Pyat, were, so to speak, the literary apprentices of Delatouche, who not only was much older than they, having been born in 1785, but had long ago established his reputation as a journalist, novelist, and dramatic writer.  The first work which Madame Dudevant produced was the novel “Rose et Blanche”; she wrote it in collaboration with Jules Sandeau, whose relation to her is generally believed to have been not only of a literary nature.  The novel, which appeared in 1831, was so successful that the publishers asked the authors to write them another.  Madame Dudevant thereupon wrote “Indiana”, but without the assistance of Jules Sandeau.  She was going to have it published under the nom de plume Jules Sand, which they had assumed on the occasion of “Rose et Blanche.”  But Jules Sandeau objected to this, saying that as she had done all the work, she ought to have all the honour.  To satisfy both, Jules Sandeau, who would not adorn himself with another’s plumes, and the publishers, who preferred a known to an unknown name, Delatouche gave Madame Dudevant the name of George Sand, under which henceforth all her works were published, and by which she was best known in society, and generally called among her friends.  “Valentine” appeared, like “Indiana,” in 1832, and was followed in 1833 by Lelia.  For the first two of these novels she received 3,000 francs.  When Buloz bought the Revue des deux Mondes, she became one of the contributors to that journal.  This shows that a great improvement had taken place in her circumstances, and that the fight she had to fight was not a very hard one.  Indeed, in the course of two years she had attained fame, and was now a much-praised and much-abused celebrity.

All this time George Sand had, according to agreement, spent alternately three months in Paris and three months at Nohant.  A letter written by M. Dudevant to his wife in 1831 furnishes a curious illustration of the relation that existed between husband and wife.  The accommodating spirit which pervades it is most charming:—­

I shall go to Paris; I shall not put up at your lodgings, for I do not wish to inconvenience you any more than I wish you to inconvenience me (parceque je ne veux pas vous gener, pas plus que je ne veux que vous me geniez).

In August, 1833, George Sand and Alfred de Musset met for the first time at a dinner which the editor Buloz gave to the contributors to the Revue des deux Mondes.  The two sat beside each other.  Musset called on George Sand soon after, called again and again, and before long was passionately in love with her.  She reciprocated his devotion.  But the serene blissfulness of the first days of their liaison was of short duration.  Already in the following month they fled from the Parisian surroundings and gossipings, which they regarded as the disturbers of their harmony.  After visiting Genoa, Florence, and Pisa, they settled at Venice.  Italy, however, did not afford them the hoped-for peace and contentment.