irregularity of features, and Raoul resolved to make the most of the situation.  Although turned Republican, he took very readily to the idea of winning a lady of the aristocracy.  The conquest of Madame the Comtesse de Vandenesse would have revenged him for the contempt shown him by Lady Dudley, but, fallen into the hands of usurers, fascinated with Florine, living in pitiable style in a passage between the rue Basse-du-Rempart and the rue Neuve-des-Mathurins, and being often detained on the rue Feydau, in the offices of a paper he had founded, Raoul failed in his scheme in connection with the countess, whom Vandenesse even succeeded in restoring to his own affections, by very skilful play with Florine.  During the first years of Louis Philippe’s reign, Nathan presented a flaming and brilliant drama, the two collaborators in which were Monsieur and Madame Marie Gaston, whose names were indicated on the hand-bills by stars only.  In his younger days he had had a play of his put on at the Odeon, a romantic work after the style of “Pinto,"[*] at a time when the classic was dominant, and the stage had been so greatly stirred up for three days that the play was prohibited.  At another time he presented at the Theatre-Francais a great drama that fell “with all the honors of war, amid the roar of newspaper cannon.”  In the winter of 1837-38, Vanda de Mergi read a new romance of Nathan’s, entitled “La Perle de Dol.”  The memory of his social intrigues still haunted Nathan when he returned so reluctantly to M. de Clagny, who demanded it of him, a printed note, announcing the birth of Melchior de la Baudraye, as follows:  “Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a child; M. Etienne Lousteau has the honor of announcing it to you.”  Nathan sought the society of Madame de la Baudraye, who got from him, in the rue de Chartres-du-Roule, at the home of Beatrix de Rochefide, a certain story, to be arranged as a novel, related more or less after the style of Sainte-Beuve, concerning the Bohemians and their prince, Rusticoli de la Palferine.  Raoul cultivated likewise the society of the Marquise de Rochefide, and, one evening of October, 1840, a proscenium box at the Varietes was the means of bringing together Canalis, Nathan and Beatrix.  Received everywhere, perfectly at home in Marguerite Turquet’s boudoir, Raoul, as a member of a group composed of Bixiou, La Palferine and Maitre Cardot, heard Maitre Desroches tell how Cerizet made use of Antonia Chocardelle, to “get even” with Maxime de Trailles.  Nathan afterwards married his misress, Florine, whose maiden name was really Sophie Grignault. [Lost Illusions.  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.  The Secrets of a Princess.  A Daughter of Eve.  Letters of Two Brides.  The Seamy Side of History.  The Muse of the Department.  A Prince of Bohemia.  A Man of Business, The Unconscious Humorists.]

[*] A drama by Nepomucene Lemercier; according to Labitte, “the first
    work of the renovated stage.”