A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honoré de Balzac
page 65 of 450 (14%)
page 65 of 450 (14%)
|
so great at Angouleme, so insignificant of late in Paris, slipped past
the other houses, summoned up all his courage, and at last entered the shop thronged with assistants, customers, and booksellers--"And authors too, perhaps!" thought Lucien. "I want to speak with M. Vidal or M. Porchon," he said, addressing a shopman. He had read the names on the sign-board--VIDAL & PORCHON (it ran), _French and foreign booksellers' agents_. "Both gentlemen are engaged," said the man. "I will wait." Left to himself, the poet scrutinized the packages, and amused himself for a couple of hours by scanning the titles of books, looking into them, and reading a page or two here and there. At last, as he stood leaning against a window, he heard voices, and suspecting that the green curtains hid either Vidal or Porchon, he listened to the conversation. "Will you take five hundred copies of me? If you will, I will let you have them at five francs, and give fourteen to the dozen." "What does that bring them in at?" "Sixteen sous less." "Four francs four sous?" said Vidal or Porchon, whichever it was. "Yes," said the vendor. |
|