ce to you, Finot would allow you to bludgeon
your man in a big paper with ten or twelve thousand subscribers, _if_
you make yourself indispensable to Finot."

"Then are you sure that Florine can bring her druggist to make the
bargain?" asked Lucien, dazzled by these prospects.

"Quite sure. Now comes the interval, I will go and tell her everything
at once in a word or two; it will be settled to-night. If Florine once
has her lesson by heart, she will have all my wit and her own besides."

"And there sits that honest tradesman, gaping with open-mouthed
admiration at Florine, little suspecting that you are about to get
thirty thousand francs out of him!----"

"More twaddle! Anybody might think that the man was going to be robbed!"
cried Lousteau. "Why, my dear boy, if the minister buys the newspaper,
the druggist may make twenty thousand francs in six months on an
investment of thirty thousand. Matifat is not looking at the newspaper,
but at Florine's prospects. As soon as it is known that Matifat and
Camusot--(for they will go shares)--that Matifat and Camusot are
proprietors of a review, the newspapers will be full of friendly notices
of Florine and Coralie. Florine's name will be made; she will perhaps
obtain an engagement in another theatre with a salary of twelve thousand
francs. In fact, Matifat will save a thousand francs every month in
dinners and presents to journalists. You know nothing of men, nor of the
way things are managed."

"Poor man!" said Lucien, "he is looking forward to an evening's
pleasure."

"And he will be sawn in two with arguments until Florine sees Finot's
receipt for a sixth share of the paper. And to-morrow I shall be editor
of Finot's paper, and making a thousand francs a month. The end of my
troubles is in sight!" cried Florine's lover.

Lousteau went out, and Lucien sat like one bewildered, lost in the
infinite of thought, soaring above this everyday world. In the Wooden
Galleries he had seen the wires by which the trade in books is moved; he
has seen something of the kitchen where great reputations are made;
he had been behind the scenes; he had seen the seamy side of life, the
consciences of men involved in the machinery of Paris, the mechanism of
it all. As he watched Florine on the stage he almost envied Lousteau his
good fortune; already, for a few moments he had forgotten Matifat in the
background. He was not left alone for long, perhaps for not more than
five minutes, bu