. He did not leave Paris until Sunday, September 22, 1833.)
On the morning after his arrival, he writes her:

"I shall go to the Promenade of the faubourg from one o'clock till
four. I shall remain during that time looking at the lake, which I
have never seen."

Just what happened when they met, no one knows. The Princess Radziwill
says that her aunt told her that Balzac called at her hotel to meet
her and that there was nothing romantic in their introduction.
Nevertheless, the most varied and amusing stories have been told of
their first meeting.

Balzac remained in Neufchatel until October 1, having made a visit of
five days. He took a secret box to Madame Hanska in which to keep his
letters, having provided himself with a similar one in which to keep
hers. If we are to credit the disputed letter of Saturday, October 12,
we may learn something of what took place. Even before meeting Madame
Hanska, he had inserted her name in one of his books, calling the
young girl loved by M. Benassis "Evelina" (Le Medecin de Campagne).

Early in October M. de Hanski took his family to Geneva to spend the
winter. After Balzac's departure from Neufchatel the tone of his
letters to Madame Hanska changed; he used the _tutoiement_, and his
adoration increased. For a while he wrote her a daily account of his
life and dispatched the journal to her weekly.

Madame Hanska came into Balzac's life at a psychological moment. From
his youth, his longing was "to be famous and to be loved." Having
found the emptiness of a life of fame alone, having apparently grown
weary of the poor Duchesse d'Abrantes, about to cease his intimacy
with Madame de Berny, having been rejected by Mademoiselle de
Trumilly, and having suffered bitterly at the hands of the Duchesse de
Castries, he embraced this friendship with a new hope, and became
Madame Hanska's slave.

If Balzac was charmed with the stories of the daughter of the _femme
de chambre_ of Marie Antoinette, was infatuated with a woman who had
known Napoleon, and flattered by being invited to the home of one of
the beautiful society ladies of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, what must
have been his joy in learning that his new _Chatelaine_ belonged to
one of the most aristocratic families of Poland, the grandniece of
Queen Marie Leczinska, the daughter of the wise Comte de Rzewuska, and
the wife of one of the richest men in Russia!

But Madame Hanska was a very different woman from the kind,
self-