ch pleasure that he never followed up the clue.

On January Fifth, Eighteen Hundred Forty-two, Balzac received from
Madame Hanska an envelope lined with ominous black: a mourning-envelope.
He seized it with joy--placed it to his lips and then pressed it to his
heart. Monsieur Hanska was dead--dead--very dead--he had vacated the
preserve--gone--flown--departed, dead!

Balzac sat down and wrote a sham letter of condolence to the bereaved
widow, and asked permission to go at once and console her. Had it been
De Berney he would have gone, but with Madame Hanska he had first to
obtain permission.

So he waited for her reply.

Her answer was strangely cold: Madame was in sore distress--children
sick, peasants dissatisfied, business complications and so forth.

Balzac had always supposed that Monsieur Hanska was the one impediment
that stood in the way of the full, complete and divine mating. Probably
Madame thought so, too, until the time arrived, and then she discovered
that she had gotten used to having her lover at a distance. She was thus
able to manage him. But to live with him all the time--ye gods, was it
possible!

The Madame had so long managed her marital craft in storm and stress,
holding the bark steadily in the eye of the wind, that now the calm had
come she did not know what to do, and Balzac in his gay-painted galley
could not even paddle alongside.

She begged for time to settle her affairs. In three months they met in
Switzerland. Madame was in deep mourning, and Balzac, not to be outdone,
had an absurdly large and very black band on his hat. With Madame was
her daughter, a fine young woman of twenty, whom the mother always now
kept close to her, for prudential reasons. The daughter must have been
pretty good quality, for she called Balzac, "My Fat Papa," and Balzac
threatens Madame that he will run away with the daughter if the marriage
is not arranged, and quickly too.

But Madame will not wed--not yet--she is afraid that marriage will
dissolve her beautiful dream. In the meantime, she advances Balzac a
large amount of money, several hundred thousand francs, to show her
sincerity, and the money Balzac is to use in furnishing a house in
Paris, where they will live as soon as they are married.

Balzac buys a snug little house and furnishes it with costly carved
furniture, bronzes, rugs and old masters.

He waits patiently, or not, according to his mood, amid his beautiful
treasures. And still Mada