awn up with Dujarier, and matters no
doubt would have proceeded harmoniously, had not the latter been
killed in a duel in March, 1845.

The first number of "Les Paysans" appeared on December 3rd, 1844, and
then, owing to a most untoward concatenation of circumstances, there
was a long pause in Balzac's contributions to _La Presse_. Madame
Hanska had unfortunately decided for some time that she would in 1845
make one of those journeys which more than anything else threw Balzac
and his affairs into inextricable confusion. Before M. de Hanski's
death, however, Balzac was at any rate welcomed with effusion when, in
his longing to see Madame Hanska, he left his affairs in Paris to take
care of themselves. In those early days she was devotedly attached to
him; besides, an adorer was a fashionable appendage for an elegant
married woman, and the conquest of a distinguished man of letters like
Balzac was something to be proud of. Now, however, there was no
husband as a protector in the eyes of the world; and marriage, a
marriage about which she felt many qualms, loomed large before her
startled eyes. She had no intention of giving up the delightful luxury
of Balzac's love; but might she not by judicious diplomacy, she
sometimes asked herself, manage to enjoy this, without taking the last
irrevocable step? Her position was not enviable, the state of feeling
embodied in the words "she would and she wouldn't" always betokening
in the subject a wearing variability of mind posture; but compared
with the anguish of Balzac, whom she was slowly killing by her
vacillations, her woes do not deserve much sympathy.

At St. Petersburg, possibly during one of their walks on the quay, or
on a cozy evening when the samovar was brought up at nine o'clock, and
placed on the white table with yellowish lines--she had promised
Balzac that he might meet her next year at Dresden. However, when she
arrived there, and found herself in a circle of her own relations, who
according to Balzac poisoned her mind against him, she not only
objected to his presence, but, in her sudden fear of gossip, she
forbade him to write to her again during her stay at Dresden. She sent
off another letter almost at once, contradicting her last command; but
she would not make up her mind whether Balzac might come to her at
Dresden, whether she would consent to meet him at Frankfort, or
whether he should prepare a house for her and Anna in Paris. Balzac
could settle to nothi