第39章

"This is my kennel;I appear in state in the Rue de Bondy,in the new apartments which our druggist has taken for Florine;we hold the house-warming this evening."Etienne Lousteau wore black trousers and beautifully-varnished boots;his coat was buttoned up to his chin;he probably meant to change his linen at Florine's house,for his shirt collar was hidden by a velvet stock.He was trying to renovate his hat by an application of the brush.

"Let us go,"said Lucien.

"Not yet.I am waiting for a bookseller to bring me some money;I have not a farthing;there will be play,perhaps,and in any case I must have gloves."As he spoke,the two new friends heard a man's step in the passage outside.

"There he is,"said Lousteau."Now you will see,my dear fellow,the shape that Providence takes when he manifests himself to poets.You are going to behold Dauriat,the fashionable bookseller of the Quai des Augustins,the pawnbroker,the marine store dealer of the trade,the Norman ex-greengrocer.--Come along,old Tartar!"shouted Lousteau.

"Here am I,"said a voice like a cracked bell.

"Brought the money with you?"

"Money?There is no money now in the trade,"retorted the other,a young man who eyed Lucien curiously.

"Imprimis,you owe me fifty francs,"Lousteau continued.

"There are two copies of Travels in Egypt here,a marvel,so they say,swarming with woodcuts,sure to sell.Finot has been paid for two reviews that I am to write for him.ITEM two works,just out,by Victor Ducange,a novelist highly thought of in the Marais.ITEM a couple of copies of a second work by Paul de Kock,a beginner in the same style.ITEM two copies of Yseult of Dole,a charming provincial work.Total,one hundred francs,my little Barbet."Barbet made a close survey of edges and binding.

"Oh!they are in perfect condition,"cried Lousteau."The Travels are uncut,so is the Paul de Kock,so is the Ducange,so is that other thing on the chimney-piece,Considerations on Symbolism.I will throw that in;myths weary me to that degree that I will let you have the thing to spare myself the sight of the swarms of mites coming out of it.""But,"asked Lucien,"how are you going to write your reviews?"Barbet,in profound astonishment,stared at Lucien;then he looked at Etienne and chuckled.

"One can see that the gentleman has not the misfortune to be a literary man,"said he.

"No,Barbet--no.He is a poet,a great poet;he is going to cut out Canalis,and Beranger,and Delavigne.He will go a long way if he does not throw himself into the river,and even so he will get as far as the drag-nets at Saint-Cloud.""If I had any advice to give the gentleman,"remarked Barbet,"it would be to give up poetry and take to prose.Poetry is not wanted on the Quais just now."Barbet's shabby overcoat was fastened by a single button;his collar was greasy;he kept his hat on his head as he spoke;he wore low shoes,an open waistcoat gave glimpses of a homely shirt of coarse linen.Good-nature was not wanting in the round countenance,with its two slits of covetous eyes;but there was likewise the vague uneasiness habitual to those who have money to spend and hear constant applications for it.Yet,to all appearance,he was plain-dealing and easy-natured,his business shrewdness was so well wadded round with fat.He had been an assistant until he took a wretched little shop on the Quai des Augustins two years since,and issued thence on his rounds among journalists,authors,and printers,buying up free copies cheaply,making in such ways some ten or twenty francs daily.Now,he had money saved;he knew instinctively where every man was pressed;he had a keen eye for business.If an author was in difficulties,he would discount a bill given by a publisher at fifteen or twenty per cent;then the next day he would go to the publisher,haggle over the price of some work in demand,and pay him with his own bills instead of cash.Barbet was something of a scholar;he had had just enough education to make him careful to steer clear of modern poetry and modern romances.He had a liking for small speculations,for books of a popular kind which might be bought outright for a thousand francs and exploited at pleasure,such as the Child's History of France,Book-keeping in Twenty Lessons,and Botany for Young Ladies.Two or three times already he had allowed a good book to slip through his fingers;the authors had come and gone a score of times while he hesitated,and could not make up his mind to buy the manu.When reproached for his pusillanimity,he was wont to produce the account of a notorious trial taken from the newspapers;it cost him nothing,and had brought him in two or three thousand francs.

Barbet was the type of bookseller that goes in fear and trembling;lives on bread and walnuts;rarely puts his name to a bill;filches little profits on invoices;makes deductions,and hawks his books about himself;heaven only knows where they go,but he sells them somehow,and gets paid for them.Barbet was the terror of printers,who could not tell what to make of him;he paid cash and took off the discount;he nibbled at their invoices whenever he though they were pressed for money;and when he had fleeced a man once,he never went back to him--he feared to be caught in his turn.