ater on,
when her wrath had abated, Madame de Balzac announced that she had
written partly in jest. Balzac had at last been allowed to write to
St. Petersburg, to beg the Czar's permission for his marriage with
Madame Hanska, and this had been very decidedly refused. Madame Hanska
was not at this time prepared to hand over her capital to her
daughter, and thus to take the only step, which would have induced her
Sovereign to authorise her to leave his dominions. She therefore
talked of breaking off the engagement, and of sending Balzac to Paris,
to sell everything in the Rue Fortunee. She was tired of struggling;
and in Russia she was rich, honoured, and comfortable, whereas she
trembled to think of the troublous life which awaited her as Madame
Honore de Balzac. Madame de Balzac's letter further strengthened her
resolve. Apparently, in addition to evidence about family dissensions,
it contained disquieting revelations about the discreditable Henri,
and the necessity for supporting the Montzaigle grandchildren; and the
veil with which Balzac had striven to soften the aspect of the family
skeletons was violently withdrawn. He was in despair. At this juncture
his mother's communication was fatal! She had done irreparable
mischief!

The long letter he wrote to Madame Surville,[*] imploring her to act
as peacemaker, and insisting on the benefits which his marriage would
bring to the whole family, would be comical were it not for the
writer's real trouble and anxiety; and the reader's knowledge that,
underlying the common-sense worldly arguments--which were brought
forward in the hope of inducing his family to help him by all the
means in their power--was real romantic love for the woman who had now
been his ideal for sixteen years.

[*] "Correspondance," vol. ii. p. 378.

He put the case to Madame Surville as if it were her own, and asked
what her course would be if she were rich, and Sophie an heiress with
many suitors. Sophie, according to her uncle's hypothesis, was in love
with a young sculptor; and her parents had permitted an engagement
between the two. The sculptor, however, came to live in the same house
with his _fiancee_, and his family wrote him letters which he showed
to Madame Surville, containing damaging revelations about family
matters. As a culminating indiscretion, his mother wrote to this
sculptor, "who is David, or Pradier, or Ingres," a letter in which she
treated him like a street boy. What would La