"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 Ishould 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 Iare 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 manu,"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.
