illiant
success, and once this affected him so much that he became seriously
ill; but, with his usual spirit and courage, he tried again and again.
His friend Theophile Gautier, writing of him in _La Presse_ of
September 30th, 1843, after the failure of "Pamela Giraud," said truly
that Balzac intended to go on writing plays, even if he had to get
through a hundred acts before he could find his proper form.

One part of Balzac never grew up--he was all his life the "child-man"
his sister calls him. After nights without sleep he would come out of
his solitude with laughter, joy, and excitement to show a new
masterpiece; and this was always more wonderful than anything which
had preceded it. He was more of a child than his nieces, Madame
Surville tells us: "laughed at puns, envied the lucky being who had
the 'gift' of making them, tried to do so himself, and failed, saying
regretfully, 'No, that doesn't make a pun.' He used to cite with
satisfaction the only two he had ever made, 'and not much of a success
either,' he avowed in all humility, 'for I didn't know I was making
them,' and we even suspected him of embellishing them afterwards."[*]
He was delightfully simple, even to the end of his life. In 1849 he
wrote from Russia, where he was confined to his room with illness, to
describe minutely a beautiful new dressing-gown in which he marched
about the room like a sultan, and was possessed with one of those
delightful joys which we only have at eighteen. "I am writing to you
now in my termolana,"[+] he adds for the satisfaction of his
correspondent.

[*] "Balzac, sa Vie et ses Oeuvres, d'apres sa Correspondance," by
Madame L. Surville (nee de Balzac).

[+] "H. de Balzac--Correspondance," vol. ii. P. 418.

We must now return to Honore in his attic, where, as in later years,
he drank much coffee, and was unable to resist the passion for fruit
which was always his one gourmandise. He records one day that he has
eaten two melons, and must pay for the extravagance with a diet of dry
bread and nuts, but contemplates further starvation to pay for a seat
to see Talma in "Cinna."

He writes to his sister: "I feel to-day that riches do not make
happiness, and that the time I shall pass here will be to me a source
of pleasant memories. To live according to my fancy; to work as I wish
and in my own way; to do nothing if I wish it; to dream of a beautiful
future; to think of you and to know you are happy; to have as ladylove