at not getting twelve!"

There had been a question of a lawsuit as early as the autumn of 1835;
to avoid this he was then trying to finish the _Fleur-des-Pois_
(afterwards _Le Contrat de Mariage_). But their relations were more
cordial at that time, for a short time later, he writes: "My
publisher, the sublime Madame Bechet, has been foolish enough to send
the corrected proofs to St. Petersburg. I am told nothing is spoken of
there but of the _excellence of this new masterpiece_."

Both Madame Bechet and Werdet were in despair over Balzac's journey to
Vienna in 1835, but things grew even worse the next year. The novelist
gives this glimpse of his troubles:

"My mind itself was crushed; for the failure of the _Chronique_
came upon me at Sache, at M. de Margonne's, where, by a wise
impulse, I was plunged in work to rid myself of that odious
Bechet. I had undertaken to write in ten days (it was that which
kept me from going to Nemours!) the two volumes which had been
demanded of me, and in eight days I had invented and composed
_Les Illusions perdues_, and had written a third of it. Think what
such application meant! All my faculties were strained; I wrote
fifteen hours a day. . . ."

In explaining Balzac's association with Madame Bechet, M. Henri
d'Almeras states that Madame Bechet was interested, at first, in
attaching celebrated writers to her publishing house, or those who had
promise of fame. She organized weekly dinner parties, which took place
on Saturday, and here assembled Beranger, Henri de Latouche, Louis
Reybaud, Leon Gozlan, Brissot-Thivars, Balzac and Dr. Gentil. It was