the full
realization of a pure love which had upheld him through some of the
bitterest trials that ever fall to the lot of man."

"Say to your dear child the most tenderly endearing things in the
name of one of the most sincere and faithful friends she will ever
have, not excepting her husband, for I love her as her father
loved her."[*]

[*] The Countess Mniszech died in September, 1914, at the age of
eighty-nine, so must have been born about 1825 or 1826. She spent
the twenty-five years preceding her demise in a convent in the rue
de Vaugirard in Paris and retained her right mind until the day of
her death. It will always be one of the greatest regrets of the
present writer that she did not know of this before the Countess's
death, for the Countess could doubtless have given her much
information not to be obtained elsewhere.

Balzac was probably never more sincere than when he wrote this
message, for perhaps no father ever loved his own child more devotedly
than he loved Anna, the only child living of M. and Mme. de Hanski.

Most of Balzac's biographers who state that he met Madame Hanska on
the promenade, say that her little daughter was with her. Wherever he
first met her, she won his heart completely. Some pebbles she gathered
during his first visit to her mother at Neufchatel, Balzac had made
into a little cross, on the back of which was engraved: _adoremus in
aeternum_. She was at this time about seven or eight years of age.
When he visited them again at Geneva, their friendship increased, and
in writing to her mother he sent the child kisses from _son pauvre
cheval_. He loved her little playthings, some of which he kept on his
desk; was always wanting to send her gifts, anxious for her health and
happiness, took great interest in her musical talent, and was ever
delighted to hear of her progress or pleasures. One of his rather
typical messages to her in her earlier years was: "Place a kiss on
Anna's brow from the most tranquil steed she will ever have in her
stables."

As she grew older, the novelist thought of dedicating one of his works
to her, and wrote to her mother that the first _young girl_ story he
should compose he would like to dedicate to Anna, if agreeable to both
of them. The mother's consent was granted, and he assured her that the
story Pierrette (written, by the way, in ten days) was suitable for
Anna to read. "_Pierrette_ is one of those tender flowers