a small +profit on it," he said, looking at his brother. "It is my opinion that +things have gone far enough for business," he concluded. + +"Still you came here for something, didn't you?" asked Petit-Claud. +"What is your offer?" + +"I offer to release M. Sechard, and, if his plan succeeds, to give him +thirty per cent of the profits," the stout Cointet answered briskly. + +"But, monsieur," objected Eve, "how should we live while the +experiments were being made? My husband has endured the disgrace of +imprisonment already; he may as well go back to prison, it makes no +difference now, and we will pay our debts ourselves----" + +Petit-Claud laid a finger on his lips in warning. + +"You are unreasonable," said he, addressing the brothers. "You have +seen the paper; M. Sechard's father told you that he had shut his son +up, and that he had made capital paper in a single night from +materials that must have cost a mere nothing. You are here to make an +offer. Are you purchasers, yes or no?" + +"Stay," said the tall Cointet, "whether my brother is willing or no, I +will risk this much myself. I will pay M. Sechard's debts, I will pay +six thousand francs over and above the debts, and M. Sechard shall +have thirty per cent of the profits. But mind this--if in the space of +one year he fails to carry out the undertakings which he himself will +make in the deed of partnership, he must return the six thousand +francs, and we shall keep the patent and extricate ourselves as best +we may." + +"Are you sure of yourself?" asked Petit-Claud, taking David aside. + +"Yes," said David. He was deceived by the tactics of the brothers, and +afraid lest the stout Cointet should break off the negotiations on +which his future depended. + +"Very well, I will draft the deed," said Petit-Claud, addressing the +rest of the party. "Each of you shall have a copy to-night, and you +will have all to-morrow morning in which to think it over. To-morrow +afternoon at four o'clock, when the court rises, you will sign the +agreement. You, gentlemen, will withdraw Metivier's suit, and I, for +my part, will write to stop proceedings in the Court-Royal; we will +give notice on either side that the affair has been settled out of +court." + +David Sechard's undertakings were thus worded in the deed:-- + + + "M. David Sechard, printer of Angouleme, affirming that he has + discovered a method of sizing paper-pulp in the vat, and also a + method of affecting a reduction of fifty per cent in the price of + all kinds of manufactured papers, by introducing certain vegetable + substances into the pulp, either by intermixture of such + substances with the rags already in use, or by employing them + solely without the addition of rags: a partnership for working the + patent to be presently applied for is entered upon by M. David + Sechard and the firm of Cointet Brothers, subject to the following + conditional clauses and stipulations." + + +One of the clauses so drafted that David Sechard forfeited all his +rights if he failed to fulfil his engagements within the year; the +tall Cointet was particularly careful to insert that clause, and David +Sechard allowed it to pass. + +When Petit-Claud appeared with a copy of the agreement next morning at +half-past seven o'clock, he brought news for David and his wife. +Cerizet offered twenty-two thousand francs for the business. The whole +affair could be signed and settled in the course of the evening. "But +if the Cointets knew about it," he added, "they would be quite capable +of refusing to sign the deed of partnership, of harassing you, and +selling you up." + +"Are you sure of payment?" asked Eve. She had thought it hopeless to +try to sell the business; and now, to her astonishment, a bargain +which would have been their salvation three months ago was concluded +in this summary fashion. + +"The money has been deposited with me," he answered succinctly. + +"Why, here is magic at work!" said David, and he asked Petit-Claud for +an explanation of this piece of luck. + +"No," said Petit-Claud, "it is very simple. The merchants in L'Houmeau +want a newspaper." + +"But I am bound not to publish a paper," said David. + +"Yes, you are bound, but is your successor?--However it is," he +continued, "do not trouble yourself at all; sell the business, pocket +the proceeds, and leave Cerizet to find his way through the conditions +of the sale--he can take care of himself." + +"Yes," said Eve. + +"And if it turns out that you may not print a newspaper in Angouleme," +said Petit-Claud, "those who are finding the capital for Cerizet will +bring out the paper in L'Houmeau." + +The prospect of twenty-two thousand francs, of want now at end, +dazzled Eve. The partnership and its hopes took a second place. And, +therefore, M. and Mme. Sechard gave way on a final point of dispute. +The tall Cointet insisted that the patent should be taken out in the +name of any one of the partners. What difference could it make? The +stout Cointet said the last word. + +"He is finding the money for the patent; he is bearing the expenses of +the journey--another two thousand francs over and above the rest of +the expenses. He must take it out in his own name, or we will not stir +in the matter." + +The lynx gained a victory at all points. The deed of partnership was +signed that afternoon at half-past four. + +The tall Cointet politely gave Mme. Sechard a dozen thread-pattern +forks and spoons and a beautiful Ternaux shawl, by way of pin-money, +said he, and to efface any unpleasant impression made in the heat of +discussion. The copies of the draft had scarcely been made out, Cachan +had barely had time to send the documents to Petit-Claud, together +with the three unlucky forged bills, when the Sechards heard a +deafening rumble in the street, a dray from the Messageries stopped +before the door, and Kolb's voice made the staircase ring again. + +"Montame! montame! vifteen tausend vrancs, vrom Boidiers" (Poitiers). +"Goot money! vrom Monziere Lucien!" + +"Fifteen thousand francs!" cried Eve, throwing up her arms. + +"Yes, madame," said the carman in the doorway, "fifteen thousand +francs, brought by the Bordeaux coach, and they didn't want any more +neither! I have two men downstairs bringing up the bags. M. Lucien +Chardon de Rubempre is the sender. I have brought up a little leather +bag for you, containing five hundred francs in gold, and a letter it's +likely." + +Eve thought that she must be dreaming as she read:-- + + + "MY DEAR SISTER,--Here are fifteen thousand francs. Instead of + taking my life, I have sold it. I am no longer my own; I am only + the secretary of a Spanish diplomatist; I am his creature. A new + and dreadful life is beginning for me. Perhaps I should have done + better to drown myself. + + "Good-bye. David will be released, and with the four thousand + francs he can buy a little paper-mill, no doubt, and make his + fortune. Forget me, all of you. This is the wish of your unhappy + brother. + "LUCIEN." + + +"It is decreed that my poor boy should be unlucky in everything, and +even when he does well, as he said himself," said Mme. Chardon, as she +watched the men piling up the bags. + +"We have had a narrow escape!" exclaimed the tall Cointet, when he was +once more in the Place du Murier. "An hour later the glitter of the +silver would have thrown a new light on the deed of partnership. Our +man would have fought shy of it. We have his promise now, and in three +months' time we shall know what to do." + +That very evening, at seven o'clock, Cerizet bought the business, and +the money was paid over, the purchaser undertaking to pay rent for the +last quarter. The next day Eve sent forty thousand francs to the +Receiver-General, and bought two thousand five hundred francs of +_rentes_ in her husband's name. Then she wrote to her father-in-law and +asked him to find a small farm, worth about ten thousand francs, for +her near Marsac. She meant to invest her own fortune in this way. + +The tall Cointet's plot was formidably simple. From the very first he +considered that the plan of sizing the pulp in the vat was +impracticable. The real secret of fortune lay in the composition of +the pulp, in the cheap vegetable fibre as a substitute for rags. He +made up his mind, therefore, to lay immense stress on the secondary +problem of sizing the pulp, and to pass over the discovery of cheap +raw material, and for the following reasons: + +The Angouleme paper-mills manufacture paper for stationers. Notepaper, +foolscap, crown, and post-demy are all necessarily sized; and these +papers have been the pride of the Angouleme mills for a long while +past, stationery being the specialty of the Charente. This fact gave +color to the Cointet's urgency upon the point of sizing in the +pulping-trough; but, as a matter of fact, they cared nothing for this +part of David's researches. The demand for writing-paper is +exceedingly small compared with the almost unlimited demand for +unsized paper for printers. As Boniface Cointet traveled to Paris to +take out the patent in his own name, he was projecting plans that were +like to work a revolution in his paper-mill. Arrived in Paris, he took +up his quarters with Metivier, and gave his instructions to his agent. +Metivier was to call upon the proprietors of newspapers, and offer to +deliver paper at prices below those quoted by all other houses; he +could guarantee in each case that the paper should be a better color, +and in every way superior to the best kinds hitherto in use. +Newspapers are always supplied by contract; there would be time before +the present contracts expired to complete all the subterranean +operations with buyers, and to obtain a monopoly of the trade. Cointet +calculated that he could rid himself of Sechard while Metivier was +taking orders from the principal Paris newspapers, which even then +consumed two hundred reams daily. Cointet naturally offered Metivier a +large commission on the contracts, for he wished to secure a clever +representative on the spot, and to waste no time in traveling to and +fro. And in this manner the fortunes of the firm of Metivier, one of +the largest houses in the paper trade, were founded. The tall Cointet +went back to Angouleme to be present at Petit-Claud's wedding, with a +mind at rest as to the future. + +Petit-Claud had sold his professional connection, and was only waiting +for M. Milaud's promotion to take the public prosecutor's place, which +had been promised to him by the Comtesse du Chatelet. The public +prosecutor's second deputy was appointed first deputy to the Court of +Limoges, the Keeper of the Seals sent a man of his own to Angouleme, +and the post of first deputy was kept vacant for a couple of months. +The interval was Petit-Claud's honeymoon. + +While Boniface Cointet was in Paris, David made a first experimental +batch of unsized paper far superior to that in common use for +newspapers. He followed it up with a second batch of magnificent +vellum paper for fine printing, and this the Cointets used for a new +edition of their diocesan prayer-book. The material had been privately +prepared by David himself; he would have no helpers but Kolb and +Marion. + +When Boniface came back the whole affair wore a different aspect; he +looked at the samples, and was fairly satisfied. + +"My good friend," he said, "the whole trade of Angouleme is in crown +paper. We must make the best possible crown paper at half the present +price; that is the first and foremost question for us." + +Then David tried to size the pulp for the desired paper, and the +result was a harsh surface with grains of size distributed all over +it. On the day when the experiment was concluded and David held the +sheets in his hand, he went away to find a spot where he could be +alone and swallow his bitter disappointment. But Boniface Cointet went +in search of him and comforted him. Boniface was delightfully amiable. + +"Do not lose heart," he said; "go on! I am a good fellow, I understand +you; I will stand by you to the end." + +"Really," David said to his wife at dinner, "we are with good people; +I should not have expected that the tall Cointet would be so +generous." And he repeated his conversation with his wily partner. + +Three months were spent in experiments. David slept at the mill; he +noted the effects of various preparations upon the pulp. At one time +he attributed his non-success to an admixture of rag-pulp with his own +ingredients, and made a batch entirely composed of the new material; +at another, he endeavored to size pulp made exclusively from rags; +persevering in his experiments under the eyes of the tall Cointet, +whom he had ceased to mistrust, until he had tried every possible +combination of pulp and size. David lived in the paper-mill for the +first six months of 1823--if it can be called living, to leave food +untasted, and go in neglect of person and dress. He wrestled so +desperately with the difficulties, that anybody but the Cointets would +have seen the sublimity of the struggle, for the brave fellow was not +thinking of his own interests. The moment had come when he cared for +nothing but the victory. With marvelous sagacity he watched the +unaccountable freaks of the semi-artificial substances called into +existence by man for ends of his own; substances in which nature had +been tamed, as it were, and her tacit resistance overcome; and from +these observations drew great conclusions; finding, as he did, that +such creations can only be obtained by following the laws of the more +remote affinities of things, of "a second nature," as he called it, in +substances. + +Towards the end of August he succeeded to some extent in sizing the +paper pulp in the vat; the result being a kind of paper identical with +a make in use for printers' proofs at the present day--a kind of paper +that cannot be depended upon, for the sizing itself is not always +certain. This was a great result, considering the condition of the +paper trade in 1823, and David hoped to solve the final difficulties +of the problem, but--it had cost ten thousand francs. + +Singular rumors were current at this time in Angouleme and L'Houmeau. +It was said that David Sechard was ruining the firm of Cointet +Brothers. Experiments had eaten up twenty thousand francs; and the +result, said gossip, was wretchedly bad paper. Other manufacturers +took fright at this, hugged themselves on their old-fashioned methods, +and, being jealous of the Cointets, spread rumors of the approaching +fall of that ambitious house. As for the tall Cointet, he set up the +new machinery for making lengths of paper in a ribbon, and allowed +people to believe that he was buying plant for David's experiments. +Then the cunning Cointet used David's formula for pulp, while urging +his partner to give his whole attention to the sizing process; and +thousands of reams of the new paper were despatched to Metivier in +Paris. + +When September arrived, the tall Cointet took David aside, and, +learning that the latter meditated a crowning experiment, dissuaded +him from further attempts. + +"Go to Marsac, my dear David, see your wife, and take a rest after +your labors; we don't want to ruin ourselves," said Cointet in the +friendliest way. "This great triumph of yours, after all, is only a +starting-point. We shall wait now for awhile before trying any new +experiments. To be fair! see what has come of them. We are not merely +paper-makers, we are printers besides and bankers, and people say that +you are ruining us." + +David Sechard's gesture of protest on behalf of his good faith was +sublime in its simplicity. + +"Not that fifty thousand francs thrown into the Charente would ruin +us," said Cointet, in reply to mute protest, "but we do not wish to be +obliged to pay cash for everything in consequence of slanders that +shake our credit; _that_ would bring us to a standstill. We have reached +the term fixed by our agreement, and we are bound on either side to +think over our position." + +"He is right," thought David. He had forgotten the routine work of the +business, thoroughly absorbed as he had been in experiments on a large +scale. + +David went to Marsac. For the past six months he had gone over on +Saturday evening, returning again to L'Houmeau on Tuesday morning. +Eve, after much counsel from her father-in-law, had bought a house +called the Verberie, with three acres of land and a croft planted with +vines, which lay like a wedge in the old man's vineyard. Here, with +her mother and Marion, she lived a very frugal life, for five thousand +francs of the purchase money still remained unpaid. It was a charming +little domain, the prettiest bit of property in Marsac. The house, +with a garden before it and a yard at the back, was built of white +tufa ornamented with carvings, cut without great expense in that +easily wrought stone, and roofed with slate. The pretty furniture from +the house in Angouleme looked prettier still at Marsac, for there was +not the slightest attempt at comfort or luxury in the country in those +days. A row of orange-trees, pomegranates, and rare plants stood +before the house on the side of the garden, set there by the last +owner, an old general who died under M. Marron's hands. + +David was enjoying his holiday sitting under an orange-tree with his +wife, and father, and little Lucien, when the bailiff from Mansle +appeared. Cointet Brothers gave their partner formal notice to appoint +an arbitrator to settle disputes, in accordance with a clause in the +agreement. The Cointets demanded that the six thousand francs should +be refunded, and the patent surrendered in consideration of the +enormous outlay made to no purpose. + +"People say that you are ruining them," said old Sechard. "Well, well, +of all that you have done, that is the one thing that I am glad to +know." + +At nine o'clock the next morning Eve and David stood in Petit-Claud's +waiting-room. The little lawyer was the guardian of the widow and +orphan by virtue of his office, and it seemed to them that they could +take no other advice. Petit-Claud was delighted to see his clients, +and insisted that M. and Mme. Sechard should do him the pleasure of +breakfasting with him. + +"Do the Cointets want six thousand francs of you?" he asked, smiling. +"How much is still owing of the purchase-money of the Verberie?" + +"Five thousand francs, monsieur," said Eve, "but I have two +thousand----" + +"Keep your money," Petit-Claud broke in. "Let us see: five +thousand--why, you want quite another ten thousand francs to settle +yourselves comfortably down yonder. Very good, in two hours' time the +Cointets shall bring you fifteen thousand francs----" + +Eve started with surprise. + +"If you will renounce all claims to the profits under the deed of +partnership, and come to an amicable settlement," said Petit-Claud. +"Does that suit you?" + +"Will it really be lawfully ours?" asked Eve. + +"Very much so," said the lawyer, smiling. "The Cointets have worked +you trouble enough; I should like to make an end of their pretensions. +Listen to me; I am a magistrate now, and it is my duty to tell you the +truth. Very good. The Cointets are playing you false at this moment, +but you are in their hands. If you accept battle, you might possibly +gain the lawsuit which they will bring. Do you wish to be where you +are now after ten years of litigation? Experts' fees and expenses of +arbitration will be multiplied, the most contradictory opinions will +be given, and you must take your chance. And," he added, smiling +again, "there is no attorney here that can defend you, so far as I +see. My successor has not much ability. There, a bad compromise is +better than a successful lawsuit." + +"Any arrangement that will give us a quiet life will do for me," said +David. + +Petit-Claud called to his servant. + +"Paul! go and ask M. Segaud, my successor, to come here.--He shall go +to see the Cointets while we breakfast" said Petit-Claud, addressing +his former clients, "and in a few hours' time you will be on your way +home to Marsac, ruined, but with minds at rest. Ten thousand francs +will bring you in another five hundred francs of income, and you will +live comfortably on your bit of property." + +Two hours later, as Petit-Claud had prophesied, Maitre Segaud came +back with an agreement duly drawn up and signed by the Cointets, and +fifteen notes each for a thousand francs. + +"We are much indebted to you," said Sechard, turning to Petit-Claud. + +"Why, I have just this moment ruined you," said Petit-Claud, looking +at his astonished former clients. "I tell you again, I have ruined +you, as you will see as time goes on; but I know you, you would rather +be ruined than wait for a fortune which perhaps might come too late." + +"We are not mercenary, monsieur," said Madame Eve. "We thank you for +giving us the means of happiness; we shall always feel grateful to +you." + +"Great heavens! don't call down blessings on _me_!" cried Petit-Claud. +"It fills me with remorse; but to-day, I think, I have made full +reparation. If I am a magistrate, it is entirely owing to you; and if +anybody is to feel grateful, it is I. Good-bye." + + + +As time went on, Kolb changed his opinion of Sechard senior; and as +for the old man, he took a liking to Kolb when he found that, like +himself, the Alsacien could neither write nor read a word, and that it +was easy to make him tipsy. The old "bear" imparted his ideas on vine +culture and the sale of a vintage to the ex-cuirassier, and trained +him with a view to leaving a man with a head on his shoulders to look +after his children when he should be gone; for he grew childish at the +last, and great were his fears as to the fate of his property. He had +chosen Courtois the miller as his confidant. "You will see how things +will go with my children when I am under ground. Lord! it makes me +shudder to think of it." + +Old Sechard died in the month of March, 1929, leaving about two +hundred thousand francs in land. His acres added to the Verberie made +a fine property, which Kolb had managed to admiration for some two +years. + +David and his wife found nearly a hundred thousand crowns in gold in +the house. The department of the Charente had valued old Sechard's +money at a million; rumor, as usual, exaggerating the amount of a +hoard. Eve and David had barely thirty thousand francs of income when +they added their little fortune to the inheritance; they waited +awhile, and so it fell out that they invested their capital in +Government securities at the time of the Revolution of July. + +Then, and not until then, could the department of the Charente and +David Sechard form some idea of the wealth of the tall Cointet. Rich +to the extent of several millions of francs, the elder Cointet became +a deputy, and is at this day a peer of France. It is said that he will +be Minister of Commerce in the next Government; for in 1842 he married +Mlle. Popinot, daughter of M. Anselme Popinot, one of the most +influential statesmen of the dynasty, deputy and mayor of an +arrondissement in Paris. + +David Sechard's discovery has been assimilated by the French +manufacturing world, as food is assimilated by a living body. Thanks +to the introduction of materials other than rags, France can produce +paper more cheaply than any other European country. Dutch paper, as +David foresaw, no longer exists. Sooner or later it will be necessary, +no doubt, to establish a Royal Paper Manufactory; like the Gobelins, +the Sevres porcelain works, the Savonnerie, and the Imprimerie royale, +which so far have escaped the destruction threatened by _bourgeois_ +vandalism. + +David Sechard, beloved by his wife, father of two boys and a girl, has +the good taste to make no allusion to his past efforts. Eve had the +sense to dissuade him from following his terrible vocation; for the +inventor like Moses on Mount Horeb, is consumed by the burning bush. +He cultivates literature by way of recreation, and leads a comfortable +life of leisure, befitting the landowner who lives on his own estate. +He has bidden farewell for ever to glory, and bravely taken his place +in the class of dreamers and collectors; for he dabbles in entomology, +and is at present investigating the transformations of insects which +science only knows in the final stage. + +Everybody has heard of Petit-Claud's success as attorney-general; he +is the rival of the great Vinet of Provins, and it is his ambition to +be President of the Court-Royal of Poitiers. + +Cerizet has been in trouble so frequently for political offences that +he has been a good deal talked about; and as one of the boldest +_enfants perdus_ of the Liberal party he was nicknamed the "Brave +Cerizet." When Petit-Claud's successor compelled him to sell his +business in Angouleme, he found a fresh career on the provincial +stage, where his talents as an actor were like to be turned to +brilliant account. The chief stage heroine, however, obliged him to go +to Paris to find a cure for love among the resources of science, and +there he tried to curry favor with the Liberal party. + +As for Lucien, the story of his return to Paris belongs to the _Scenes +of Parisian_ life. + + + + ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Cerizet + Two Poets + A Man of Business + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Middle Classes + +Chardon, Madame (nee Rubempre) + Two Poets + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Chatelet, Sixte, Baron du + Two Poets + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Thirteen + +Chatelet, Marie-Louise-Anais de Negrepelisse, Baronne du + Two Poets + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + +Cointet, Boniface + Two Poets + The Firm of Nucingen + The Member for Arcis + +Cointet, Jean + Two Poets + +Collin, Jacques + Father Goriot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Member for Arcis + +Conti, Gennaro + Beatrix + +Courtois + Two Poets + +Courtois, Madame + Two Poets + +Hautoy, Francis du + Two Poets + +Herrera, Carlos + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Marron + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Marsay, Henri de + The Thirteen + The Unconscious Humorists + Another Study of Woman + The Lily of the Valley + Father Goriot + Jealousies of a Country Town + Ursule Mirouet + A Marriage Settlement + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Letters of Two Brides + The Ball at Sceaux + Modeste Mignon + The Secrets of a Princess + The Gondreville Mystery + A Daughter of Eve + +Metivier + The Government Clerks + The Middle Classes + +Milaud + The Muse of the Department + +Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Muse of the Department + The Unconscious Humorists + +Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de + Father Goriot + The Thirteen + Eugenie Grandet + Cesar Birotteau + Melmoth Reconciled + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Commission in Lunacy + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Modeste Mignon + The Firm of Nucingen + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + +Petit-Claud + Two Poets + +Pimentel, Marquis and Marquise de + Two Poets + +Postel + Two Poets + +Prieur, Madame + Two Poets + +Rastignac, Baron and Baronne de (Eugene's parents) + Father Goriot + Two Poets + +Rastignac, Eugene de + Father Goriot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Ball at Sceaux + The Commission in Lunacy + A Study of Woman + Another Study of Woman + The Magic Skin + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Gondreville Mystery + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + The Unconscious Humorists + +Rubempre, Lucien-Chardon de + Two Poets + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Ursule Mirouet + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Sechard, Jerome-Nicholas + Two Poets + +Sechard, David + Two Poets + A Distinguished Provincial At Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Sechard, Madame David + Two Poets + A Distinguished Provincial At Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Senonches, Jacques de + Two Poets + +Senonches, Madame Jacques de + Two Poets + +Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + The Muse of the Department + +Victorine + Massimilla Doni + Letters of Two Brides + Gaudissart II + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Illusions, by Honore De Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13159 *** |