e matter of his meditations. He himself
had opened out wide horizons of public life before an ambitious poet,
with a vacillating will, it is true, but not without aspirations; and
the journalists had already shown the neophyte, from a pinnacle of the
temple, all the kingdoms of the world of letters and its riches.

Lucien himself had no suspicion of a little plot that was being woven,
nor did he imagine that M. de Rhetore had a hand in it. M. de Rhetore
had spoken of Lucien's cleverness, and Mme. d'Espard's set had taken
alarm. Mme. de Bargeton had commissioned the Duke to sound Lucien,
and with that object in view, the noble youth had come to the
Ambigu-Comique.

Do not believe in stories of elaborate treachery. Neither the great
world nor the world of journalists laid any deep schemes; definite plans
are not made by either; their Machiavelism lives from hand to mouth, so
to speak, and consists, for the most part, in being always on the spot,
always on the alert to turn everything to account, always on the watch
for the moment when a man's ruling passion shall deliver him into
the hands of his enemies. The young Duke had seen through Lucien at
Florine's supper-party; he had just touched his vain susceptibilities;
and now he was trying his first efforts in diplomacy upon the living
subject.

Lucien hurried to the Rue Saint-Fiacre after the play to write his
article. It was a piece of savage and bitter criticism, written in pure
wantonness; he was amusing himself by trying his power. The melodrama,
as a matter of fact, was a better piece than the _Alcalde_; but Lucien
wished to see whether he could damn a good play and send everybody to
see a bad one, as his associates had said.

He unfolded the sheet at breakfast next morning, telling Coralie as
he did so that he had cut up the Ambigu-Comique; and not a little
astonished was he to find below his paper on Mme. de Bargeton and
Chatelet a notice of the Ambigu, so mellowed and softened in the course
of the night, that although the witty analysis was still preserved, the
judgment was favorable. The article was more likely to fill the house
than to empty it. No words can describe his wrath. He determined to have
a word or two with Lousteau. He had already begun to think himself
an indispensable man, and he vowed that he would not submit to be
tyrannized over and treated like a fool. To establish his power beyond
cavil, he wrote the article for Dauriat's review, summing up