happened just at that time to have come to an exceedingly
promising understanding with the management of the Theatre de la
Renaissance. I thus seemed to have obtained a footing, and I
thought it safe to assert, that if I were guaranteed the means of
livelihood for six months, I could not fail within that period to
accomplish something. Laube promised to make this provision, and
kept his word. He induced one of his wealthy friends in Leipzig,
and, following this example, my well-to-do relations, to provide
me for six months with the necessary resources, to be paid in
monthly instalments through Avenarius.

We therefore decided, as I have said, to leave our furnished
apartments and take a flat for ourselves in the Rue du Helder. My
prudent, careful wife had suffered greatly on account of the
careless and uncertain manner in which I had hitherto
controlled our meagre resources, and in now undertaking the
responsibility, she explained that she understood how to keep
house more cheaply than we could do by living in furnished rooms
and restaurants. Success justified the step; the serious part of
the question lay in the fact that we had to start housekeeping
without any furniture of our own, and everything necessary for
domestic purposes had to be procured, though we had not the
wherewithal to get it. In this matter Lehrs, who was well versed
in the peculiarities of Parisian life, was able to advise us. In
his opinion the only compensation for the experiences we had
undergone hitherto would be a success equivalent to my daring. As
I did not possess the resources to allow of long years of patient
waiting for success in Paris, I must either count on
extraordinary luck or renounce all my hopes forthwith. The
longed-for success must come within a year, or I should be