s-Elysees. She prevented Victor
Hugo from breaking with Lamartine; she remained the friend of Balzac
when he quarreled with her autocratic husband. She encouraged Gautier,
she consoled George Sand; she had a charming word for every one; and
always and everywhere prevailed her merry laughter--even when she
longed to weep. But her cheery laugh was not her highest endowment;
her greatest gift was in making others laugh.

Balzac had a sincere affection for Delphine Gay and enjoyed her salon.
In his letters to her he often addressed her as _Cara_ and _Ma chere
ecoliere_. Her poetry having been converted into prose by her prosaic
husband, she submitted her writings to Balzac as to an enlightened
master. He asked _Delphine Divine_ to write a preface for his _Etudes
de Femmes_, but she declined, saying that an habitue of the opera who
could so transform himself so as to paint the admirable Abbe
Birotteau, could certainly surpass her in writing _une preface de
femme_. She did, however, write the sonnet on the _Marguerite_ which
Lucien de Rubempre displayed as one of the samples of his volume of
verses to the publisher Dauriat; also _Le Chardon_. Balzac made use of
this poem, however, only in the original edition of his work; it was
replaced in the _Comedie humaine_ by another sonnet, written probably
by Lassailly. Madame de Girardin brings her master before the public
by mentioning his name in her _Marguerite, ou deux Amours_, where a
personage in the book tells about Balzac's return from Austria and his
inability to speak German when paying the coachman.

It was at the home of Madame de Girardin that Lamartine met Balzac for
the first time, June, 1839. He asked her to invite Balzac to dinner
with him that he might thank him, as he was just recovering from an
illness during which he had "simply lived" on the novels of the
_Comedie humaine_. The invitation she wrote Balzac runs as follows:
"M. de Lamartine is to dine with me Sunday, and wishes absolutely to
dine with you. Nothing would give him greater pleasure. Come then and
be obliging. He has a sore leg, you have a sore foot, we will take
care of both of you, we will give you some cushions and footstools.
Come, come! A thousand affectionate greetings." And Lamartine has left
this appreciation of her and her friendship for Balzac:

"Madame Emile de Girardin, daughter of Madame Gay who had reared
her to succeed on her two thrones, the one of beauty, the other of
wit, had