proposed to bring out a one-franc edition which was expected to
circulate broadcast, like prayer-books. Balzac made his own
calculations,--for he was eternally making calculations,--and, relying
confidently upon their accuracy, allowed himself to purchase carpets,
bric-a-brac, a Limoges dinner set, a silver service and jewellery, all
for the adornment of the small den in the Rue Cassini. He ordered
chandeliers; he stopped short of nothing save a silver chafing-dish. He
piled debts upon debts: but what difference did it make, for success
was before him, within reach of his hand, and he would have no trouble
at all to pay!

Alas, none of the actualities of life would ever break down his robust
confidence nor his golden dreams! Even before The Country Doctor was
published he found himself involved in a law suit with his publisher,
and after its appearance the public press criticised it sharply.
"Everyone has his knife out for me," he wrote to Mme. Hanska, "a
situation which saddened and angered Lord Byron only makes me laugh. I
mean to govern the intellectual world of Europe, and with two more
years of patience and toil I shall trample on the heads of all those
who now wish to tie my hands and retard my flight! Persecution and
injustice have given me a brazen courage."

After each of his disillusions he had arisen again stronger than
before; and at this juncture a new element had entered into his life
which gave him an augmented energy and courage. This element was the
one secret romance of his life, which gave rise to a host of anecdotes
and legends. In the month of February, 1832, his publisher, Gosselin,
forwarded a letter to him, signed L'Etrangere, "A Foreign Lady," which
caught his attention by the nobility of the thoughts expressed in it.
This first letter was followed by several others, and in one of them,