de Balzac! Have you any idea what they
amounted to?'
"'There was nothing said about my paying for corrections.'
"'That is true,' replied M. Renon, 'but I ought to tell you that
Alexander Dumas's article, Filles, Lorettes et Courtisanes, also ran to
four pages, yet we have not given him a centime more than we have given
you.'
"Balzac started and turned pale. It is evident that he must have been
in great financial need before he would have come to make such a
request. But he quite forgot this in the face of the words he had just
heard. For, without pressing his claim further, he arose, took his hat
and said, with an accent of solemn dignity:
"'From the moment that you compare me with that negro I have the honour
of wishing you good evening!'
"He went out. And that was how the mere name of Alexandre Dumas saved
the business office of The Great City five hundred francs." (Balzac, by
Eugene de Mirecourt, pp. 80-82.)
In order to hasten his liberation from debt and his settlement with
creditors, Balzac tried to augment the sums which he received from
editors and publishers with the profits from various speculations.
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