第96章

No sign of the times more plainly discovered the helotism to which the Restoration had condemned the young manhood of the epoch.The younger men,being at a loss to know what to do with themselves,were compelled to find other outlets for their superabundant energy besides journalism,or conspiracy,or art,or letters.They squandered their strength in the wildest excesses,such sap and luxuriant power was there in young France.The hard workers among these gilded youths wanted power and pleasure;the artists wished for money;the idle sought to stimulate their appetites or wished for excitement;one and all of them wanted a place,and one and all were shut out from politics and public life.Nearly all the "free-livers"were men of unusual mental powers;some held out against the enervating life,others were ruined by it.The most celebrated and the cleverest among them was Eugene Rastignac,who entered,with de Marsay's help,upon a political career,in which he has since distinguished himself.The practical jokes,in which the set indulged became so famous,that not a few vaudevilles have been founded upon them.

Blondet introduced Lucien to this society of prodigals,of which he became a brilliant ornament,ranking next to Bixiou,one of the most mischievous and untiring scoffing wits of his time.All through that winter Lucien's life was one long fit of intoxication,with intervals of easy work.He continued his series of sketches of contemporary life,and very occasionally made great efforts to write a few pages of serious criticism,on which he brought his utmost power of thought to bear.But study was the exception,not the rule,and only undertaken at the bidding of necessity;dinners and breakfasts,parties of pleasure and play,took up most of his time,and Coralie absorbed all that was left.He would not think of the morrow.He saw besides that his so-called friends were leading the same life,earning money easily by writing publishers'prospectuses and articles paid for by speculators;all of them lived beyond their incomes,none of them thought seriously of the future.

Lucien had been admitted into the ranks of journalism and of literature on terms of equality;he foresaw immense difficulties in the way if he should try to rise above the rest.Every one was willing to look upon him as an equal;no one would have him for a superior.

Unconsciously he gave up the idea of winning fame in literature,for it seemed easier to gain success in politics.

"Intrigue raises less opposition than talent,"du Chatelet had said one day (for Lucien and the Baron had made up their quarrel);"a plot below the surface rouses no one's attention.Intrigue,moreover,is superior to talent,for it makes something out of nothing;while,for the most part,the immense resources of talent only injure a man."So Lucien never lost sight of his principal idea;and though to-morrow,following close upon the heels of to-day in the midst of an orgy,never found the promised work accomplished,Lucien was assiduous in society.He paid court to Mme.de Bargeton,the Marquise d'Espard,and the Comtesse de Montcornet;he never missed a single party given by Mlle.des Touches,appearing in society after a dinner given by authors or publishers,and leaving the salons for a supper given in consequence of a bet.The demands of conversation and the excitement of play absorbed all the ideas and energy left by excess.The poet had lost the lucidity of judgment and coolness of head which must be preserved if a man is to see all that is going on around him,and never to lose the exquisite tact which the parvenue needs at every moment.How should he know how many a time Mme.de Bargeton left him with wounded susceptibilities,how often she forgave him or added one more condemnation to the rest?

Chatelet saw that his rival had still a chance left,so he became Lucien's friend.He encouraged the poet in dissipation that wasted his energies.Rastignac,jealous of his fellow-countryman,and thinking,besides,that Chatelet would be a surer and more useful ally than Lucien,had taken up the Baron's cause.So,some few days after the meeting of the Petrarch and Laura of Angouleme,Rastignac brought about the reconciliation between the poet and the elderly beau at a sumptuous supper given at the Rocher de Cancale.Lucien never returned home till morning,and rose in the middle of the day;Coralie was always at his side,he could not forego a single pleasure.Sometimes he saw his real position,and made good resolutions,but they came to nothing in his idle,easy life;and the mainspring of will grew slack,and only responded to the heaviest pressure of necessity.

Coralie had been glad that Lucien should amuse himself;she had encouraged him in this reckless expenditure,because she thought that the cravings which she fostered would bind her lover to her.But tender-hearted and loving as she was,she found courage to advise Lucien not to forget his work,and once or twice was obliged to remind him that he had earned very little during the month.Their debts were growing frightfully fast.The fifteen hundred francs which remained from the purchase-money of the Marguerites had been swallowed up at once,together with Lucien's first five hundred livres.In three months he had only made a thousand francs,yet he felt as though he had been working tremendously hard.But by this time Lucien had adopted the "free-livers"pleasant theory of debts.