de Margonne, M. Salmon de
Maison-Rouge, in a vivid account of Balzac's visits to Sache. "My
father, who prided himself upon playing a very good game of checkers,
on one occasion tried a game with him. After several moves my father
said, "Why, Monsieur de Balzac, we are not playing Give-away! You are
letting me take all your men; you are not playing the game seriously."
"Indeed, I am," rejoined Balzac, "as seriously as possible," and he
continued to let his men be taken. At last he had only one man left,
but he had so managed the moves that, without my father being aware of
it, this last man was in a position to take all the men my father had
left in one single swoop,--and there were a good many, for M. de Balzac
had taken only six up to that move. From that time onward my father
regarded him as one of the keenest minds that had ever lived."
(Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Touraine, Volume XII.)
But Balzac was not staying at Sache for the purpose of playing
checkers, and in the same notice M. Salmon tells of his habits of work,
on the strength of an account given by M.
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