ving in the rue
Cassini, and asked a mutual friend to introduce her.[*] After she had
expressed her admiration for the talent of the young author, he in
turn complimented her on her recent work, and as was his custom,
changed the conversation to talk of himself and his plans. She found
this interview helpful and he promised to counsel her. After this
introduction Balzac visited her frequently. He would go puffing up the
stairs of the many-storied house on the quai Saint-Michel where she
lived. The avowed purpose of these visits was to advise her about her
work, but thinking of some story he was writing, he would soon begin
to talk of it.

[*] Different statements have been made as to who introduced George
Sand to Balzac. In her _Histoire de ma Vie_, George Sand merely
says it was a friend (a man). Gabriel Ferry, _Balzac et ses
Amies_, makes the same statement. Seche et Bertaut, _Balzac_,
state that it was La Touche who presented her to him, but Miss K.
P. Wormeley, _A Memoir of Balzac_, and Mme. Wladimir Karenine,
_George Sand_, state that it was Jules Sandeau who presented her
to him. Confirming this last statement, the Princess Radziwill
states that it was Jules Sandeau, and that her aunt, Madame Honore
de Balzac, has so told her.

They seem to have had many enjoyable hours with each other. She
relates that one evening when she and some friends had been dining
with Balzac, after a rather peculiar dinner he put on with childish
glee, a beautiful brand-new _robe de chambre_ to show it to them, and
purposed to accompany them in this costume to the Luxembourg, with a
candlestick in his hand. It was late, the place was deserted, and when
George Sand suggested that in returning home he might be assassinated,
he replied: "Not at all! If I meet thieves they will think me insane,
and will be afraid of me, or they will take me for a prince, and will
respect me." It was a beautiful calm night, and he accompanied them
thus, carrying his lighted candle in an exquisite carved candlestick,
talking of his four Arabian horses, which he never had had, but which
he firmly believed he was going to have. He would have conducted them
to the other end of Paris, if they had permitted him.

Once George Sand and Balzac had a discussion about the _Contes
droletiques_ during which she said he was shocking, and he retorted
that she was a prude, and departed, calling to her on the stairway:
"_Vous n'etes qu'