Love your old woman [votre vieille] as she loves you.

From a letter written two days later to her son, we learn that Madame Viardot after all gave two concerts at Cambrai.  But amusing as the letter is, we will pass it over as not concerning us here.  Of another letter (September 20,1840), likewise addressed to her son, I shall quote only one passage, although it contains much interesting matter about the friends and visitors of the inmates of the pavilions of the Rue Pigalle, No. 16:—­

Balzac came to dine here the day before yesterday.  He is quite mad.  He has discovered the blue rose, for which the horticultural societies of London and Belgium have promised a reward of 500,000 francs (qui dit, dit-il).  He will sell, moreover, every grain at a hundred sous, and for this great botanic production he will lay out only fifty centimes.  Hereupon Rollinat asked him naively:—­

  “Well, why, then, do you not set about it at once?”

  To which Balzac replied: 

  “Oh! because I have so many other things to do; but I shall
  set about it one of these days.”

Stavenow, in Schone Geister (see foot-note, p. 70), tells an anecdote of Balzac, which may find a place here:—­

One day Balzac had invited George Sand, Chopin, and Gutmann to dinner.  On that occasion he related to them that the next day he would have to meet a bill of 30,000 francs, but that he had not a sou in his pocket.  Gutmann asked what he intended to do?  “Well,” replied Balzac, “what shall I do?  I wait quietly.  Before to-morrow something unexpected may turn up, and give me the means to pay the sum.”  Scarcely had he said this when the door bell rang.  The servant entered and announced that a gentleman was there who urgently wished to speak with M. Balzac.

  Balzac rose and left the room.  After a quarter of an hour he
  came back in high spirits and said: 

  “The 30,000 francs are found.  My publisher wishes to bring out
  a new edition of my works, and he offers me just this sum.”

  George Sand, Chopin, and Gutmann looked at each other with a
  smile, and thought—­“Another one!”

George Sand to her son; Paris, September 4, 1840:—­

We have had here great shows of troops.  They have fione the gendarme and cuisse the national guardsman.  All Paris was in agitation, as if there were to be a revolution.  Nothing took place, except that some passers-by were knocked down by the police.

There were places in Paris where it was dangerous to pass, as these gentlemen assassinated right and left for the pleasure of getting their hands into practice.  Chopin, who will not believe anything, has at last the proof and certainty of it.

Madame Marliani is back.  I dined at her house the day before yesterday with the Abbe de Lamennais.  Yesterday Leroux dined here.