tive lurking behind
Balzac's anxiety to hear often from his family, was the desire to
impress Madame Hanska favourably with the idea of their affection for
himself, and their unity. At the same time, a sad presentiment warned
her, that if ever her brother were married to this great lady, his
family and friends would see little more of him. The prospect cannot
have been very cheerful to poor Laure, as either Honore would return
to France brokenhearted and overwhelmed with debt, or he would gain
his heart's desire, and would be lost to his family.

The tone of Balzac's letters to his relations at this time has been
adversely criticised, and it is true that the reader is sometimes
irritated by the frequency of his requests for service from them, and
his continual insistence on the wonderful perfections of the Hanski
family, and their grandeur and importance. Occasionally, too, his
letters show an irritability which is a new feature in his character.
We must remember, however, in judging Balzac, that he was nearly
driven wild by the position in which he found himself. It was
necessary that he should always be bright, good-natured, and agreeable
to the party at Wierzchownia, and his letters to his family were
therefore the only safety-valve for the impatience and despair, which,
though he never utters a word of reproach against Madame Hanska, must
sometimes have taken possession of him.

His was a terrible dilemma. Ill and suffering, so that he was not able
to work to diminish his load of debt, desperately in love with a
cold-hearted woman, who used these debts as a lever for postponing what
on her side was certainly an undesirable marriage; and enormously
proud, so that failure in his hopes would mean to him not only a broken
heart, but also almost unbearable mortification; Balzac, crippled and
handicapped, with his teeth set hard, his powers concentrated on one
point, that of winning Madame Hanska, was at times hardly master of
himself. There was indeed some excuse for his irritation, when his
family wrote something tactless, or involved themselves in fresh
misfortunes, just as matters perhaps seemed progressing a little less
unfavourably than usual. Their letters were always read aloud at the
lunch table at Wierzchownia, and often, alas! their perusal served to
prove anew to Madame Hanska, the mistake she had made in contemplating
an alliance with a member of a family so peculiarly unlucky and
undesirable.

At last th