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I. DR. JENKINS' PATIENTS 7

II. A BREAKFAST ON PLACE VENDOME 37

III. MEMOIRS OF A CLERK.--A CASUAL GLANCE AT
THE "CAISSE TERRITORIALE" 63

IV. A DEBUT IN SOCIETY 77

V. THE JOYEUSE FAMILY 103

VI. FELICIA RUYS 128

VII. JANSOULET AT HOME 156

VIII. THE WORK OF BETHLEHEM 172

IX. GRANDMAMMA 193

X. MEMOIRS OF A CLERK.--THE SERVANTS 216

XI. THE FETES IN HONOR OF THE BEY 238

XII. A CORSICAN ELECTION 272

ILLUSTRATIONS

"'Take away your flowers, my dear'" _Frontispiece_

In Felicia's Studio _Page_ 26

"'His Excellency, the Duc de Mora!'" " 88

From drawings by Lucius Rossi.

THE NABOB.

A hundred years ago Le Sage wrote these words at the head of _Gil
Blas_:

"As there are persons who cannot read a book without making
personal application of the vicious or absurd characters they
find therein, I hereby declare for the benefit of such evil-minded
readers that they will err in making such application of the
portraits in this book. I make public avowal that my only aim
has been to represent the life of mankind as it is."

Without attempting to draw any comparison between Le Sage's novel and
my own, I may say that I should have liked to place a declaration of
the same nature on the first page of _The Nabob_, at the time of its
publication. Several reasons prevented my doing so. In the first place,
the fear that such an advertisement might seem too much like a bait
thrown out to the public, an attempt to compel its attention. Secondly,
I was far from suspecting that a book written with a purely literary
purpose could acquire at a bound such anecdotal importance, and bring
down upon me such a buzzing swarm of complaints. Indeed, such a thing
was never seen before. Not a line of my work, not one of its heroes,
not even a character of secondary importance, but has become a pretext
for allusions and protestations. To no purpose does the author deny the
imputation, swear by all the gods that there is no key to his
novel