tter a furious philippic
against our celebrated literary men. He attacked them all, with scarcely
an exception. This one sold his pen to the highest bidder; that one
levied contributions of all sorts on the vanity of authors and artists;
another was a mere actor; a fourth was nothing but a mountebank; a fifth
was a mere babbler; and so on he went through the whole catalogue of
authors. The illustrious literary democrats were Liberals and Spartans
only for the public eye. They cared as much about liberty as about old
moons: this one speculated on a title; that one on a vice; a third, to
possess a carriage and dine at Vefour's, had become the thrall of a
wealthy stockjobber who paid his virtues by the month and his opinions
by the line. He spoke in this way for an hour, bitter, excessive,
nervous, extravagant, and sometimes eloquent. All at once he
stopped,--and pressing my hand with a mixture of bitterness and
cynicism, he said,--"Old boy, I have now given you a dollar's worth of
literature; lend me ten dimes." I hastily drew from my pocket three or
four gold coins, and, blushing, slipped them into his hand; it trembled
a little; he thanked me with a glance, and, muttering something like
"Good bye," disappeared around the next corner.

The next time I met Monsieur Jules Sandeau he said to me,--"I want you
to go with me to Madame Emile de Girardin's to-morrow evening. She is to
read a tragedy she has written in five acts and in verse. You will meet
a good many of our celebrated literary men there. You must remember that
the watchword at that house is, Admiration, more admiration, still more
admiration. You must excite enthusiasm to ecstasy, compliments to
lyrical poetry, and carry flattery to apotheosis. But before we go there
I beg you to allow me to return your aristocratic breakfast by a poor
literary man's dinner, which we will eat, not in Bignon's sumptuous
private room, but outside the walls of Paris, at 'Uncle' Moulinon's,
which is the rendezvous of the supernumeraries of art and literature.
The wine, roast, and salad are cheaper than you find them on the
Boulevard des Italiens, and it is advisable that a fervent neophyte like
you should take all the degrees in our freemasonry as soon as possible.
'Uncle' Moulinon's dining-saloon is to Madame Emile de Girardin's
drawing-room what a conscripts' barrack is to the official mansion of a
French marshal."

I gratefully accepted the invitation, and at the appointed time