I retired after having promised some articles for La Chronique de Paris, where Le Tour en Belgique, La Morte Amoureuse, La Chaine d'Or, and other literary works had appeared. Charles de Bernard, who had also been called by Balzac, contributed La Femme de Quarante Ans, La Rose Jaune, and some new work since collected into volumes. Balzac, as one knows, had invented the woman of thirty years; his imitator added ten years to that already venerable age and his heroine obtained no less success. Before going further, let's pause for a moment and give some details of Balzac's life prior to my acquaintance with him. My authorities will be Madame de Surville, his sister, and himself. Balzac was born in Tours, May 16, 1799, on the day of the celebration of Saint Honoré who gave him his name, which sounded good and augured well. Little Honoré was not a child prodigy; he did not announce prematurely that he would write La Comédie Humaine. He was a fresh, rosy, healthy boy, fond of play, with gentle, sparkling eyes, but in no way distinguished from other boys of his age, at least upon casual observation. At seven, upon leaving a day school in Tours, he attended a secondary school in Vendôme run by the Oratoriens, where he was thought to be a very mediocre student. The first part of Louis Lambert contains curious information regarding this period of Balzac's life. Dividing his own personality, he describes himself as an old classmate of Louis Lambert, sometimes speaking in his name, and sometimes lending his own sentiments to this person who is imaginary, yet very real, since he is a sort of lens into the writer's very soul. "Situated in the middle of the town, upon the little river Loire that bathes its walls, the college forms a vast enclosure containing the establishments necessary for an institution of this kind: a chapel, a theater, an infirmary, a bakery, some streams of water. This college, the most celebrated seat of instruction of the central provinces, is populated by those provinces and by our colonies. The distance does not allow parents to come here often to see their children; the rules forbid vacations away from the institution. Once they have entered, the pupils do not leave the college until the end of their studies. With the exception of walks taken outside under the supervision of the Fathers, everything had been planned to give to this house all of the advantages of monastic discipline. In my time, the corrector was still a living memory, and the leather strap played with honor its terrible role." It is in this way that Balzac described this formidable college, which left in his imagination such persistent memories.