gress as little as possible in my
recollections, though their very nature made it difficult. In this
instance, digression was absolutely necessary to convey an idea of the
shock which would naturally result from the contact of two such brains
as those of Balzac and Lireux; for it was not long after the young
manager's advent to the Odeon that Balzac found his way to his sanctum.
The play he offered him was "Les Ressources de Quinola." Strange as it
may seem to us, even as late as '42, Balzac's name as a novelist did not
rank first in the list with the general public, still it is very
doubtful whether any young manager would have refused a stage play by
him; consequently, Lireux accepted "Les Ressources de Quinola" almost
without fear. It is not to the purpose to say that it was a bad play,
and that he ought to have known better; it has been amply proved by now
that the most experienced manager is not infallible; but it is a moot
point whether the greatest masterpiece would have succeeded with the
tactics adopted by Balzac to insure its success. The following may
appear like a scene from a farcical comedy; I can vouch for the truth of
every word of it, because I had it from the lips of Lireux himself, who,
after all, was the heaviest sufferer by Balzac's incurable greed, or, to
put it as leniently as one can, by his constant chase after a capital
stroke of business. His resolve to pack the house on the first night was
not due to a desire to secure a favourable reception from a friendly
audience, but to the determination to secure "a lump sum," let come what
might. In Balzac are found the two contradictory traits of the
money-grubber and the spendthrift.

The scene alluded to just now, took place when the rehearsals were far
advanced; the author and the manager were discussing the invitations to
be sent out, etc. All at once Balzac declared that he would have none
but Knights of the Order of Saint-Louis in the pit. "I am agreeable,"
replied Lireux, "provided you ferret them out."[22]

[Footnote 22: It shows that Lireux was not very familiar with
the royal edicts affecting that order, and that Balzac himself
exaggerated the social and monetary importance of its wearers.
For, though Louis-Philippe at his accession suppressed the
order, not less than twelve thousand new knights had been
created by his two immediate predecessors. They, the recently
created knight