was very much like his own, except that Balzac went to bed
at six o'clock and got up at midnight, and George Sand went to bed at
six in the morning and got up at noon. He adds the following remark,
which shows us the state of her feelings:

"She is now in a very quiet retreat, and condemns both marriage and
love, because she has had nothing but disappointment in both herself.
Her man was a rare one, that was really all."

In the course of their friendly conversation, George Sand gave him the
subject for a novel which it would be rather awkward for her to
write. The novel was to be _Galeriens_ or _Amours forces_. These
"galley-slaves" of love were Liszt and the Comtesse d'Agoult, who had
been with George Sand at Chamonix, Paris and Nohant. It was very evident
that she could not write the novel herself.

Balzac accordingly wrote it, and it figures in the _Comedie humaine as
Beatrix_. Beatrix is the Comtesse d'Agoult, the inspirer, and Liszt is
the composer Conti.

"You have no idea yet of the awful rights that a love which no longer
exists gives to a man over a woman. The convict is always under the
domination of the companion chained to him. I am lost, and must return
to the convict prison," writes Balzac in this book. Then, too, there is
no mistaking his portrait of Beatrix. The fair hair that seems to give
light, the forehead which looks transparent, the sweet, charming face,
the long, wonderfully shaped neck, and, above and beyond all, that air
of a princess, in all this we can easily recognize "the fair, blue-eyed
Peri." Not content with bringing this illustrious couple into his novel,
Balzac introduces other contemporaries. Claude Vignon (who, although
his special work was criticism, made a certain place for himself in
literature) and George Sand herself appear in this book. She is Felicite
des Touches, and her pen name is Camille Maupin. "Camille is an artist,"
we are told; "she has genius, and she leads an exceptional life such as
could not be judged in the same way as an ordinary existence." Some one
asks how she writes her books, and the answer is: "Just in the same way
as you do your woman's work, your netting or your tapestry." She is said
to have the intelligence of an angel and even more heart than talent.
With her fixed, set gaze, her dark complexion and her masculine ways,
she is the exact antithesis of the fair Beatrix. She is constantly being
compared to the latter, and is evidently preferred to her