.
There are follies of virtue as there are follies of dissipation
and vice. If you were not a wife, a mother, a friend, a relation,
I would not seek to dissuade you, for then you might go and shut
yourself up in a convent at your pleasure without hurting anybody,
although you would soon die there. In your situation, and in your
isolation in the midst of those deserts, this kind of reading,
believe me, is pernicious. The rights of friendship are too feeble
to make my voice heard; but let me at least make an earnest and
humble request on this subject. Do not, I beg of you, ever read
anything more of this kind. I have myself gone through all this,
and I speak from experience."

As has been stated, Madame Hanska was of assistance to Balzac in his
literary work. He used her ideas frequently, and was gracious in
expressing his appreciation of them to her:

"I must tell you that yesterday . . . I copied out your portrait of
Mademoiselle Celeste, and I said to two uncompromising judges:
'Here is a sketch I have flung on paper. I wanted to paint a woman
under given circumstances, and launch her into life through such
and such an event.' What do you think they said?--'Read that
portrait again.' After which they said:--'That is your
masterpiece. You have never before had that _laisser-aller_ of a
writer which shows the hidden strength.' 'Ha, ha!' I answered,
striking my head; 'that comes from the forehead of _an analyst_.'
I kneel at your feet for this violation; but I left out all that
was personal. . . . I thank you for your glimpses of Viennese
society. What I have learned about Germans in their relations
elsewhere confirms what you say of them. Your story of General
H---- comes up periodically. There has been something like it in
all countries, but I thank you for having told it to me. The
circumstances give it novelty."[*]

[*] This is only one of the numerous allusions Balzac made to the
analytical forehead of Madame Hanska.

Though Balzac's letters to Madame Hanska became less effervescent as
time went on, each year seemed to add to his admiration and "dog-like
fidelity." She, on the other hand, complained of his dissipation, the
society he kept, and his short letters.

While Balzac was in Vienna, he was working on _Le Lys dans la Vallee_.
Although he said that Madame de Mortsauf was Madame de Berny, M. Adam
Rzewuski, a brother of Madame Hanska, always felt tha