debt. Being a woman past forty, she desired that nothing should
disturb the tranquillity in which she wished to live.

Owing to this critical situation and to his poor health, Balzac had
repeatedly requested his mother never to write depressing news to him,
but she paid little attention to this request and sent him a letter
hinting at trouble in so vague a manner and with such disquieting
expressions that, in his extremely nervous condition, it might have
proved fatal to him. Yet it did not affect him so seriously as it did
Madame Hanska, who read the letter to him, for owing to his terrible
illness and the method of treatment, his eyes had become so weak that
he could no longer see in the evening. Madame Hanska was so deeply
interested in everything that concerned Balzac that this news made her
very ill. For them to live in suspense for forty days without knowing
anything definite was far worse than it would have been had his mother
enumerated in detail the various misfortunes. From the preceding
revelations of the disposition of Madame de Balzac, one can easily
understand how it happened that her son has immortalized some of her
traits in the character of _Cousine Bette_.

During the remainder of Balzac's stay in the Ukraine, he was
preoccupied with the thought of his mother having every possible
comfort, with his becoming acclimatized in Russia,--impossible though
it was for him in his condition,--and above all with the realization
of his long-cherished hope. But he cautioned his mother to observe the
greatest discretion in regard to this hope, "for such things are never
certain until one leaves the church after the ceremony."

What must have been his feeling of triumph when he was able to write: