less than thirty-one waistcoats, and that he had not given up the hope
of some day having three hundred and sixty-five, one for each day in
the year. He abandoned wool in favour of silk. Rings adorned his
fingers; his linen was of the finest quality; and he used perfumes, of
which he was passionately fond.

In the morning he went to the Bois, where the other young men of
fashion congregated; he sauntered up and down and later paid visits; in
the evening, when he had no invitations to social functions, he dined
at the Rocher de Cancale or at Bignon's, or showed himself at the Opera
in the box occupied by an ultra-fashionable set known as the "Tigers."
After the performance he hurried off to cut a brilliant figure at the
salon of the beautiful Delphine Gay, the wife of Emile de Girardin, in
company with Lautour-Mezeray, the "man with the camelia," Alphonse
Karr, Eugene Sue, Dumas, and sometimes Victor Hugo and Lamartine. In
that celebrated apartment, hung in sea-green damask, which formed such
a perfect background for Delphine's blonde beauty, Balzac would arrive
exuberant, resplendent with health and happiness, and there he would
remain for hours, overflowing with wit and brilliance.

In the midst of this worldly life he by no means neglected Mme. de
Castries, but, on the contrary, was assiduous in his attentions to the
fair duchess. At her home he met the Duc de Fitz-James and the other
leaders of militant legitimism, and little by little he gravitated
towards their party. He wrote The Life of a Woman for Le Renovateur,
and also an essay in two parts on The Situation of the Royalist Party;
but it was not long before he quarrelled with Laurentie, the editor in
chief who probably wounded his pride as a man of letters.

The society which he frequented must have reacted on Balzac, for it was