hall no longer want anything, and
shall refuse everything!"

CHAPTER XVI

1849 - 1850

Peace renewed between Balzac and his family--He thinks of old
friends--Madame Hanska's continued vacillations--Dr. Knothe's
treatment--Madame Hanska's relations with Balzac, and her
ignorance about his illness--Visit to Kiev--Balzac's marriage
--His letters to his mother, sister, and to Madame Carraud
--Delay in starting for France--Terrible journey--Madame Honore
de Balzac's pearl necklace and strange letter--Balzac's married
life--Arrival of the newly-married couple in Paris.

The quarrel between Balzac and his family was quickly made up, and it
was settled that his mother should--if she wished to do so--return at
once to Suresnes; and come up every day to the Rue Fortunee, taking
carriages for this purpose at Balzac's expense. However, having made a
small commotion, and asserted her dignity by the announcement that she
felt perfectly free to leave the Rue Fortunee whenever she chose to do
so, Madame de Balzac's resentment was satisfied; and she remained
there till a month before Balzac's return in May, 1850, when illness
necessitated her removal to her daughter's house.[*] The nieces, of
whom Balzac was really extremely fond, "sulked" no longer, but wrote
letters which their uncle praised highly, and which he answered gaily
and amusingly. The shadowy cloud, too, which had prevented the brother
and sister from seeing each other clearly, dispersed for ever; and one
of Honore's letters to Laure about this time contains the loving
words, "As far as you are concerned, every day is your festival in my
heart, companion of my childhood, and of my bright as well as of my
gloomy days."[+]

[*] "Une Page perdue de Honore de Balzac," by the Vicomte de
Spoelberch de Lovenjoul.

[+] "Correspondance," vol. ii. p. 420.

It is curious to notice that Balzac's thoughts now turned to those
faithful friends of his youth, who had in late years passed rather
into the background of his life. He wrote a long letter to Madame
Delannoy, who had been a mother to him in the struggling days of his
half-starved youth. He had paid off the debt he owed her, but he said
he would never be able to thank her adequately for her tenderness and
goodness to him. He thought also of Dablin, his early benefactor; and
he remembered the old days at Frapesle, and wrote Madame Carraud a
m