red-hot shot
to-night. To-morrow you will know why we are making game of 'Potelet.'
The article is called 'Potelet from 1811 to 1821.' Chatelet will be a
byword, a name for the type of courtiers who deny their benefactor and
rally to the Bourbons. When I have done with him, I am going to Mme. de
Montcornet's."

Lucien's talk was sparkling. He was eager that this great personage
should see how gross a mistake Mesdames d'Espard and de Bargeton had
made when they slighted Lucien de Rubempre. But he showed the tip of his
ear when he asserted his right to bear the name of Rubempre, the Duc de
Rhetore having purposely addressed him as Chardon.

"You should go over to the Royalists," said the Duke. "You have proved
yourself a man of ability; now show your good sense. The one way of
obtaining a patent of nobility and the right to bear the title of
your mother's family, is by asking for it in return for services to be
rendered to the Court. The Liberals will never make a count of you. The
Restoration will get the better of the press, you see, in the long run,
and the press is the only formidable power. They have borne with it too
long as it is; the press is sure to be muzzled. Take advantage of the
last moments of liberty to make yourself formidable, and you will have
everything--intellect, nobility, and good looks; nothing will be out of
your reach. So if you are a Liberal, let it be simply for the moment, so
that you can make a better bargain for your Royalism."

With that the Duke entreated Lucien to accept an invitation to dinner,
which the German Minister (of Florine's supper-party) was about to send.
Lucien fell under the charm of the noble peer's arguments; the salons
from which he had been exiled for ever, as he thought, but a few months
ago, would shortly open their doors for him! He was delighted. He
marveled at the power of the press; Intellect and the Press, these then
were the real powers in society. Another thought shaped itself in his
mind--Was Etienne Lousteau sorry that he had opened the gate of the
temple to a newcomer? Even now he (Lucien) felt on his own account that
it was strongly advisable to put difficulties in the way of eager and
ambitious recruits from the provinces. If a poet should come to him
as he had flung himself into Etienne's arms, he dared not think of the
reception that he would give him.

The youthful Duke meanwhile saw that Lucien was deep in thought, and
made a pretty good guess at th