[*] Different statements have been made as to who introduced George
Sand to Balzac. In her _Histoire de ma Vie_, George Sand merely
says it was a friend (a man). Gabriel Ferry, _Balzac et ses
Amies_, makes the same statement. Seche et Bertaut, _Balzac_,
state that it was La Touche who presented her to him, but Miss K.
P. Wormeley, _A Memoir of Balzac_, and Mme. Wladimir Karenine,
_George Sand_, state that it was Jules Sandeau who presented her
to him. Confirming this last statement, the Princess Radziwill
states that it was Jules Sandeau, and that her aunt, Madame Honore
de Balzac, has so told her.

They seem to have had many enjoyable hours with each other. She
relates that one evening when she and some friends had been dining
with Balzac, after a rather peculiar dinner he put on with childish
glee, a beautiful brand-new _robe de chambre_ to show it to them, and
purposed to accompany them in this costume to the Luxembourg, with a
candlestick in his hand. It was late, the place was deserted, and when
George Sand suggested that in returning home he might be assassinated,
he replied: "Not at all! If I meet thieves they will think me insane,
and will be afraid of me, or they will take me for a prince, and will
respect me." It was a beautiful calm night, and he accompanied them
thus, carrying his lighted candle in an exquisite carved candlestick,
talking of his four Arabian horses, which he never had had, but which
he firmly believed he was going to have. He would have conducted them
to the other end of Paris, if they had permitted him.

Once George Sand and Balzac had a discussion about the _Contes
droletiques_ during which she said he was shocking, and he retorted
that she was a prude, and departed, calling to her on the stairway: