Their relationship from the beginning of their correspondence to the tragic end which came so soon after Balzac had arrived "at the summit of happiness," has been shrouded in mystery. This mystery has been heightened by the vivid imagination of some of Balzac's biographers, where fancy replace facts. Miss Katherine P. Wormeley denies the authenticity of some of the letters published in the /Lettres a l'Etrangere/, saying: "No explanation is given of how these letters were obtained, and no proof or assurance is offered of their authenticity. A foot-note appended to the first letter merely states as follows: 'M. le vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, in whose hands are the originals of these letters, has related the history of this correspondence in detail, under the title of /Un Roman d'Amour/ (Calmann Levy, publisher). Madame Hanska, born Evelina (Eve) Rzewuska, who was then twenty-six or twenty-eight years old, resided at the chateau of Wierzchownia, in Volhynia. An enthusiastic reader of the /Scenes de la Vie privee/, uneasy at the different turns which the mind of the author was taking in /La Peau de Chagrin/, she addressed to Balzac--then thirty-three years old, in the care of the publisher Gosselin, a letter signed /l'Etrangere/, which was delivered to him February 18, 1832. Other letters followed; that of November 7 ended thus: 'A word from you in the /Quotidienne/ will give me the assurance that you have received my letter, and that I can write to you without fear. Sign it; to /l'E---- H. de B/.' This acknowledgment of reception appeared in the /Quotidienne/ of December 9. Thus was inaugurated the system of /petite/ correspondence now practised in divers newspapers, and at the same time, this correspondence with her who was seventeen years later, in 1850, to become his wife."[*] [*] Miss M. F. Sandars states that a copy of the /Quotidienne/ containing this acknowledgment was in the possession of the Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, and that she saw it. At the time of writing this preface, Miss Wormeley did not believe the correspondence began until February, 1833. In undertaking to prove this, she cited a letter from Balzac written to Madame Hanska, dated January 4, 1846, in which he says that the thirteen years will soon be completed since he received her first letter. She corrects this statement, however, in writing her /Memoir of Balzac/ three years later. The mistake in this letter here mentioned is only an example of the inaccuracy of Balzac, found not only in his letters, but throughout the /Comedie humaine/. But Miss Wormeley's argument might have been refuted by quoting another letter from Balzac to Madame Hanska dated February, 1840: "After eight years you do not know me!"