the great wrong involved in her lack of affection for Honore and his
sister Laure. But she never gave him the attentions that he longed
for. In May, 1840, he wrote to Madame Hanska that he was especially
sad on the day of his _fete catholique_ (May 16) as, since the death
of Madame de Berny, there was no one to observe this occasion, though
during her life every day was a _fete_ day; he was too busy to join
with his sister Laure in the mutual observance of their birthdays, and
his mother cared little for him; once the Duchesse de Castries had
sent him a most beautiful bouquet,--but now there was no one.

The same year (1840) he took his mother to live with him _Aux
jardies_. This he regarded as an additional burden. Her continual
harassing him for the money he still owed her, her nervous and
discordant disposition, her constant intrigues to force him to marry,
and her numerous little acts that placed him in positions beneath the
dignity of an author's standing were an incessant source of annoyance
to him.

She did not remain with him long, but he tried to perform his filial
duties and make her comfortable, as various letters show. One of these
reads as follows:

"My dear Mother,--It is very difficult for me to enter into the
engagement you ask of me, and to do so without reflection would
entail consequences most serious both for you and for myself. The
money necessary for my existence is, as it were, wrung from what
should go to pay my debts, and hard work it is to get it. The sort
of life I lead is suitable for no one; it wears out relations and
friends; all fly from my dreary house. My affairs will become more
and more difficult to manage, not to say impossible. The failure