nd fight for it; but as for newspaper articles, read to-day and
forgotten to-morrow, they are worth nothing in my eyes but the money
that is paid for them. If you attach any importance to such drivel, you
might as well make the sign of the Cross and invoke heaven when you sit
down to write a tradesman's circular."

Every one apparently was astonished at Lucien's scruples. The last rags
of the boyish conscience were torn away, and he was invested with the
_toga virilis_ of journalism.

"Do you know what Nathan said by way of comforting himself after your
criticism?" asked Lousteau.

"How should I know?"

"Nathan exclaimed, 'Paragraphs pass away; but a great work lives!' He
will be here to supper in two days, and he will be sure to fall flat at
your feet, and kiss your claws, and swear that you are a great man."

"That would be a funny thing," was Lucien's comment.

"_Funny_" repeated Blondet. "He can't help himself."

"I am quite willing, my friends," said Lucien, on whom the wine had
begun to take effect. "But what am I to say?"

"Oh well, refute yourself in three good columns in Merlin's paper.
We have been enjoying the sight of Nathan's wrath; we have just been
telling him that he owes us no little gratitude for getting up a hot
controversy that will sell his second edition in a week. In his eyes at
this present moment you are a spy, a scoundrel, a caitiff wretch; the
day after to-morrow you will be a genius, an uncommonly clever fellow,
one of Plutarch's men. Nathan will hug you and call you his best friend.
Dauriat has been to see you; you have your three thousand francs; you
have worked the trick! Now you want Nathan's respect and esteem. Nobody
ought to be let in except the publisher. We must not immolate any one
but an enemy. We should not talk like this if it were a question of
some outsider, some inconvenient person who had made a name for himself
without us and was not wanted; but Nathan is one of us. Blondet got some
one to attack him in the _Mercure_ for the pleasure of replying in the
_Debats_. For which reason the first edition went off at once."

"My friends, upon my word and honor, I cannot write two words in praise
of that book----"

"You will have another hundred francs," interrupted Merlin. "Nathan will
have brought you in ten louis d'or, to say nothing of an article that
you might put in Finot's paper; you would get a hundred francs for
writing that, and another hundred francs from Dauriat