must
therefore provide them with one of the best boxes in the theatre. If
there were hissings and murmurings, as Balzac expected from past
experiences, his younger niece Valentine would be indignant; but
Sophie would still preserve her dignity, "and you, my dear sister.
. . . But what can a box do against a theatre?"

Nevertheless, though Hostein accepted "Le Faiseur," he announced that
his clients preferred melodrama to comedy, and that, in order to fit
it for his "theatre de boulevard," the play would require
modifications which would completely change its character. Balzac
naturally objected to these proposed alterations, as they sounded
infinitely more sweeping than the "corrections" of the Comedie
Francaise, and the play was never acted during his life. On August
23rd, 1851, however, as we have already seen, "Mercadet le Faiseur,"
with certain modifications made by M. Dennery, and also with omissions
--for the play as Balzac originally wrote it was too long for the
theatre--was received with tremendous acclamations at the Gymnase; and
on October 22nd, 1868, it was acted at the Comedie Francaise, and
again in 1879 and in 1890.

Mercadet, first played by Geoffroy, who conceived Balzac's creation
admirably, and at the Comedie Francaise less successfully by Got, is a
second Figaro, with a strong likeness to Balzac himself. He is
continually on the stage, and keeps the audience uninterruptedly
amused by his wit, good-humour, hearty bursts of laughter, and
ceaseless expedients for baffling his creditors. The action of the
play is simple and natural, and the dialogue scintillates with _bon
mots_, gaiety, and amusing sallies. The play had been conceived and
even written in 1839 or 1840, and never did Balzac's imperishable
youth shine out more brilliantly than in its execution. It is curious
to notice that his innate sense of power as a dramatist, which never
deserted him, even when he seemed to have found his line in quite a
different direction, was in the end amply justified.

His vivacity and hopefulness never forsook him for long. Even in his
terrible state of health in 1849, and in spite of his disappointment
at the non-appearance of "Le Faiseur," he was in buoyant spirits, and
informed his sister in one of his letters, that he was sending a
comedy, "Le Roi des Mendiants," to Laurent-Jan, as soon as he could
manage to transport it to St. Petersburg. There, the French Ambassador
would be entrusted with the charge of