But in the very midst of all his successes, Nathan was roused to some uneasiness by a bad quarter of an hour which he spent over his business accounts two months after the departure of the Countess. Du Tillet had advanced a hundred thousand francs. The money given by Florine, the third part of his original capital, had gone in government dues and in the expenses of starting the paper, which were enormous. The future had to be provided for. The banker assisted him by accepting bills for fifty thousand francs at four months, and thereby fastened a halter round the author’s neck. Thanks to this subvention, the paper was in funds again for six months. In the eyes of many literary men, six months is an eternity. Further, by dint of puffs and by sending round canvassers, who offered illusory advantages to subscribers, they managed to raise the circulation by two thousand. This semi-triumph was an incentive to cast his latest borrowings into the melting-pot. One more effort of his wits, and a political lawsuit or a sham persecution might give Raoul a place among those modern Condottieri, whose ink has today taken the place of gunpowder.
Unfortunately, these steps were already taken when Florine returned with about fifty thousand francs. Instead of setting this aside as a reserve, Raouly confident of a success which was his only safety, humiliated at the thought of having once before accepted money from the actress, feeling that his love had raised him to a higher plane, and dazzled by the specious plaudits of his flatterers, deceived Florine as to his situation, and obliged her to spend the money in setting up house again. Under present circumstances, a smart and dashing style was, he assured her, essential. The actress, who needed no spurring, got into debt for thirty thousand francs. Instead of a flat, Florine took a charming house in the Rue Pigalle, where her old friends came about her again. The house of a woman in Florine’s position supplied a neutral ground, most convenient for pushing politicians, who, following the example of Louis XIV with the Dutch, entertained at Raoul’s house in Raoul’s absence.
Nathan had reserved for the return of the actress a play, the chief part in which suited her admirably. This vaudeville-drama was intended as Raoul’s farewell to the theatre. The newspapers, by an attention to Raoul which cost them nothing, planned beforehand such an ovation to Florine that the Comédie-Française began to speak of engaging her. Critics pointed to her as the direct successor of Mlle. Mars. This triumph threw the actress so far off her balance as to prevent her examining carefully the state of Nathan’s affairs; her life was a whirl of banquets and revelry. Queen in a world of bustling suitors, each with something to push—a book, a play, a ballet-girl, a theatre, a company, or an advertisement—she reveled in the delights of this press influence, which she pictured as the dawn of ministerial patronage. In the mouths of those who frequented her house, Nathan was a politician of high standing. His scheme would succeed, he would be elected to the Chamber, and beyond doubt have a turn at office, like so many others. Actresses are rarely slow to believe what flatters their hopes. How could Florine, lauded in the notices, mistrust the paper or its contributors? She was too ignorant of the mechanism of the press to be uneasy about its resources, and women of her stamp look only to results.
As for Nathan, he no longer doubted that in the course of the next session he would come to the front, along with two former journalists, one of whom, already in office, was anxious to strengthen his position by turning out his colleagues. After six months of absence, Nathan was glad to see Florine again, and lazily fell back into his old habits. The coarse web of his life was covertly embroidered by him with the loveliest flowers of his ideal passion and with the pleasures scattered by Florine. His letters to Marie were masterpieces of love, elegance, and style. He made of her the guiding-star of his life; he undertook nothing without consulting his good genius. Miserable at being on the popular side, he was tempted at times to join the aristocrats; but, with all his skill in turning his back on himself, it seemed impossible to make the leap from left to right; it was easier to get office.
Marie’s precious letters were kept in a portfolio with secret springs, an invention either of Huret or Fichet, the two mechanists who carry on a war of emulation in the newspaper columns and on the walls of Paris as to the comparative efficacy and unobtrusiveness of their locks. The portfolio lay in Florine’s new boudoir, where Raoul worked. No one is more easily deceived than the woman who is used to frankness; she has no suspicions, because she believes herself to know and see all that goes on. Moreover, since her return the actress took her part in Nathan’s daily life, which appeared to go on just as usual. It never would have occurred to her that this writing-case, which she had barely noticed, and which Raoul made no mystery about locking, contained love tokens in the shape of
