wn.

Monsieur Savaron did not commit the blunder of putting his name in
front; he left the finance of the concern to his chief client, Monsieur
Boucher, connected by marriage with one of the great publishers of
important ecclesiastical works; but he kept the editorship, with a share
of the profits as founder. The commercial interest appealed to Dole,
to Dijon, to Salins, to Neufchatel, to the Jura, Bourg, Nantua,
Lous-le-Saulnier. The concurrence was invited of the learning and energy
of every scientific student in the districts of le Bugey, la Bresse,
and Franche Comte. By the influence of commercial interests and common
feeling, five hundred subscribers were booked in consideration of the
low price; the _Review_ cost eight francs a quarter.

To avoid hurting the conceit of the provincials by refusing their
articles, the lawyer hit on the good idea of suggesting a desire for the
literary management of this _Review_ to Monsieur Boucher's eldest son, a
young man of two-and-twenty, very eager for fame, to whom the snares and
woes of literary responsibilities were utterly unknown. Albert quietly
kept the upper hand and made Alfred Boucher his devoted adherent.
Alfred was the only man in Besancon with whom the king of the bar was on
familiar terms. Alfred came in the morning to discuss the articles for
the next number with Albert in the garden. It is needless to say that
the trial number contained a "Meditation" by Alfred, which Savaron
approved. In his conversations with Alfred, Albert would let drop some
great ideas, subjects for articles of which Alfred availed himself. And
thus the merchant's son fancied he was making capital out of the great
man. To Alfred, Albert was a man of genius, of profound politics. The
commercial world, enchanted at the success of the _Review_, had to pay
up only three-tenths of their shares. Two hundred more subscribers, and
the periodical would pay a dividend to the share-holders of five per
cent, the editor remaining unpaid. This editing, indeed, was beyond
price.

After the third number the _Review_ was recognized for exchange by all
the papers published in France, which Albert henceforth read at home.
This third number included a tale signed "A. S.," and attributed to the
famous lawyer. In spite of the small attention paid by the higher circle
of Besancon to the _Review_ which was accused of Liberal views, this,
the first novel produced in the county, came under discussion that
mid-wint