egal studies.
Unfortunately the pecuniary misfortunes which were to haunt all this
generation of the Balzac family were beginning--as old M. de Balzac
had lost money in two speculations, and now at the age of seventy-four
was put on the retired list, a change which meant a considerable
diminution of income. He therefore explained to his son--Madame
Surville tells us--that M. Passez, to whom he had formerly been of
service, had in gratitude offered to take Honore into his office, and
at the end of a few years would leave him his business, when, with the
additional arrangement of a rich marriage, a prosperous future would
be assured to him. Old M. de Balzac did not specify the nature of the
service which was to meet with so rich a reward; and as he was a
gentleman with a distinct liking for talking of his own doings, we may
amuse ourselves by supposing that it had to do with those Red
Republican days which he was not fond of recalling.

Great was Honore's consternation at this news. In the first place,
owing to M. de Balzac's constant vapourings about the enormous wealth
he would leave to his children, it is doubtful whether Honore, who was
probably not admitted to his parents' confidence, had realised up to
this time that he would have to earn his own living. Then, if it
_were_ necessary for him to work for his bread, he now knew enough of
the routine of a lawyer's office to look with horror on the prospect
of drawing up wills, deeds of sale, and marriage settlements for the
rest of his life. He never forgave the legal profession the shock and
the terror he experienced at this time, and his portraits of lawyers,
with some notable exceptions, are marked by decided animus. For
instance, in "Les Francais peints par eux-memes," edited by Cunmer,
the notary, as described by Balzac, has a flat, expressionless face
and wears a mask of bland silliness; and in "Pamela Giraud" one of the
characters remarks, "A lawyer who talks to himself--that reminds me of
a pastrycook who eats his own cakes." It was rather unfair to decry
all lawyers, because of the deadly fear he felt at the prospect of
being forced into their ranks, as there is little doubt that he would
have shrunk with like abhorrence from any business proposed to him.
His childish longing for fame had developed and taken shape, and for
him, if he lacked genius, there was no alternative but the dragging
out of a worthless and wearying existence. Conscious of his powers, it