with respect, your faithful servant,

"DE BALZAC."

In the spring of 1834, M. de Hanski and his family left Geneva for
Florence, traveled for a few months, and arrived in Vienna during the
summer, where they remained for about a year. But Balzac continued his
correspondence with Madame Hanska. She was interested in collecting
the autographs of famous people, and Balzac not only had an album made
for her, but helped her collect the signatures.

More infatuated, if possible, than ever with her, he wanted her to
secure her husband's consent for him to visit them at Rome. Then he
felt that he must go to Vienna, see the Danube, explore the
battlefields of Wagram and Essling, and have pictures made
representing the uniforms of the German army.

In _La Recherche de l'Absolu_, he gave the name of Adam de
Wierzchownia to a Polish gentleman, Wierzchownia being the name of
Madame Hanska's home in the Ukraine. "I have amused myself like a boy
in naming a Pole, M. de Wierzchownia, and bringing him on the scene in
_La Recherche de l'Absolu_. That was a longing I could not resist, and
I beg your pardon and that of M. de Hanski for the great liberty. You
could not believe how that printed page fascinates me!" He writes her
of another character, La Fosseuse, (Le Medecin de Campagne): "Ah! if I
had known your features, I would have pleased myself in having them
engraved as La Fosseuse. But though I have memory enough for myself, I
should not have enough for a painter."

Either Balzac's adoration became too ardent, or displeasure was caused
in some other way, for no letters to Madame Hanska appear from August
26 to October 9, 1834. In the meantime, a long letter was written to
M. de Hanski apologizing for two letters written to his wife. He
explained that one evening she jestingly remarked to him, beside the
lake of Geneva, that she would like to know what a love-letter was
like, so he promised to write her one. Being reminded of this promise,
he sent her one, and received a cold letter of reproof from her after
another letter was on the way to her. Receiving a second rebuke, he
was desperate over the pleasantry, and wished to atone for this by
presenting to her, with M. de Hanski's permission, some manuscripts
already sent. He wished to send her the manuscript of _Seraphita_
also, and to dedicate this book to her, if they could forgive him this
error, for which he alone was to be c