the burning of her letters, we have only Balzac's
enthusiastic and lover-like descriptions to guide our idea of Madame
Hanska; and she remains to some extent a shadowy figure, difficult to
realise. Several characteristics, however, stand out clearly: among
them her power of hiding her thoughts and feelings from those to whom
she was most deeply attached; also an occasional self-control, which
seems strangely at variance with her naturally passionate and
uncontrolled nature. She was extremely proud; and the wish, while
pleasing herself, to do nothing which would lower her in the eyes of
the world, exercised a powerful influence over her actions.
Intellectually brilliant, a clever woman of business, and mentally
active; she was yet on some occasions curiously inert, and carried the
state of mind embodied in the words "live and let live," to dangerous
lengths. She must have possessed great determination, as even Balzac's
adoration, and his undoubted powers of fascination, could not move her
from the vacillations which, designedly or no, kept _him_ enchained at
her feet while _she_ remained free.

Among much however, in her character that we cannot admire, she
possessed one virtue in perfection--that of maternal love. The bond of
affection between the mother and her daughter Anna was strong and
enduring, and Madame Hanska would willingly have sacrificed everything
for her beloved child's happiness. This was the true, engrossing love
of her life; her affection for Balzac not having remained in its first
freshness, as his love for her had done. On the contrary, it was at
this time slightly withered, and had been partially stifled by
prudential considerations, so that it was difficult to discover among
the varied and tangled growths which surrounded it.

It is an interesting problem whether Balzac, in spite of his brave
words, realised that Madame Hanska no longer cared for him. When he
wrote that he was sure that none of these deferments proceeded from
want of love, did he pen these words with a wistful attempt to prove
to himself that the fact was as he stated? After eighteen months in
the same house with Madame Hanska, could he _really_ believe that only
material difficulties kept her apart from him? Or did he at last
understand: and though stricken to death, cling still, for the sake of
his pride and his lost illusions, to what had been for so long his one
object in life? We do not know.

The only thing of which we are