during the months of April and May, in an edition of three thousand
copies, they met with no success. Urbain Canel declared that he could
go no further with the venture, the partners withdrew, and Balzac was
left alone to bear the whole burden of the enterprise. His share of the
capital had been furnished him by a certain M. d'Assouvillez, and, in
order to buy out Canel's interest, Mme. de Berny endorsed notes to the
amount of nine thousand, two hundred and five francs, between May 15,
1825, and August 31, 1826. Altogether, the net result of the
transaction was a loss to Balzac of fifteen thousand francs. Being
unable to continue by himself the publication of these two works, he
sold the Lafontaine to Baudouin, who paid for it by transferring to
Balzac a number of uncollectable claims. One of these, amounting to
28,840 francs, was a debt owed by a bookseller in Reims, named Fremeau,
who had failed and who cleared off this obligation by turning over to
Balzac an entire shopful of battered old volumes, out of date and
worthless.

Did this first disastrous experience turn him aside from further
business ventures? Not at all. Balzac was by nature dogged and
persevering. Hope illuminated his calculations; he found the best of
reasons to explain the failure of an edition of classic authors; but he
conjured up still better ones for assailing new enterprises. The
edition of the classics had not been a success,--well, no matter! He
would establish himself as a printer. In the course of his
peregrinations among the printing-houses he had made the acquaintance
of a young foreman named Barbier, in whose welfare he had become
interested and whose special ability he had recognised. He decided to
take him into partnership.

Balzac's father, when asked to help his son to establish himself in