Did the sight of Lucien send a pang of regret through Mme.de Bargeton's heart?This thought was uppermost in the poet's mind.The longing for revenge aroused in him by the sight of the Corinne of Angouleme was as fierce as on that day when the lady and her cousin had cut him in the Champs-Elysees.
"Did you bring an amulet with you from the provinces?"--It was Blondet who made this inquiry some few days later,when he called at eleven o'clock in the morning and found that Lucien was not yet risen.--"His good looks are making ravages from cellar to garret,high and low,"continued Blondet,kissing Coralie on the forehead."I have come to enlist you,dear fellow,"he continued,grasping Lucien by the hand.
"Yesterday,at the Italiens,the Comtesse de Montcornet asked me to bring you to her house.You will not give a refusal to a charming woman?You meet people of the first fashion there.""If Lucien is nice,he will not go to see your Countess,"put in Coralie."What call is there for him to show his face in fine society?
He would only be bored there."
"Have you a vested interest in him?Are you jealous of fine ladies?""Yes,"cried Coralie."They are worse than we are.""How do you know that,my pet?"asked Blondet.
"From their husbands,"retorted she."You are forgetting that I once had six months of de Marsay.""Do you suppose,child,that _I_am particularly anxious to take such a handsome fellow as your poet to Mme.de Montcornet's house?If you object,let us consider that nothing has been said.But I don't fancy that the women are so much in question as a poor devil that Lucien pilloried in his newspaper;he is begging for mercy and peace.The Baron du Chatelet is imbecile enough to take the thing seriously.The Marquise d'Espard,Mme.de Bargeton,and Mme.de Montcornet's set have taken up the Heron's cause;and I have undertaken to reconcile Petrarch and his Laura--Mme.de Bargeton and Lucien.""Aha!"cried Lucien,the glow of the intoxication of revenge throbbing full-pulsed through every vein."Aha!so my foot is on their necks!
You make me adore my pen,worship my friends,bow down to the fate-dispensing power of the press.I have not written a single sentence as yet upon the Heron and the Cuttlefish-bone.--I will go with you,my boy,"he cried,catching Blondet by the waist;"yes,I will go;but first,the couple shall feel the weight of THIS,for so light as it is."He flourished the pen which had written the article upon Nathan.
"To-morrow,"he cried,"I will hurl a couple of columns at their heads.Then,we shall see.Don't be frightened,Coralie,it is not love but revenge;revenge!And I will have it to the full!""What a man it is!"said Blondet."If you but knew,Lucien,how rare such explosions are in this jaded Paris,you might appreciate yourself.You will be a precious scamp"(the actual expression was a trifle stronger);"you are in a fair way to be a power in the land.""He will get on,"said Coralie.
"Well,he has come a good way already in six weeks.""And if he should climb so high that he can reach a sceptre by treading over a corpse,he shall have Coralie's body for a stepping-stone,"said the girl.
"You are a pair of lovers of the Golden Age,"said Blondet.--"Icongratulate you on your big article,"he added,turning to Lucien.
"There were a lot of new things in it.You are past master!"Lousteau called with Hector Merlin and Vernou.Lucien was immensely flattered by this attention.Felicien Vernou brought a hundred francs for Lucien's article;it was felt that such a contributor must be well paid to attach him to the paper.
Coralie,looking round at the chapter of journalists,ordered in a breakfast from the Cadran bleu,the nearest restaurant,and asked her visitors to adjourn to her handsomely furnished dining-room when Berenice announced that the meal was ready.In the middle of the repast,when the champagne had gone to all heads,the motive of the visit came out.
"You do not mean to make an enemy of Nathan,do you?"asked Lousteau.
"Nathan is a journalist,and he has friends;he might play you an ugly trick with your first book.You have your Archer of Charles IX.to sell,have you not?We went round to Nathan this morning;he is in a terrible way.But you will set about another article,and puff praise in his face.""What!After my article against his book,would you have me say----"began Lucien.
The whole party cut him short with a shout of laughter.
"Did you ask him to supper here the day after to-morrow?"asked Blondet.
"You article was not signed,"added Lousteau."Felicien,not being quite such a new hand as you are,was careful to put an initial C at the bottom.You can do that now with all your articles in his paper,which is pure unadulterated Left.We are all of us in the Opposition.
Felicien was tactful enough not to compromise your future opinions.
Hector's shop is Right Centre;you might sign your work on it with an L.If you cut a man up,you do it anonymously;if you praise him,it is just as well to put your name to your article.""It is not the signatures that trouble me,"returned Lucien,"but Icannot see anything to be said in favor of the book.""Then did you really think as you wrote?"asked Hector.
"Yes."
"Oh!I thought you were cleverer than that,youngster,"said Blondet.
"No.Upon my word,as I looked at that forehead of yours,I credited you with the omnipotence of the great mind--the power of seeing both sides of everything.In literature,my boy,every idea is reversible,and no man can take upon himself to decide which is the right or wrong side.Everything is bi-lateral in the domain of thought.Ideas are binary.Janus is a fable signifying criticism and the symbol of Genius.The Almighty alone is triform.What raises Moliere and Corneille above the rest of us but the faculty of saying one thing with an Alceste or an Octave,and another with a Philinte or a Cinna?
Rousseau wrote a letter against dueling in the Nouvelle Heloise,and another in favor of it.Which of the two represented his own opinion?
