Those few months of fashionable life and his frequenting aristocratic
clubs had put his affairs in a piteous state. Mme. de Balzac drew up a
balance sheet, without any attempt to spare him, and pointed out just
what sacrifices were necessary. He was in no position to meet the heavy
demands, in spite of his desperate toil. A gleam of hope, however, came
in the midst of his distress, for his friends at Sache held out
prospects of a wealthy marriage; but this hope was an elusive one: the
prospective bride was not expected in Touraine until the month of
October, and how in the meantime was he to pay his pressing debts? He
calculated the utmost that he could earn, he assumed certain advances,
he added up and with the help of his optimism he swelled his
prospective receipts, yet not sufficiently to satisfy his creditors. He
groaned, for he did not wish to sell at a loss what he had acquired
with such difficulty, despoil himself, strip himself bare like a St.
John;--then his energy reawoke and his self-confidence enabled him to
accept the hard test.
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