also for my copies, which will cost me fifteen hundred more. Thus
four thousand five hundred francs and my discounts, diminish by
six thousand the thirty-three thousand. She could not lose a great
fortune more clumsily, for Werdet estimates at five hundred
thousand francs the profits to be made out of the next edition of
the _Etudes de Moeurs_. I find Werdet the active, intelligent, and
devoted publisher that I want. I have still six months before I
can be rid of Madame Bechet; for I have three volumes to do, and
it is impossible to count on less than two months to each volume."

She evidently relented, for he wrote later that Madame Bechet had paid
him the entire thirty-three thousand francs. This, however, did not
end their troubles, and he longed to be free from his obligations, and
to sever all connection with her.

In the spring of 1836, Madame Bechet became Madame Jacquillart.
Whether she was influenced by her husband or had become weary of
Balzac's delays, she became firmer. The novelist felt that she was too
exacting, for he was working sixteen hours a day to complete the last
two volumes for her, and he believed that the suit with which she
threatened him was prompted by his enemies, who seemed to have sworn
his ruin. Madame Bechet lost but little time in carrying out her
threat, for a few days after this he writes:

"Do you know by what I have been interrupted? By a legal notice
from Bechet, who summons me to furnish her within twenty-four
hours my two volumes in 8vo, with a penalty of fifty francs for
every day's delay! I must be a great criminal and God wills that I
shall expiate my crimes! Never was such torture! This woman has
had ten volumes 8vo out of me in two years, and yet she complains