e in the hire of
Madame de Castries' carriage, this money would suffice for his
expenses as far as Rome. There he will require 500 francs, and the
same amount again at Naples; but this money will be gained by the
"Medecin de Campagne," and he will only ask Madame de Balzac for 500
francs--without which he will perhaps, after all, manage--to bring him
back from Naples in March. On September 30th he writes to M. Mame, the
publisher, to tell him about the nearly-finished "Medecin de
Campagne," and still talks of his projected journey; but on October
9th, as a result of Madame de Castries' behaviour towards him, he has
left her at Aix, and is himself at Annecy, and on October 16th he has
travelled on to Geneva. His only explanation for his sudden change of
plan is a vague remark to his mother about the 1,000 francs required
for the journey,[+] and about the difficulty of publishing books while
he is away from France; while on the real reason of his change of plan
he is absolutely silent. Before the end of 1832 he is back in Paris,
and in spite of his success and celebrity is probably passing through
the bitterest months of his life.

[*] "Correspondance," vol. i. p. 202.

[+] "Correspondance," vol. i. p. 220.

CHAPTER VIII

1832 - 1835

Advertisement in the _Quotidienne_--Letters between Balzac and
Madame Hanska--His growing attachment to her--Meeting at
Neufchatel--Return to Paris--Work--"Etudes de Moeurs au XIXieme
Siecle"--"Le Medecin de Campagne"--"Eugenie Grandet"--Meets Madame
Hanska at Vienna--"La Duchesse de Langeais"--Balzac's enormous
power of work--"La Recherche de l'Absolu"--"Le Pere Goriot"
--Vienna--Monetary difficulties--Republishes romantic novels
--Continual debt--Amusements.

Meanwhile, during the tragic drama of the downfall of poor Balzac's
high hopes, Madame Hanska continued to write steadily; but she was
becoming tired of receiving no answer to her letters, and of not even
knowing whether or no they had reached their destination. Therefore
she wrote on November 7th, 1832, to ask Balzac for a little message in
the _Quotidienne_, which she took in regularly, to say that he had
received her letters; and Balzac, in reply, inserted the following
notice in the _Quotidienne_ of December 9th, 1832. "M. de B. has
received the message sent him; he can only to-day give information of
this through a newspaper, and regrets that he