most valuable record of his life. In one of the first, it is
interesting to see that he is obliged to soothe her uneasiness at the
strange variety of his handwritings, as Madame Carraud had answered
one of her letters in his name; and to allay her suspicions, he makes
the rather unlikely explanation, that he has as many writings as there
are days in the year. In the future, however, her letters are sacred,
no eye but his own being permitted to gaze on them; and with his usual
reticence where his feelings are seriously involved, he ceases to
mention to his friends his correspondent in far Ukraine.

A little later he comments with joy on the fact that Madame Hanska has
sent him a copy of the "Imitation of Christ,"[*] which represents our
Lord on the cross, just as he is writing "Le Medecin de Campagne,"
which portrays the bearing of the cross by resignation, and love,
faith in the future, and the spreading around of the perfume of good
deeds. To Balzac, believer in the power of the transmission of
thought, this coincidence was of good augury.

[*] "Lettres a l'Etrangere."

All this time he had not forgotten Madame de Berny, or the faithless
Madame de Castries; and is profoundly miserable. On January 1st, 1833,
he writes to his faithful friend, Madame Carraud, to pour out his
troubles, and says: "In vain I try to transfer my life to my brain;
nature has given me too much heart, and in spite of everything, more
than enough for ten men is left. Therefore I suffer. All the more
because chance made me know happiness in all its moral extent, while
depriving me of sensual beauty. She" (Madame de Berny) "gave me a true
love which must finish. This is horrible! I go through troubles and
tempests which no one knows of. I have no distractions. Nothing