Page:The Library (Lang).djvu/17

 Rh in collecting their wares, and sell what is discovered, too late, to be imperfect. As to buying bargains, valuable books at a low price, a question of casuistry arises. M. Paul Lacroix once bought an original "Tartufe," with the king's arms, for a couple of francs. He gave it on the same day to a famous French collector, and on the same day the bookseller found out his mistake. The collector declined to return the volume, or to pay the usual price, and this conduct we must blame. But, on one occasion, a lady bookseller having sold me three original volumes of Alfred de Musset for a shilling a piece, she declined to accept a higher ransom, alleging that it was well for customers to have a bargain now and then. Every buyer must consult his own conscience: I think he will usually find the bookseller content with his normal profit. In ignorance some booksellers ask absurdly high prices, just as others ask prices absurdly, low.

The taste for large paper copies of new books has greatly increased since the "Library" was written. It does not become an author to complain whose own modest gains are increased by this fashion. But it seems clear enough that the fashion, and that other fashion of buying the first editions of