spair. We
have been so misguided as to attack a man who has no affection for
his mistress, a heartless, soulless wretch. Unluckily, too, for us,
Matifat's business is not amenable to the jurisdiction of the press, and
he cannot be made to smart for it through his interests. A druggist is
not like a hatter or a milliner, or a theatre or a work of art; he is
above criticism; you can't run down his opium and dyewoods, nor cocoa
beans, paint, and pepper. Florine is at her wits' end; the Panorama
closes to-morrow, and what will become of her she does not know."

"Coralie's engagement at the Gymnase begins in a few days," said Lucien;
"she might do something for Florine."

"Not she!" said Lousteau. "Coralie is not clever, but she is not quite
simple enough to help herself to a rival. We are in a mess with a
vengeance. And Finot is in such a hurry to buy back his sixth----"

"Why?"

"It is a capital bit of business, my dear fellow. There is a chance of
selling the paper for three hundred thousand francs; Finot would have
one-third, and his partners besides are going to pay him a commission,
which he will share with des Lupeaulx. So I propose to do another turn
of 'chantage.'"

"'Chantage' seems to mean your money or your life?"

"It is better than that," said Lousteau; "it is your money or your
character. A short time ago the proprietor of a minor newspaper was
refused credit. The day before yesterday it was announced in his columns
that a gold repeater set with diamonds belonging to a certain notability
had found its way in a curious fashion into the hands of a private
soldier in the Guards; the story promised to the readers might have come
from the _Arabian Nights_. The notability lost no time in asking that
editor to dine with him; the editor was distinctly a gainer by the
transaction, and contemporary history has lost an anecdote. Whenever the
press makes vehement onslaughts upon some one in power, you may be sure
that there is some refusal to do a service behind it. Blackmailing with
regard to private life is the terror of the richest Englishman, and a
great source of wealth to the press in England, which is infinitely more
corrupt than ours. We are children in comparison! In England they
will pay five or six thousand francs for a compromising letter to sell
again."

"Then how can you lay hold of Matifat?" asked Lucien.

"My dear boy, that low tradesman wrote the queerest letters to Florine;
the spelling, style,