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.