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Lousteau was grateful, however, and offered to take the necessary steps for the sale of Lucien's Archer of Charles IX. "How came Florine to be in this plight?" asked Lucien. "The Matifat took alarm," said Lousteau. "We have lost him; but if Florine chooses, she can make him pay dear for his treachery. I will tell you all about it."
"What is the matter with you?" asked Etienne Lousteau. "I see poetry fallen into the mire." "Ah! you have still some illusions left, my dear fellow." "Is there nothing for it but to cringe and submit to thickheads like Matifat and Camusot, as actresses bow down to journalists, and we ourselves to the booksellers?"
"We shall be thirteen at table!" exclaimed Matifat, paling visibly. "No, fourteen," said a voice in the doorway, and Florentine appeared. "I have come to look after 'milord Cardot," she added, speaking with a burlesque English accent. "And besides," said Lousteau, "Claude Vignon came with Blondet." "I brought him here to drink," returned Blondet, taking up an inkstand.
He will shake in his shoes lest an anonymous letter should supply his wife with the key to the riddle. The question is whether Florine will consent to appear to persecute Matifat. She has some principles, which is to say, some hopes, still left. Perhaps she means to keep the letters and make something for herself out of them. She is cunning, as befits my pupil.
"We have a hold on men through their pleasures," said Florine, "while a diplomatist only works on their self-love. A diplomatist sees a man made up for the occasion; we know him in his moments of folly, so our power is greater." "And when the thing was settled, Matifat made the first and last joke of his whole druggist's career," put in Lousteau.
When they went back to the others, Florine, Lousteau, Matifat, and Camusot were setting out the card-tables. Lucien's friends began to arrive, for already these folk began to call themselves "Lucien's friends"; and they sat over the cards from nine o'clock till midnight.
Desroches, warmed to the right degree by Rastignac and Nucingen, tried to come to an understanding financially; but at the first hint of shares in the mines for the bride's portion, he broke off and went back to the Matifat's in the Rue du Cherche-Midi, only to find the accursed canal shares which Gigonnet had foisted on Matifat in lieu of cash. "They had not long to wait for the crash.
"And he is quite aware that he is treating the most dangerous men in Paris," added Florine. Matifat was looking uneasily at Lucien; he felt jealous of the young man's good looks. "But here is some one that I do not know," Florine continued, confronting Lucien. "Which of you has imported the Apollo Belvedere from Florence? He is as charming as one of Girodet's figures."
Lousteau was grateful, however, and offered to take the necessary steps for the sale of Lucien's Archer of Charles IX. "How came Florine to be in this plight?" asked Lucien. "The Matifat took alarm," said Lousteau. "We have lost him; but if Florine chooses, she can make him pay dear for his treachery. I will tell you all about it."
"And he is quite aware that he is treating the most dangerous men in Paris," added Florine. Matifat was looking uneasily at Lucien; he felt jealous of the young man's good looks. "But here is some one that I do not know," Florine continued, confronting Lucien. "Which of you has imported the Apollo Belvedere from Florence? He is as charming as one of Girodet's figures."
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