Gobseck/Dedication

To M. le Baron Barchou de Penhoen.

Among all the pupils of the Oratorian school at Vendome, we are, I think, the only two who have afterwards met in mid-career of a  life of letters&mdash;we who once were cultivating Philosophy when by  rights we should have been minding our De viris. When we met, you were engaged upon your noble works on German philosophy, and I upon this study. So neither of us has missed his vocation; and you, when you see your name here, will feel, no doubt, as much pleasure as he who inscribes his work to you.&mdash;Your old schoolfellow,

1840                                             De Balzac.