asked her when on the verge of taking Madame de Balzac into his home
again, to assist him in making her reasonable:

"If she likes, she can be very happy, but tell her that she must
encourage happiness and not frighten it away. She will have near
her a confidential attendant and a servant, and that she will be
taken care of in the way she likes. Her room is as elegant as I
can make it. . . . Make her promise not to object to what I wish
her to do as regards her dress: I do not wish her to be dressed
otherwise than as she _ought to be_, it would give me great
pain . . ."

During his prolonged stay in Russia, he requested his sister to
conceal from their mother the true condition of his illness and the
uncertainty of his marriage, and to entreat her to avoid anything in
her letters which might cause him pain. Feeling that she would never
have allowed such a thing had she known of it, he informed her in
detail concerning their mother's letter which had caused him endless
trouble.

While Madame Surville was a great stimulus to Balzac early in his
literary career, she in turn received the deepest sympathy from him in
her financial struggle, and, while he was so happy and was living in
such luxury in Russia, he only regretted that he could not assist her,
for he had enjoyed hospitality in her home.

Madame Surville had at least one of her mother's traits--that of
continually harassing Balzac by trying to marry him to some rich
woman; once she had even chosen for him the goddaughter of
Louis-Philippe. But the most serious breach of relations between the