He nowhere plays a very great part; but it is everywhere a rather
favorable and, except in this little mishap with Margaritis (which, it
must be observed, does not turn entirely to his discomfiture), a
rather successful part. We have him in _Cesar Birotteau_
superintending the early efforts of Popinot to launch the Huile
Cephalique. He was present at the great ball. He served as
intermediary to M. de Bauvan in the merciful scheme of buying at fancy
prices the handiwork of the Count's faithful spouse, and so providing
her with a livelihood; and later as a theatrical manager, a little
spoilt by his profession, we find him in _Le Cousin Pons_. But he is
always what the French called "a good devil," and here he is a very
good devil indeed.

Although _La Muse du Departement_ is an important work, it cannot be
spoken of in quite unhesitating terms. It contains, indeed, in the
personage of Lousteau, one of the very most elaborate of Balzac's
portraits of a particular type of men of letters. The original is said
to have been Jules Janin, who is somewhat disadvantageously contrasted
here and elsewhere with Claude Vignon, said on the same rather vague
authority to be Gustave Planche. Both Janin and Planche are now too
much forgotten, but in both more or less (and in Lousteau very much
"more") Balzac cannot be said to have dealt mildly with his _bete
noire_, the critical temperament. Lousteau, indeed, though not
precisely a scoundrel, is both a rascal and a cad. Even Balzac seems a
little shocked at his _lettre de faire part_ in reference to his
mistress' child; and it is seldom possible to discern in any of his
proceedings the most remote approximation to the conduct of a
gentleman. But then, as we have seen, and shall see, Balzac's standard
for the conduct of his actual gentlemen was by no means fantastically
exquisite or discouragingly high, and in the case of his Bohemians it