only
knew that _l'Etrangere_ read the _Quotidienne_, but he had become
interested in her.

As has been mentioned, it is a strange coincidence that this first
letter from _l'Etrangere_ arrived on the very day that the novelist
wrote accepting the invitation of the Duchesse de Castries. Balzac
doubtless little dreamed that this was the beginning of a
correspondence which was destined to change the whole current of his
life.

Many versions have been given as to what this letter contained, some
saying that Madame Hanska had been reading the _Peau de Chagrin_,
others, the _Physiologie du Mariage_, and others, the _Maison du
Chat-qui-pelote_, but if the letter no longer exists how is one to
prove what it contained? Yet it must have impressed Balzac, for he
wanted to dedicate to her the fourth volume of the _Scenes de la Vie
privee_ in placing her seal and "Diis ignotis 28 fevrier 1832" at the
head of _l'Expiation_, the last chapter of _La Femme de trente Ans_,
which he was writing when her letter arrived, but Madame de Berny
objected, so he saved the only copy of that dedication and wished
Madame Hanska to keep it as a souvenir, and as an expression of his
thanks.

According to Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, Balzac showed one of Madame
Hanska's letters to Madame Carraud, and she answered it for him; but
with his usual skill in answering severe cross-examinations, he
replies:

"You have asked me with distrust to give an explanation of my two
handwritings; but I have as many handwritings as there are days in
the year, without being on that account the least in the world
versatile. This mobility comes from an imagination which can
conceive all and remain vague, like glass which is soiled by none
of its reflections. The glass is in my brain."

In this same letter, which is the second given, Balzac writes: ". . .
I am galloping towards Poland, and rereading all your letters,--I have
but three of them, . . ." If this last statement be true, the answer
to Spoelberch de Lovenjoul's question, "How many letters did Balzac
receive thus?" is not difficult.

Miss Wormeley seems to be correct in saying that this second letter is
inconsistent with the preceding one dated also in January, 1833,
showing an arbitrary system of dating. There are others which are
inconsistent, if not impossible, but if Spoelberch de Lovenjoul after
the death of Madame Honore de Balzac found these letters scattered
about in various places, as he s