His dazed condition, however, soon passed away after Honore's removal
from the Vendome school. He was required to take long walks and play
outdoor games, in consequence of which his cheeks filled out and
regained their natural healthy colour. In appearance he was now a big
lad, naive and contented, who laughingly submitted to his sisters'
teasing. But he had put his ideas in order: the new and troubled wine
of books, to the intoxication of which he had succumbed, had clarified
itself; his intellect was now exceptionally profound and mature. But
his family was not willing to perceive this, and when by chance some
remark of his revealed it his mother would answer:

"Honore, you do not understand what you are saying!"

He did not try to dissuade her from this opinion, but consoled himself
by turning to Laure and Laurence and confiding his plans to them:

"You shall see! I am going to be a great man!"

The girls laughed at this somewhat heavy-witted brother, who was so
behind-hand in his studies, that although in the second form when he
left Vendome, he had to be put back into the third at Tours, in the
institution conducted by a M. Chretien. They greeted him with profound
bows and mock reverence, and, while he responded with a good-natured
smile, there was a certain pride mingled with it and an indefinable
secret certainty as to the future.

In 1814 Francois Balzac was appointed Director of the Commissary
Department of the First Military District, and the whole family removed
to Paris, settling in the Marais quarter. Honore continued his studies
at two different schools successively, first at the Lepitre school, in