ulous to say that some people aver she was married four
times, and had General Witte for a husband; but Witte was a great
admirer of hers at the time she was Mme. Sobanska. There is also a
detail connected with her which is very little known, and that is
that she nearly married Sainte-Beauve, and that the marriage was
broken off a few days before the one fixed for it to take place.
That was before she married Jules Lacroix, and wicked people say
that it was partly disappointment at having been unable to become
the wife of the great critic, which made her accept the former.

"(3) My aunt Pauline was married to a Serbian banker settled in
Odessa, a very rich man called Jean Riznitsch, but he was _neither
a General nor a Baron_. Her second daughter, Alexandrine, married
Mr. Ciechanowiecki who also never could boast of a title, and
whose father had never been _Minister de l'Interieur en Pologne_.

"(4) My aunt Eve was neither married in 1818 nor in 1822 to Mr.
Hanski, but in 1820. It was not because of _revers de fortune_
that she was married to him, but it was the custom in Polish noble
families to try to settle girls as richly as possible. Later on,
my grandfather lost a great deal of money, but this circumstance,
which occurred after my aunt's marriage, had nothing to do with
it. My grandfather,--this by the way,--was a very remarkable man,
a personal friend of Voltaire. You will find interesting details
about him in an amusing book published by Ernest Daudet, called
_La Correspondence du Comte Valentin Esterhazy_, in the first
volume, where among other things is described the birth of my aunt
Helene, whose personality interests you so much, a birth which
nearly killed her mother. Besides Helene, my grandparents had
still another daughter who also died unmarried, at seventeen years
of age, and who, judging by her picture, must have been a wonder
of beauty; also a son Stanislas, who was killed accidentally by a
fall from his horse in 1826.

"(5) My uncle Ernest was not the second son of his parents, but the
youngest in the whole family."

It is interesting to note that Balzac wished to have his works
advertised in newspapers circulating in foreign countries and wrote
his publisher to advertise in the _Gazette_ and the _Quotidienne_, as
they were the only papers admitted into Russia, Italy, etc. He
repeated this request some months later, by which time he not