ris like gossamer through the atmosphere, without our
knowing where they go nor whence they came; to-day queens, to-morrow
slaves. She also knew the actresses, her rivals, and all the
prima-donnas; in short, that whole exceptional feminine society, so
kindly, so graceful in its easy "sans-souci," which absorbs into its own
Bohemian life all who allow themselves to be caught in the frantic
whirl of its gay spirits, its eager abandonment, and its contemptuous
indifference to the future.

Though this Bohemian life displayed itself in her house in tumultuous
disorder, amid the laughter of artists of every description, the queen
of the revels had ten fingers on which she knew better how to count than
any of her guests. In that house secret saturnalias of literature and
art, politics and finance were carried on; there, desire reigned a
sovereign; there, caprice and fancy were as sacred as honor and virtue
to a bourgeoise; thither came Blondet, Finot, Etienne Lousteau, Vernou
the feuilletonist, Couture, Bixiou, Rastignac in his earlier days,
Claude Vignon the critic, Nucingen the banker, du Tillet, Conti the
composer,--in short, that whole devil-may-care legion of selfish
materialists of all kinds; friends of Florine and of the singers,
actresses and "danseuses" collected about her. They all hated or liked
one another according to circumstances.

This Bohemian resort, to which celebrity was the only ticket of
admission, was a Hades of the mind, the galleys of the intellect. No
one could enter there without having legally conquered fortune, done
ten years of misery, strangled two or three passions, acquired some
celebrity, either by books or waistcoats, by dramas or fine equipages;
plots were hatched there, means of making fortune scrutinized, all
things were discussed and weighed. But every man, on leaving it, resumed
the livery of his own opinions; there he could, without compromising
himself, criticise his own party, admit the knowledge and good play of
his adversaries, formulate thoughts that no one admits thinking,--in
short, say all, as if ready to do all. Paris is the only place in the
world where such eclectic houses exist; where all tastes, all vices,
all opinions are received under decent guise. Therefore it is not yet
certain that Florine will remain to the end of her career a second-class
actress.

Florine's life was by no means an idle one, or a life to be envied. Many
persons, misled by the magnificent pedestal