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.”