"From my uncle," replied Raoul.
Florine knew Raoul's "uncle." The word meant usury, as in popular

parlance "aunt" means pawn.
"Don't worry yourself, my little darling," said Blondet to Florine,

tapping her shoulder. "I'll get him the assistance of Massol, a lawyer
who wants to be deputy; also Finot, who has never yet got beyond his

'petit-journal,' and Pantin, who wants to be master of petitions, and
who dabbles in reviews. Yes, I'll save him from himself; we'll convoke

here to supper Etienne Lousteau, who can do the feuilleton; Claude
Vignon for criticisms; Felicien Vernou as general care-taker; the

lawyer will work, and du Tillet may take charge of the Bourse, the
money article, and all industrial questions. We'll see where these

various talents and slaves united will land the enterprise."
"In a hospital or a ministry,--where all men ruined in body or mind

are apt to go," said Raoul, laughing.
"Where and when shall we invite them?"

"Here, five days hence."
"Tell me the sum you want," said Florine, simply.

"Well, the lawyer, du Tillet, and Raoul will each have to put up a
hundred thousand francs before they embark on the affair," replied

Blondet. "Then the paper can run eighteen months; about long enough
for a rise and fall in Paris."

Florine gave a little grimace of approval. The two friends jumped into
a cabriolet to go about collecting guests and pens, ideas and self-

interests.
Florine meantime sent for certain dealers in old furniture, bric-a-

brac, pictures, and jewels. These men entered her sanctuary and took
an inventory of every article, precisely as if Florine were dead. She

declared she would sell everything at public auction if they did not
offer her a proper price. She had had the luck to please, she said, an

English lord, and she wanted to get rid of all her property and look
poor, so that he might give her a fine house and furniture, fit to

rival the Rothschilds. But in spite of these persuasions and
subterfuges, all the dealers would offer her for a mass of belongings

worth a hundred and fifty thousand was seventy thousand. Florine
thereupon offered to deliver over everything in eight days for eighty

thousand,--"To take or leave," she said,--and the bargain was
concluded. After the men had departed she skipped for joy, like the

hills of King David, and performed all manner of follies, not having
thought herself so rich.

When Raoul came back she made him a little scene, pretending to be
hurt; she declared that he abandoned her; that she had reflected; men

did not pass from one party to another, from the stage to the Chamber,
without some reason; there was a woman at the bottom; she had a rival!

In short, she made him swear eternalfidelity. Five days later she
gave a splendid feast. The new journal was baptized in floods of wine

and wit, with oaths of loyalty, fidelity, and good-fellowship. The
name, forgotten now like those of the Liberal, Communal, Departmental,

Garde National, Federal, Impartial, was something in "al" that was
equally imposing and evanescent. At three in the morning Florine could

undress and go to bed as if alone, though no one had left the house;
these lights of the epoch were sleeping the sleep of brutes. And when,

early in the morning, the packers and vans arrived to remove Florine's
treasures she laughed to see the porters moving the bodies of the

celebrated men like pieces of furniture that lay in their way. "Sic
transit" all her fine things! all her presents and souvenirs went to

the shops of the various dealers, where no one on seeing them would
know how those flowers of luxury had been originally paid for. It was

agreed that a few little necessary articles should be left, for
Florine's personal convenience until evening,--her bed, a table, a few

chairs, and china enough to give her guests their breakfast.
Having gone to sleep beneath the draperies of wealth and luxury, these

distinguished men awoke to find themselves within bare walls, full of
nail-holes, degraded into abject poverty.

"Why, Florine!--The poor girl has been seized for debt!" cried Bixiou,
who was one of the guests. "Quick! a subscription for her!"

On this they all roused up. Every pocket was emptied and produced a
total of thirty-seven francs, which Raoul carried in jest to Florine's

bedside. She burst out laughing and lifted her pillow, beneath which
lay a mass of bank-notes to which she pointed.

Raoul called to Blondet.
"Ah! I see!" cried Blondet. "The little cheat has sold herself out

without a word to us. Well done, you little angel!"
Thereupon, the actress was borne in triumph into the dining-room where

most of the party still remained. The lawyer and du Tillet had
departed.

That evening Florine had an ovation at the theatre; the story of her
sacrifice had circulated among the audience.

"I'd rather be applauded for my talent," said her rival in the green-
room.

"A natural desire in an actress who has never been applauded at all,"
remarked Florine.

During the evening Florine's maid installed her in Raoul's apartment
in the Passage Sandrie. Raoul himself was to encamp in the house where

the office of the new journal was established.
Such was the rival of the innocent Madame de Vandenesse. Raoul was the

connecting link between the actress and the countess,--a knot severed
by a duchess in the days of Louis XV. by the poisoning of Adrienne

Lecouvreur; a not inconceivable vengeance, considering the offence.
Florine, however, was not in the way of Raoul's dawning passion. She

foresaw the lack of money in the difficult enterprise he had
undertaken, and she asked for leave of absence from the theatre. Raoul

conducted the negotiation in a way to make himself more than ever
valuable to her. With the good sense of the peasant in La Fontaine's

fable, who makes sure of a dinner while the patricians talk, the
actress went into the provinces to cut faggots for her celebrated man

while he was employed in hunting power.
CHAPTER VI

ROMANTIC LOVE
On the morrow of the ball given by Lady Dudley, Marie, without having

received the slightest declaration, believed that she was loved by
Raoul according to the programme of her dreams, and Raoul was aware

that the countess had chosen him for her lover. Though neither had
reached the incline of such emotions where preliminaries are abridged,

both were on the road to it. Raoul, wearied with the dissipations of
life, longed for an ideal world, while Marie, from whom the thought of

wrong-doing was far, indeed, never imagined the possibility of going
out of such a world. No love was ever more innocent or purer than

theirs; but none was ever more enthusiastic or more entrancing in
thought.

The countess was captivated by ideas worthy of the days of chivalry,
though completely modernized. The glowing conversation of the poet had

more echo in her mind than in her heart. She thought it fine to be his
providence. How sweet the thought of supporting by her white and

feeble hand this colossus,--whose feet of clay she did not choose to
see; of giving life where life was needed; of being secretly the

creator of a career; of helping a man of genius to struggle with fate
and master it. Ah! to embroider his scarf for the tournament! to

procure him weapons! to be his talisman against ill-fortune! his balm
for every wound! For a woman brought up like Marie, religious and

noble as she was, such a love was a form of charity. Hence the
boldness of it. Pure sentiments often compromise themselves with a

lofty disdain that resembles the boldness of courtesans.
As soon as by her specious distinctions Marie had convinced herself

that she did not in any way impair her conjugal faith, she rushed into
the happiness of loving Raoul. The least little things of her daily

life acquired a charm. Her boudoir, where she thought of him, became a
sanctuary. There was nothing there that did not rouse some sense of

pleasure; even her ink-stand was the coming accomplice in the
pleasures of correspondence; for she would now have letters to read

and answer. Dress, that splendid poesy of the feminine life, unknown
or exhausted by her, appeared to her eyes endowed with a magic

hitherto unperceived. It suddenly became clear to her what it is to
most women, the manifestation of an inward thought, a language, a