the
stock of manuscripts, and a special office for reading them, and a
committee to vote on their merits, with numbered counters for those who
attend, and a permanent secretary to draw up the minutes for me. It will
be a kind of local branch of the Academie, and the Academicians will be
better paid in the Wooden Galleries than at the Institut."

"'Tis an idea," said Blondet.

"A bad idea," returned Dauriat. "It is not my business to take stock of
the lucubrations of those among you who take to literature because they
cannot be capitalists, and there is no opening for them as bootmakers,
nor corporals, nor domestic servants, nor officials, nor bailiffs.
Nobody comes here until he has made a name for himself! Make a name for
yourself, and you will find gold in torrents. I have made three
great men in the last two years; and lo and behold three examples of
ingratitude! Here is Nathan talking of six thousand francs for the
second edition of his book, which cost me three thousand francs in
reviews, and has not brought in a thousand yet. I paid a thousand
francs for Blondet's two articles, besides a dinner, which cost me five
hundred----"

"But if all booksellers talked as you do, sir, how could a man publish
his first book at all?" asked Lucien. Blondet had gone down tremendously
in his opinion since he had heard the amount given by Dauriat for the
articles in the _Debats_.

"That is not my affair," said Dauriat, looking daggers at this handsome
young fellow, who was smiling pleasantly at him. "I do not publish books
for amusement, nor risk two thousand francs for the sake of seeing my
money back again. I speculate in literature, and publish forty volumes
of ten thousand copies each, just as Panckouke does and the Baudoins.
With my influence and the articles which I secure, I can push a business
of a hundred thousand crowns, instead of a single volume involving a
couple of thousand francs. It is just as much trouble to bring out a new
name and to induce the public to take up an author and his book, as to
make a success with the _Theatres etrangers_, _Victoires et Conquetes_,
or _Memoires sur la Revolution_, books that bring in a fortune. I am not
here as a stepping-stone to future fame, but to make money, and to find
it for men with distinguished names. The manuscripts for which I give a
hundred thousand francs pay me better than work by an unknown author
who asks six hundred. If I am not exactly a Maecenas, I deserve t