property;
he is in debt, and his creditor is urgent; and to-morrow you will offer
Savarin thirty thousand francs for one column from his pen, and signed
by his name, for two months from the day the journal starts. He will
accept, partly because the sum will clear off the debt that hampers him,
partly because he will take care that the amount becomes known; and
that will help him to command higher terms for the sale of the remaining
shares in the journal he now edits, for the new book which you told me
he intended to write, and for the new journal which he will be sure to
set up as soon as he has disposed of the old one. You say that, as a
politician, Savarin, an Orleanist, will not aid in an ultra-democratic
revolution. Who asks him to do so? Did I not imply at the meeting that
we commence our journal with politics the mildest? Though revolutions
are not made with rose-water, it is rose-water that nourishes their
roots. The polite cynicism of authors, read by those who float on the
surface of society, prepares the way for the social ferment in its
deeps. Had there been no Voltaire, there would have been no Camille
Desmoulins; had there been no Diderot, there would have been no Marat.
We start as polite cynics. Of all cynics Savarin is the politest. But
when I bid high for him, it is his clique that I bid for. Without his
clique he is but a wit; with his clique, a power. Partly out of that
clique, partly out of a circle beyond it, which Savarin can more or less
influence, I select ten. Here is the list of them; study it. Entre nous,
I esteem their writings as little as I do artificial flies; but they are
the artificial flies at which, in this particular season of the year,
the public rise. You must procure at least five of the ten; and I leave
you carte blanche as to the terms. Savarin gained, the best of them will
be proud of being his associates. Observe, none of these messieurs of
brilliant imagination are to write political articles; those will be
furnished to you anonymously, and inserted without erasure or omission.
When you have secured Savarin, and five at least of the collaborateurs
in the list, write to me at my office. I give you four days to do this;
and the day the journal starts you enter into the income of fifteen
thousand francs a year, with a rise in salary proportioned to profits.
Are you contented with the terms?"

"Of course I am; but supposing I do not gain the aid of Savarin, or five
at least of th