strained that Balzac visited Madame de Girardin only when he knew he
would not encounter her husband. M. de Girardin retired early in the
evening; his wife received her literary friends after the theater or
opera. At this hour, Balzac was sure not to meet her husband, whose
non-appearance permitted the intimate friends to discuss literature at
their ease.

Although Madame de Girardin was married to a publicist, she did not
like journalists, so she conceived the fancy of writing a satirical
comedy, _L'Ecole des Journalistes_, in which she painted the
journalists in rather unflattering colors. The work was received by
the committee of the Theatre-Francais, but the censors stopped the
performance. Balzac was angry at this interdiction, for he too
disliked journalists, but Madame de Girardin took the censorship
philosophically. In her salon she read _L'Ecole des Journalistes_ to
her literary friends; there Balzac figured prominently, dressed for
this occasion in his blue suit with engraved gold buttons, making his
coarse Rabelaisian laughter heard throughout the evening.

Balzac's fame increased with the years, but he still regarded the
friendship of Madame de Girardin among those he most prized, and in
1842 he dedicated to her _Albert Savarus_. When she moved into the
little Greek temple in the Champs-Elysees, she was nearer Balzac, who
was living at that time in the rue Basse at Passy, so their relations
became more intimate. Yet when, after his return from St. Petersburg
where he had visited Madame Hanska in 1843, the _Presse_ published the
scandalous story about his connection with the Italian forger, he
vowed he would never see again the scorpions Gay and Girardin.

Madame de Girardin regretted Balzac's not being a member of the