ifferent after Madame de Girardin had thus
brought his celebrated cane into prominence. He was absent from Paris
when the novel appeared, and scarcely had he returned when he wrote
her (May 27, 1836), cordially thanking her as an old friend. He also
after this made peace with M. de Girardin. But one difficulty was
scarcely settled before another began, and the ever faithful Delphine
was continually occupied in trying to establish peace. Her numerous
letters to Balzac are filled with such expressions as: "Come
to-morrow, come to dinner. Come, we can not get along without you!
Come, Paris is an awful bore. We need you to laugh. Come dine with us,
come! Come!!! Now come have dinner with us to-morrow or day after
to-morrow, to-day, or even yesterday, every day!! A thousand greetings
from Emile." Thus with her hospitality and merry disposition, she
bridged many a break between her husband and Balzac.

Finally, not knowing what to do, she decided not to let Balzac mention
the latest quarrel. When he referred to it, she replied: "Oh, no, I
beg you, speak to Theophile Gautier. If is not for nothing that I have
given him charge of the _feuilleton_ of the _Presse_. That no longer
concerns me, make arrangements with him." Then she counseled her
husband to have Theophile Gautier direct this part of the _Presse_ in
order not to contend with Balzac, but the novelist was so unreasonable
that M. de Girardin had to intervene. "My beautiful Queen," once wrote
Theophile to Delphine, "if this continues, rather than be caught
between the anvil Emile and the hammer Balzac, I shall return my apron
to you. I prefer planting cabbage or raking the walls of your garden."
To this, Madame de Girardin replied: "I have a gardener with whom I am
very well satisfied, thank you; continue to maintain order _du
palais_."

The relations between M. de Girardin and the novelist became so
strained that Balzac visited Madame de Girardin only when he knew he
would not encounter her husband. M. de Girardin retired early in the
evening; his wife received her literary friends after the theater or
opera. At this hour, Balzac was sure not to meet her husband, whose
non-appearance permitted the intimate friends to discuss literature at
their ease.

Although Madame de Girardin was married to a publicist, she did not
like journalists, so she conceived the fancy of writing a satirical
comedy, _L'Ecole des Journalistes_, in which she painted the
journalists in rather