Count Abbe Czarski, representing the Bishop of Jitomir (this is as
characteristic of Balzac in one way as what follows is in another) a
Madame Eve de Balzac, born Countess Rzevuska, or a Madame Honore de
Balzac or a Madame de Balzac the elder" came into existence.

It does not appear that Balzac was exactly unhappy during this huge
probation, which was broken by one short visit to Paris. The interest
of uncertainty was probably much for his ardent and unquiet spirit,
and though he did very little literary work for him, one may suspect
that he would not have done very much if he had stayed at Paris, for
signs of exhaustion, not of genius but of physical power, had shown
themselves before he left home. But it is not unjust or cruel to say
that by the delay "Madame Eve de Balzac" (her actual baptismal name
was Evelina) practically killed her husband. These winters in the
severe climate of Russian Poland were absolutely fatal to a
constitution, and especially to lungs, already deeply affected. At
Vierzschovnia itself he had illnesses, from which he narrowly escaped
with life, before the marriage; his heart broke down after it; and he
and his wife did not reach Paris till the end of May. Less than three
months afterwards, on the 18th of August, he died, having been visited
on the very day of his death in the Paradise of bric-a-brac which he
had created for his Eve in the Rue Fortunee--a name too provocative of
Nemesis--by Victor Hugo, the chief maker in verse as he himself was
the chief maker in prose of France. He was buried at Pere la Chaise.
The after-fortunes of his house and its occupants were not happy: but
they do not concern us.

In person Balzac was a typical Frenchman, as indeed he was in most
ways. From his portraits there would seem to have been more force and
address than distinction or refinement in his appearance, but, as has