ell as five hundred volumes of the first and second dizain, which had
cost him four francs each. He thus lost 3,500 francs, and to add to
the calamity, did not receive the sum of 6,000 francs which in the
ordinary course of events would have been due to him at the end of the
year, when but for this disaster he would have handed over the third
dizain to Werdet and an associate.

Figures and sums of money occur constantly in Balzac's letters; but
his accounts of his pecuniary affairs are so conflicting and so
complicated that it is impossible to understand them; indeed it is
doubtful whether he ever mastered them himself, as he continually
expected to be out of debt in a few months. According to his own story
to Madame Hanska, he left the printing office owing 100,000 francs,
had to find 6,000 francs a year for interest on this debt, and
required 3,000 francs to live on; while in 1828, 1829, and 1830, he
only made 3,000 francs each year, so that in three years he had
increased his debt by 24,000 francs. In 1830 the Revolution caused
general disaster among the publishers, and "La Peau de Chagrin" only
made 700 francs, so that in 1830 and 1831 Balzac had an income of only
10,000 francs a year, and had to pay out 18,000 francs. From 1833 to
1836 he received 10,000 francs a year by his treaty with Madame
Bechet; 6,000 of this he paid in interest on his debt, while 4,000
apparently remained to live on. However, between the fire in the Rue
du Pot-de-Fer, Werdet's delinquencies, the failure of the _Chronique_,
and the sums paid back to publishers who had advanced money on
arrangements Balzac cancelled to fulfil this new agreement, hardly
anything was left; and in 1837 he owed 162,000 francs.

In August, 1835, he describes his life thus[*]: "Work, always work!
Heated nights succeed heated nights, days of meditation days of
meditation; from execution to conception, from conception to
execution! Little money compared with what I want, much money compared
with production. If each of my books were paid like those of Walter
Scott, I should manage; but although well paid, I do not attain my
goal. I received 8,000 francs for the 'Lys'; half of this came from
the publisher, half from the _Revue de Paris_. The article in the
_Conservateur_ will pay me 3,000 francs. I shall have finished
'Seraphita,' begun 'Les Memoires de Deux Jeunes Mariees,' and finished
Mme. Bechet's edition. I do not know whether a brain, pen, and hand
will ever bef