[*] Balzac was imitating Madame Hanska’s pronunciation of tilleuls
    in having Madame Vauquer (Pere Goriot) pronounce it tieuilles.

His adoration became such that he writes her:  “My loved angel, I am almost mad for you . . .  I cannot put two ideas together that you do not come between them.  I can think of nothing but you.  In spite of myself my imagination brings me back to you. . . .”  It was during his stay in Geneva that Madame Hanska presented her chain to him, which he used later on his cane.

Balzac left Geneva February 8, 1834, having spent forty-four days with his Predilecta, but his work was not entirely neglected.  While there, he wrote almost all of La Duchesse de Langeais, and a large part of Seraphita.  This work, which she inspired, was dedicated: 

 “To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Countess Rzewuska.

“Madame:—­here is the work you desired of me; in dedicating it to you I am happy to offer you some token of the respectful affection you allow me to feel for you.  If I should be accused of incapacity after trying to extract from the depths of mysticism this book, which demanded the glowing poetry of the East under the transparency of our beautiful language, the blame be yours!  Did you not compel me to the effort—­such an effort as Jacob’s—­by telling me that even the most imperfect outline of the figure dreamed of by you, as it has been by me from my infancy, would still be something in your eyes?  Here, then, is that something.  Why cannot this book be set apart exclusively for those lofty spirits who, like you, are preserved from worldly pettiness by solitude?  They might impress on it the melodious rhythm which it lacks, and which, in the hands of one of our poets, might have made it the glorious epic for which France still waits.  Still, they will accept it from me as one of those balustrades, carved by some artist full of faith, on which the pilgrims lean to moderate on the end of man, while gazing at the choir of a beautiful church.  I remain, madame, with respect, your faithful servant,

“DE BALZAC.”

In the spring of 1834, M. de Hanski and his family left Geneva for Florence, traveled for a few months, and arrived in Vienna during the summer, where they remained for about a year.  But Balzac continued his correspondence with Madame Hanska.  She was interested in collecting the autographs of famous people, and Balzac not only had an album made for her, but helped her collect the signatures.

More infatuated, if possible, than ever with her, he wanted her to secure her husband’s consent for him to visit them at Rome.  Then he felt that he must go to Vienna, see the Danube, explore the battlefields of Wagram and Essling, and have pictures made representing the uniforms of the German army.