tates, it is quite possible that
contents as well as dates are confused.[*]

[*] One can see at once the injustice of the criticism of M. Henry
Bordeaux, _la Grande Revue_, November, 1899, in censuring Madame
Hanska for publishing her letters from Balzac.

The husband of Madame Hanska, M. Wenceslas de Hanski, who was never a
count, but a very rich man, was many years her senior, and suffered
from "blue devils" and paresis a long time before his death. Though he
was very generous with his wife in allowing her to travel, she often
suffered from ennui in her beautifully furnished chateau of
Wierzchownia, which Balzac described as being "as large as the
Louvre." This was a great exaggeration, for it was comparatively
small, having only about thirty rooms. With her husband, her little
daughter Anna, her daughter's governess, Mademoiselle Henriette Borel,
and two Polish relatives, Mesdemoiselles Severine and Denise
Wylezynska, she led a lonely life and spent much of her time in
reading, or writing letters. The household comprised the only people
of education for miles around.

Having lost six of her seven children, and being an intensely maternal
woman, the deepest feelings of her heart were devoted to her daughter
Anna, who also was destined to occupy much of the time and thought of
the author of the _Comedie humaine_.

If the letters printed in _Un Roman d'Amour_ are genuine, in the one
dated January 8, 1833, she speaks of having received with delight the
copy of the _Quotidienne_ in which his notice is inserted. She tells
him that M. de Hanski with his family are coming nearer France, and
she wishes to arrange some way for him to answer her letters, but he
must never try to ascertain who the person is who will transmit his
letters to her, and the greatest secrecy must be preserved.

It is not known how she arranged to have him send his letters, but he
wrote her about once a month from January to September, and after that
more frequently, as he was arranging to visit her. M. de Hanski with
his numerous family had come to Neufchatel in July, having stopped in
Vienna on the way. Here Balzac was to meet l'Etrangere for the first
time. He left Paris September 22, stopping to make a business visit to
his friend, Charles Bernard, at Besancon, and arriving at Neufchatel
September 25. (Although this letter to M. Bernard is dated August,
1833, Balzac evidently meant September, for there is no Sunday, August
22, in 1833