arrived at Les Jardies. The soil was then
absolutely bare; but, as he remarked, it was possible to buy
everything in Paris, and as money was, of course, no object with him,
he intended in the autumn to have good-sized magnolias, limes,
poplars, and willows transported there, and to make a little Eden of
sweet scents, covered with plants and bushes. No doubt, in imagination
he already saw his beautiful flowers, and wandered in this delightful
and well-kept garden, which, as nothing with Balzac could possibly be
ordinary, was to be "surprising." The reality, however, was sadly
different from his expectations. In vain, by his orders asphalt paths
were made in all directions, and landscape gardeners worked for
months, trying with stones cunningly inserted to prop up the steep,
slippery slope, and to form little terraces on which something might
have a chance of growing. With the slightest shower, down tumbled
these plateaus; and the work of building had to begin again. It was
amusing, Leon Gozlan tells us, to see the amazement of the actor
Frederick Lemaitre when he came to see Balzac; and found himself
expected to walk up the side of a hill, with the ground at each step
slipping under his feet. To support himself he stuck stones behind his
heels, and Balzac meanwhile walked by his side with the calmness of a
proprietor who is thoroughly used to the vagaries of his own
territory, and scorns foreign assistance.

Occasionally, however, even Balzac came to the end of his equanimity.
The wall, which separated his property from that of the neighbour
below him, was a continual anxiety. In spite of all possible
precautions it tumbled down constantly, and scattered stones and
mortar over the ground on each side of it. After this had happened two
or three times, and Balzac, while investigating the extent of the
damage on one of these occasions, had fallen and injured his leg, so
that he was in bed for forty days, a meeting of experts was held, and
it was decided that the angle at which the wall had been built was not
sufficiently acute. The error was rectified, and there were general
rejoicings and congratulations; but the next day it rained, and in the
evening news was brought to Balzac that the whole structure had
toppled over, and was reposing in ruins in his neighbour's garden.
This was serious, as the neighbour promptly sent in an enormous bill
for damages done to his carrots and turnips; and it was probably on
this occasion