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Show "VAMPS" WHO I MADE HISTORY By JAMES C. YOUNG. g 1(c) by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) THE WOMAN WHO KILLED A GENIUS. A XI one In the least familiar with the writings of Houore de Balzac, Bal-zac, perhaps the greatest novelist of France, must have been stirred by the white heat of his Imagination. Just conceive such a man at the age of thirty-three, on the tide of his first success. suc-cess. He was being acclaimed everywhere. every-where. Letters poured In from admirers. admir-ers. Among these was a simple missive mis-sive signed "The Stranger," mailed from Odessa. A woman had written it. In this letter the unknown Invited Balzac to answer her through a newspaper news-paper advertisement. Eagerly he did so, and soon another letter came. The writer was Evelina Hanska, tlie young wife of a man twenty-five years older, and mistress of a great fortress-like castle in the Ukraine, Russia. The burning words of Balzac drew her to Neufchatel. Picture to yourself how both must have felt before and after they met. She was tall, elegant, high born. He was fat, short and not hand- some. He says himself that she drew back astounded when she saw him. But It was not long until the woman saw in tlie man's remarkable eyes the genius which was his. They loved and parted, she returning to her lonely castle and he to endless work. Certainly the love of Balzac must have been a tribute which pleased the fancy of Evelina Hanska. But her heart seems to have been as cold as her castle walls. The two corresponded, correspond-ed, and she toyed with the great man. There was her husband, whom she w ould not leave. Balzac assented and saw her at infrequent intervals over a period of years. For seventeen years Balzac's devotion devo-tion endured. Mme. Hanska's coquetry was the great sorrow of his life. Then the husband died. She wrote to him and he went off to that bleak Russia where she lived. Again there were delays. She would promise nothing. He came back to Paris and after more letters again started for Russia. It was In March, 1850, that he arrived, his heart almost congealed by the cold. And at last his evil genius consented to bestow upon hlrij the happiness he had sought so long. They were married mar-ried and started for France in April. But Balzac was near the end. In Dresden he fell seriously ill. She went out shopping and returned with a won-Jrous won-Jrous string of pearls. But Balzac rallied and they went on to Paris. There he had prepared a rare home for her, filled with art treasures. treas-ures. He, at least, was happier than he ever had been. She revelled In the Paris shops. Five months later Balzac Bal-zac died, a victim of the Russian cold on a weakened heart. When the end came his wife "had gone to her room." |