He served as administrator
of the General Hospice from 1804 to 1812, and introduced there a
practical reform in providing remunerative work for the old men. As an
attache of the Mayor's office, he had the mayoralty offered him in
1808, but he refused it in order to consecrate himself entirely to the
sick and convalescent.
At Tours the Balzac household led the life of prosperous bourgeois
folk. The father had acquired a house with grounds and farm lands. The
Balzacs entertained and were received in society. People enjoyed--
perhaps with some secret smiles--the unexpected outbursts of the
husband, and they liked him for his kindly ironies which had no touch
of malice. As for the subtle and witty Madame Laure Balzac, who had
preserved all the graces of the eighteenth century, she was found
delightful by all those whom she admitted to the honour of entering her
circle of acquaintances.
She was a young woman of distinguished manner, with a somewhat oval
face and small, delicate features, overcast at times with a shade of
melancholy.
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