“Why, I should advise you, my boy, to come with me to see Felicien Vernou,” said Lousteau, when they sat at table, and Lucien had mentioned Coralie’s projected supper; “ask him to be of the party, and keep well with him, if you can keep well with such a rascal.  Felicien Vernou does a feuilleton for a political paper; he might perhaps introduce you, and you could blossom out into leaders in it at your ease.  It is a Liberal paper, like ours; you will be a Liberal, that is the popular party; and besides, if you mean to go over to the Ministerialists, you would do better for yourself if they had reason to be afraid of you.  Then there is Hector Merlin and his Mme. du Val-Noble; you meet great people at their house—­dukes and dandies and millionaires; didn’t they ask you and Coralie to dine with them?”

“Yes,” replied Lucien; “you are going too, and so is Florine.”  Lucien and Etienne were now on familiar terms after Friday’s debauch and the dinner at the Rocher de Cancale.

“Very well, Merlin is on the paper; we shall come across him pretty often; he is the chap to follow close on Finot’s heels.  You would do well to pay him attention; ask him and Mme. du Val-Noble to supper.  He may be useful to you before long; for rancorous people are always in need of others, and he may do you a good turn if he can reckon on your pen.”

“Your beginning has made enough sensation to smooth your way,” said Florine; “take advantage of it at once, or you will soon be forgotten.”

“The bargain, the great business, is concluded,” Lousteau continued.  “That Finot, without a spark of talent in him, is to be editor of Dauriat’s weekly paper, with a salary of six hundred francs per month, and owner of a sixth share, for which he has not paid one penny.  And I, my dear fellow, am now editor of our little paper.  Everything went off as I expected; Florine managed superbly, she could give points to Tallyrand himself.”

“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.  “He said, ’This affair is quite in my line; I am supplying drugs to the public.’”

“I suspect that Florine put him up to it,” cried Lucien.

“And by these means, my little dear, your foot is in the stirrup,” continued Lousteau.

“You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth,” remarked Florine.  “What lots of young fellows wait for years, wait till they are sick of waiting, for a chance to get an article into a paper!  You will do like Emile Blondet.  In six months’ time you will be giving yourself high and mighty airs,” she added, with a mocking smile, in the language of her class.