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"Oh, Florine and Matifat the druggist," said Lousteau, "and du Bruel, the author who gave Florine the part in which she is to make her first appearance, a little old fogy named Cardot, and his son-in-law Camusot, and Finot, and " "Does your druggist do things properly?" "He will not give us doctored wine," said Lucien. "You are very witty, monsieur," Blondet returned gravely.
Monsieur Matifat, superb at a review of the National Guard, where his protuberant paunch could be distinguished at fifty paces, and upon which glittered a gold chain and a bunch of trinkets, was under the yoke of this Catherine II. of commerce.
Kings went in fear of him, as stage-players go in fear of a newspaper to-day." "What did you do to the Matifat to make the thousand crowns?" "I attacked Florine in half a dozen papers. Florine complained to Matifat. Matifat went to Braulard to find out what the attacks meant.
Madame Matifat, whom we lately met crowned with a turban for the ball, now wore a gown of blue velvet, with coarse cotton stockings, leather shoes, gloves of chamois-skin with a border of green plush, and a bonnet lined with pink, filled in with white puffs about the face. These ten personages assembled at five o'clock. The old Ragons always requested their guests to be punctual.
Lucien had no idea how lavishly a prosperous merchant will spend money upon an actress or a mistress when he means to enjoy a life of pleasure. Matifat was not nearly so rich a man as his friend Camusot, and he had done his part rather shabbily, yet the sight of the dining-room took Lucien by surprise.
Florine's name will be made; she will perhaps obtain an engagement in another theatre with a salary of twelve thousand francs. In fact, Matifat will save a thousand francs every month in dinners and presents to journalists. You know nothing of men, nor of the way things are managed." "Poor man!" said Lucien, "he is looking forward to an evening's pleasure."
"Isn't she charming?" said Etienne, as they came away. "But but that Matifat, my dear fellow " "Oh! you know nothing of Parisian life, my boy. Some things cannot be helped. Suppose that you fell in love with a married woman, it comes to the same thing. It all depends on the way that you look at it." Etienne and Lucien entered the stage-box, and found the manager there with Finot.
Desroches, and a young Popinot, still in the drug business, who used to bring them news of the Rue des Lombards. Matifat loved the arts; she bought lithographs, chromo-lithographs, and colored prints, all the cheapest things she could lay her hands on.
"Florine's Matifat?" asked Blondet. "Well, yes. Lousteau's Matifat; ours, in fact. The Matifats, even then lost to us, had gone to live in the Rue du Cherche-Midi, as far as may be from the Rue des Lombards, where their money was made. For my own part, I had cultivated those Matifats.
The party of four found two cabs waiting for them at the door in the Rue des Fosses-du-Temple. Coralie drew Lucien to one of the two, in which Camusot and his father-in-law old Cardot were seated already. She offered du Bruel a fifth place, and the manager drove off with Florine, Matifat, and Lousteau. "These hackney cabs are abominable things," said Coralie.
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