light, which probably seemed necessary to him, in order to carry out
the diplomatic course which he had undertaken, and which terminated in
his marriage.

From 1833 onward he was destined to lead a double life, the one before
the eyes of the world, with its gesticulations, its eccentricities, its
harlequinades, that left the lookers-on gaping with amazement; and the
other his secret life, which he revealed only to Mme. Hanska, day by
day,--his slave-like toil, his burden of debts which no amount of effort
seemed to lighten, his prodigious hopes, and from time to time his
desperate weariness.

After the publication of The Country Doctor the confused plan of his
vast work took more definite form, the scattered parts began to fit
together, and he foresaw the immense monument in which he was destined
to embody an entire social epoch.

"The day when he was first inspired with this idea was a wonderful day
for him," Mme. Surville has recorded. "He set forth from the Rue
Cassini, where he had taken up his residence after leaving the Rue de
Tournon, and hurried to the Faubourg Poissoniere, where I was then
living.

"'Salute me,' he cried out joyously, 'for I am on the high road to
become a genius!'

"He then proceeded to unfold his plan to us, although it still rather
frightened him. In spite of the vastness of his brain, time alone would
enable him to work out such a plan in detail!