c sayings
of Blondet's: "Everything comes out all right at last--If a man has
nothing, his affairs cannot be embarrassed--We have nothing to lose
but the fortune that we seek--Swim with the stream; it will take you
somewhere--A clever man with a footing in society can make a fortune
whenever he pleases."

That winter, filled as it was with so many pleasures and dissipations,
was a necessary interval employed in finding capital for the new
Royalist paper; Theodore Gaillard and Hector Merlin only brought out the
first number of the _Reveil_ in March 1822. The affair had been settled
at Mme. du Val-Noble's house. Mme. du val-Noble exercised a certain
influence over the great personages, Royalist writers, and bankers who
met in her splendid rooms--"fit for a tale out of the _Arabian Nights_,"
as the elegant and clever courtesan herself used to say--to transact
business which could not be arranged elsewhere. The editorship had been
promised to Hector Merlin. Lucien, Merlin's intimate, was pretty certain
to be his right-hand man, and a _feuilleton_ in a Ministerial paper
had been promised to him besides. All through the dissipations of that
winter Lucien had been secretly making ready for this change of front.
Child as he was, he fancied that he was a deep politician because he
concealed the preparation for the approaching transformation-scene,
while he was counting upon Ministerial largesses to extricate himself
from embarrassment and to lighten Coralie's secret cares. Coralie said
nothing of her distress; she smiled now, as always; but Berenice was
bolder, she kept Lucien informed of their difficulties; and the budding
great man, moved, after the fashion of poets, by the tale of disasters,
would vow that he would begin to work in earnest, and then forget his
resolution, and drown his fleeting cares in excess. One day Coralie saw
the poetic brow overcast, and scolded Berenice, and told her lover that
everything would be settled.

Mme. d'Espard and Mme. de Bargeton were waiting for Lucien's profession
of his new creed, so they said, before applying through Chatelet for
the patent which should permit Lucien to bear the so-much desired name.
Lucien had proposed to dedicate the _Marguerites_ to Mme. d'Espard, and
the Marquise seemed to be not a little flattered by a compliment which
authors have been somewhat chary of paying since they became a power in
the land; but when Lucien went to Dauriat and asked after his book, that
w