society of friends offered Madame Recamier many diversions,
she was often a prey to melancholy. The Duchess D'Abrantes, who saw her
here, casually mentions her dejection in her Memoirs, and Chateaubriand
says that the separation from Madame de Stael weighed heavily upon her
spirits. He also alludes to a coolness between the friends, caused by
Madame de Stael's marriage with Monsieur de Rocca. The desire to keep
this connection secret induced Madame de Stael to write to her friend,
declining a proposed visit from her, on the plea that she was about to
leave Switzerland. Chateaubriand asserts that Madame Recamier felt this
slight severely, but Madame Lenormant makes no allusion to the
circumstance.

At Lyons Madame Recamier met the author, Monsieur Ballanche. He was
presented to her by Camille Jordan, and, in the words of her biographer,
"from that moment Monsieur Ballanche belonged to Madame Recamier." He
was the least exacting of any of her friends. All he asked was to devote
his life to her, and to be allowed to worship her. His friends called
her his Beatrice. As he was an extremely awkward and ugly man, the two
might have been termed with equal propriety "Beauty and the Beast."
Monsieur Ballanche's face had been frightfully disfigured by an
operation, and though his friends thought that his fine eyes and
expression redeemed his appearance, he was, to strangers, particularly
unprepossessing. He was, moreover, very absent-minded. When he joined
Madame Recamier at Rome, she noticed, during an evening walk with him,
that he had no hat. In reply to her questions, he quietly said, "Oh,
yes, he had left it at Alexandria." He had, in fact, forgotten it; and
it never occurred to him to replace it by another. Madame Lenormant
relates an anecdote of his second interview with Madame Recamier, which
is illustrative of his simplicity.

"He found her alone, working on embroidery. The conversation at first
languished, but soon became interesting,--for, though Monsieur Ballanche
had no chit-chat, he talked extremely well on subjects which interested
him, such as philosophy, morals, politics, and literature.
Unfortunately, his shoes had an odor about them which was very
disagreeable to Madame Recamier. It finally made her faint, and,
overcoming with difficulty the embarrassment she felt in speaking of so
prosaic an annoyance, she timidly avowed to him that the smell of his
shoes was unpleasant. Monsieur Ballanche apologized, humbly r