and that when the letters
were eventually secured (without the payment) Balzac burned them, lest
such a catastrophe should occur again. The Princess Radziwill says
that the story of the letters was invented by Balzac and is
ridiculous; also, that it angered her aunt because Balzac revealed his
ignorance of Russian matters, by saying such things. Lawton (_Balzac_)
intimates that Balzac and Madame Hanska quarreled, she being jealous
and suspicious of his fidelity, and that he burned her letters. De
Lovenjoul (_Un Roman d'Amour_) makes the same statement and adds that
this trouble increased his heart disease. But he says also (_La Genese
d'un Roman de Balzac_) that Madame Hanska spent two months secretly in
Paris in April and May; yet, a letter written by Balzac, dated
February 27, 1847, shows that she was in Paris at that time.

Balzac went to Wierzchownia in September, 1847, and traveled so
expeditiously that he arrived there several days before his letter
which told of his departure. When one remembers how he had planned
with M. de Hanski more than ten years before to be his guest in this
chateau, one can imagine his great delight now in journeying thither
with the hope of accomplishing the great desire of his life. He was
royally entertained at the chateau and was given a beautiful little
suite of rooms composed of a salon, a sitting-room, and a bed-room.[*]

[*] This house, where all the mementos of Balzac, including his
portrait, were preserved intact by the family, has been utterly
destroyed by the Bolsheviks.

Regarding the vital question of his marriage, he writes his sister:

"My greatest wish and hope is still far from its accomplishment.
Madame Hanska is indispensable to her children; she is their
guide; she disentangles for them the intricacies of the vast and
difficult administration of this property. She has given up
everything to her daughter. I have known of her intentions ever
since I was at St. Petersburg. I am delighted, because the
happiness of my life will thus be freed from all self-interest. It
makes me all the more earnest to guard what is confided to me.
. . . It was necessary for me to come here to make me understand
the difficulties of all kinds which stand in the way of the
fulfilment of my desires."[*]

[*] The above shows that Balzac's ardent passion for his _Predilecta_
was for herself alone, and that he was not actuated by his greed
for gold, as h