ainville was supposed (rightly or
wrongly) to have given up the Bridge of Pecq to the foreign invaders.
Lucien said jestingly to des Lupeaulx that he himself, surely, had given
up the Asses' Bridge.

Lucien's luxurious life, hollow though it was, and founded on
expectations, had estranged his friends. They could not forgive him for
the carriage which he had put down--for them he was still rolling about
in it--nor yet for the splendors of the Rue de Vendome which he had
left. All of them felt instinctively that nothing was beyond the reach
of this young and handsome poet, with intellect enough and to spare;
they themselves had trained him in corruption; and, therefore, they left
no stone unturned to ruin him.

Some few days before Coralie's first appearance at the Gymnase, Lucien
and Hector Merlin went arm-in-arm to the Vaudeville. Merlin was scolding
his friend for giving a helping hand to Nathan in Florine's affair.

"You then and there made two mortal enemies of Lousteau and Nathan," he
said. "I gave you good advice, and you took no notice of it. You gave
praise, you did them a good turn--you will be well punished for your
kindness. Florine and Coralie will never live in peace on the same
stage; both will wish to be first. You can only defend Coralie in our
papers; and Nathan not only has a pull as a dramatic author, he can
control the dramatic criticism in the Liberal newspapers. He has been a
journalist a little longer than you!"

The words responded to Lucien's inward misgivings. Neither Nathan nor
Gaillard was treating him with the frankness which he had a right to
expect, but so new a convert could hardly complain. Gaillard utterly
confounded Lucien by saying roundly that newcomers must give proofs of
their sincerity for some time before their party could trust them. There
was more jealousy than he had imagined in the inner circles of Royalist
and Ministerial journalism. The jealousy of curs fighting for a bone is
apt to appear in the human species when there is a loaf to divide; there
is the same growling and showing of teeth, the same characteristics come
out.

In every possible way these writers of articles tried to injure each
other with those in power; they brought reciprocal accusations of
lukewarm zeal; they invented the most treacherous ways of getting rid
of a rival. There had been none of this internecine warfare among the
Liberals; they were too far from power, too hopelessly out of favor;
and Lu