At this moment the curtain rose, the actors appeared, and the great comedy of “Mercadet” was revealed, amid the applause and delight of the crowd.
I had been dreaming, therefore, and if I had been dreaming I must have been asleep. But what had provoked my somnolence? Was it the approach of a storm, the heat of the theatre, or the vaudeville with which the performance commenced?
Perhaps all three.
| [18] | Balzac Chez Lui. Léon Gozlan. |
| [19] | Le Figaro, 20 October, 1876. |
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHASE FOR GOLD.
“Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiæ est.”—Seneca, De Tranquillitate Animi, c. 15.
From Balzac’s early manhood his entire existence was consumed in a feverish pursuit of wealth; and had the mines of California been discovered at an earlier date, there is little doubt that he would have exchanged his pen for a pick, and sought, in a red shirt, to realize the millions with which he dowered his characters.