king of Alencon, a certain
du Bousquier, a friend of his father. "In six months I shall be better
known than you are!"

It was thus that Fabien interpreted the spirit of his age; he did not
rule it, he obeyed it. He made his debut in Bohemia, a region in the
moral topography of Paris where he was known as "The Heir" by reason
of certain premeditated prodigalities. Du Ronceret had profited by
Couture's follies for the pretty Madame Cadine, for whom, during his
ephemeral opulence, he had arranged a delightful ground-floor apartment
with a garden in the rue Blanche. The Norman, who wanted his luxury
ready-made, bought Couture's furniture and all the improvements he was
forced to leave behind him,--a kiosk in the garden, where he smoked, a
gallery in rustic wood, with India mattings and adorned with potteries,
through which to reach the kiosk if it rained. When the Heir was
complimented on his apartment, he called it his _den_. The provincial
took care not to say that Grindot, the architect, had bestowed his best
capacity upon it, as did Stidmann on the carvings, and Leon de Lora
on the paintings, for Fabien's crowning defect was the vanity which
condescends to lie for the sake of magnifying the individual self.

The Heir complimented these magnificences by a greenhouse which he built
along a wall with a southern exposure,--not that he loved flowers, but
he meant to attack through horticulture the public notice he wanted to
excite. At the present moment he had all but attained his end. Elected
vice-president of some sort of floral society presided over by the Duc
de Vissembourg, brother of the Prince de Chiavari, youngest son of the
late Marechal Vernon, he adorned his coat with the ribbon of the Legion
of honor on the occasion of an exhibition of products, the opening
speech at which, delivered by him, and bought of Lousteau for five
hundred francs, was boldly pronounced to be his own brew. He also
made himself talked about by a flower, given to him by old Blondet
of Alencon, father of Emile Blondet, which he presented to the
horticultural world as the product of his own greenhouse.

But this success was nothing. The Heir, who wished to be accepted as
a wit, had formed a plan of consorting with clever celebrities and so
reflecting their fame,--a plan somewhat hard to execute on a basis of
an exchequer limited to eight thousand francs a year. With this end in
view, Fabien du Ronceret had addressed himself again and again,