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Updated: August 12, 2024
Lousteau, Merlin, and Finot took up the cudgels for the system known by the name of blague; puffery, gossip, and humbug, said they, was the test of talent, and set the hall-mark, as it were, upon it. "Any man who can stand that test has real power," said Lousteau.
Blondet is driving a hearse to his own suicide; Blondet, forsooth! who manufactures newspaper accounts of the last words of all the great men that die without saying anything!" "Come, get on," put in Finot. Well, now, do you not see at what a price Godefroid secured the greatest happiness of a young man's dreams?
"Is my agreement with Lousteau made out in duplicate and ready to sign?" asked Finot, speaking aside. "Yes." "Then ante-date this gentleman's agreement by one day, so that Lousteau will be bound by the previous contract." Finot took his new contributor's arm with a friendliness that charmed Lucien, and drew him out on the landing to say: "Your position is made for you.
"Let not your terrors rise to fever-heat, Our age is lenient with those who cheat. Now, I will tell you about the beginnings of his fortune. In the first place, honor to talent! Our friend is not a 'chap, as Finot describes him, but a gentleman in the English sense, who knows the cards and knows the game; whom, moreover, the gallery respects.
"He began to laugh," returned Finot. "Rastignac is the late lamented de Marsay's direct heir; he will make his way politically as well as socially," commented Blondet. "But how did he make his money?" asked Couture.
"Now that your review has appeared, I shall not seem to be courting power; we can feel at ease. Will you do me the honor and the pleasure of dining with me to-morrow? Finot is coming. Lousteau, old man, you will not refuse me, will you?" added Nathan, shaking Etienne by the hand.
"Don't let any one see that anything has passed between us," said Finot in his ear, and he flung open a door of a room in the roof at the end of a long passage on the fifth floor.
Finot, as high priest, sprinkled a few drops of champagne on Lucien's golden curls, pronouncing with delicious gravity the words "In the name of the Government Stamp, the Caution-money, and the Fine, I baptize thee, Journalist. May thy articles sit lightly on thee!" "And may they be paid for, including white lines!" cried Merlin. Just at that moment Lucien caught sight of three melancholy faces.
Lucien only saw smiles on two faces Finot, who regarded him as a mine to be exploited, and Lousteau, who considered that he had proprietary rights in the poet, looked glad to see him. Lousteau had begun already to assume the airs of an editor; he tapped sharply on the window-panes of Dauriat's private office.
"They are all of them remarkable, my friend; but the sonnet on the Marguerite is delightful, the closing thought is fine, and exquisitely expressed. I felt sure from that sonnet that your prose work would command a success, and I spoke to Finot about you at once. Write articles for us, and we will pay you well for them.
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