Explore "Bel-Ami (a Ladies' Man)" by Guy de Maupassant on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Charles's absence gave Duroy increased importance in the editorial department of the _Vie Francaise_. He signed several leaders besides his "Echoes," for the governor insisted on everyone assuming the responsibility of his "copy. " He became engaged in several newspaper controversies, in which he acquitted himself creditably, and his constant relations with different statesmen were gradually preparing him to become in his turn a clever and perspicuous political editor. There was only one cloud on his horizon. It came from a little free-lance newspaper, which continually assailed him, or rather in him assailed the chief writer of "Echoes" in the _Vie Francaise_, the chief of "Monsieur Walter's startlers," as it was put by the anonymous writer of the _Plume_. Day by day cutting paragraphs, insinuations of every kind, appeared in it.
One day Jacques Rival said to Duroy: "You are very patient."