“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.”