he romance," said Doguereau, heedless of Lucien's surprise. "In
ready money," he added; "and you shall undertake to write two books for
me every year for six years. If the first book is out of print in six
months, I will give you six hundred francs for the others. So, if you
write two books each year, you will be making a hundred francs a month;
you will have a sure income, you will be well off. There are some
authors whom I only pay three hundred francs for a romance; I give two
hundred for translations of English books. Such prices would have been
exorbitant in the old days."

"Sir, we cannot possibly come to an understanding. Give me back my
manuscript, I beg," said Lucien, in a cold chill.

"Here it is," said the old bookseller. "You know nothing of business,
sir. Before an author's first book can appear, a publisher is bound to
sink sixteen hundred francs on the paper and the printing of it. It is
easier to write a romance than to find all that money. I have a hundred
romances in manuscript, and I have not a hundred and sixty thousand
francs in my cash box, alas! I have not made so much in all these twenty
years that I have been a bookseller. So you don't make a fortune by
printing romances, you see. Vidal and Porchon only take them of us on
conditions that grow harder and harder day by day. You have only your
time to lose, while I am obliged to disburse two thousand francs. If we
fail, _habent sua fata libelli_, I lose two thousand francs; while, as
for you, you simply hurl an ode at the thick-headed public. When you
have thought over this that I have the honor of telling you, you
will come back to me.--_You will come back to me_!" he asserted
authoritatively, by way of reply to a scornful gesture made
involuntarily by Lucien. "So far from finding a publisher obliging
enough to risk two thousand francs for an unknown writer, you will not
find a publisher's clerk that will trouble himself to look through your
screed. Now that I have read it I can point out a good many slips in
grammar. You have put _observer_ for _faire observer_ and _malgre que_.
_Malgre_ is a preposition, and requires an object."

Lucien appeared to be humiliated.

"When I see you again, you will have lost a hundred francs," he added.
"I shall only give a hundred crowns."

With that he rose and took his leave. On the threshold he said, "If you
had not something in you, and a future before you; if I did not take an
interest in studious youth,