On his way to Sardinia, Balzac stopped to spend a few days with George Sand at her country home at Nohant.  He found his “comrade George” in her dressing-gown, smoking a cigar after dinner in the chimney-corner of an immense solitary chamber.  In spite of her dreadful troubles, she did not have a white hair; her swarthy skin had not deteriorated and her beautiful eyes were still dazzling.  She had been at Nohant about a year, very sad, and working tremendously.  He found her leading about the same life as he; she retired at six in the morning and arose at noon, while he retired at six in the evening and arose at midnight; but he conformed to her habits while spending these three days at her chateau, talking with her from five in the evening till five the next morning; after this, they understood each other better than they had done previously.  He had censured her for deserting Jules Sandeau, but afterwards had the deepest compassion for her, as he too had found him to be a most ungrateful friend.

Balzac felt that Madame Dudevant was not lovable, and would always be difficult to love; she was a garcon, an artist, she was grand, generous, devoted, chaste; she had the traits of a man,—­she was not a woman.  He delighted in discussing social questions with a comrade to whom he did not need to show the galanterie d’epiderme necessary in conversation with ordinary women.  He thought that she had great virtues which society misconstrued, and that after hours of discussion he had gained a great deal in making her recognize the necessity of marriage.  In discussing with him the great questions of marriage and liberty, she said with great pride that they were preparing by their writings a revolution in manners and morals, and that she was none the less struck by the objections to the one than by those to the other.

She knew just what he thought about her; she had neither force of conception, nor the art of pathos, but—­without knowing the French language—­she had style.  Like him, she took her glory in raillery, and had a profound contempt for the public, which she called Jumento.  Defending her past life, he says:  “All the follies that she has committed are titles to fame in the eyes of great and noble souls.  She was duped by Madame Dorval, Bocage, Lammennais, etc., etc.  Through the same sentiment she is now the dupe of Liszt and Madame d’Agoult; she has just realized it for this couple as for la Dorval, for she has one of those minds that are powerful in the study, through intellect, but extremely easy to entrap on the domain of reality.”