Madame Hanska felt that she was growing old, but Balzac assured her that he should love her even were she ugly, and he relieved her mind of this fear by writing in her /Journal intime/ that although he had not seen her since they were in Vienna, he thought her as beautiful and young as then--after an interval of seven years.[*] [*] Balzac should have said an interval of /eight/ years instead of /seven/, for he visited her in Vienna in May and June, 1835, and he wrote this in September 1843. This is only one of the novelist's numerous mistakes in figuring, seen throughout his entire works. Balzac arrived in St. Petersburg on July 17/29, and left there late in September,[*] 1843, stopping to visit in Berlin and Dresden. Becoming very ill, he cut short his visit to Mayence and Cologne and arrived in Paris November 3, in order to consult his faithful Dr. Nacquart. Excess of work, the sorrow of leaving Madame Hanska, disappointment, and deferred hopes were too much for his nervous system. His letters to Madame Hanska were, if possible, filled with greater detail than ever concerning his debts, his household and family matters, his works and society gossip. The /tu/ frequently replaces the /vous/, and having apparently exhausted all the endearing names in the French language, he resorted to the Hebrew, and finds that /Lididda/ means so many beautiful things that he employs this word. He calls her /Liline/ or /Line/; she becomes his /Louloup/, his "lighthouse," his "happy star," and the /sicura richezza, senza brama/. [*] Unless the editor of /Lettres a l'Etrangere/ is confusing the French and Russian dates, he has made a mistake in dating certain of Balzac's letters from St. Petersburg. He had two dated October 1843, St. Petersburg, and on his way home from there Balzac writes from Taurogen dating his letter September 27-October 10, 1843. Hence the exact date of his departure from St. Petersburg is obscure. Madame Hanska and Balzac seem to have had many idiosyncrasies in common, among which was their /penchant/ for jewelry, as well as perfumes. Since their meeting at Geneva, the two exchanged gifts of jewelry frequently, and the discussion, engraving, measuring, and exchanging of various rings occupied much of Balzac's precious time. His fondness for antiques was another extravagance, and he invested not a little in certain pieces of furniture which had belonged to Marie de Medicis and Henri IV; this purchase he regretted later, and talked of selling, but, instead, added continually to his collection. He was constantly sending, or wanting to send some present to Madame Hanska or to her daughter Anna, but nothing could be compared with the priceless gift he received from her. The Daffinger miniature arrived February 2, 1844.