or interfering with the affairs of Madame
d'Abrantes.

It was doubtless due to the suggestion of Balzac that Madame
d'Abrantes wrote her _Memoires_. He was so thrilled by her vivid
accounts of recent history, that he was seized with the idea that she
had it in her power to do for a brilliant epoch what Madame Roland
attempted to do for one of grief and glory. He felt that she had
witnessed such an extraordinary multiplicity of scenes, had known a
remarkable number of heroic figures and great characters, and that
nature had endowed her with unusual gifts.

A few years before her death, _La Femme abandonnee_ was dedicated:

"To her Grace the Duchesse d'Abrantes,

"from her devoted servant,

"HONORE DE BALZAC."

If such was the role played by Balzac in the life of Madame
d'Abrantes, how is she reflected in the _Comedie humaine_?

It is a well known fact that Balzac not only borrowed names from
living people, but that he portrayed the features, incidents and
peculiarities of those with whom he was closely associated. In the
_Avant-propos de la Comedie humaine_, he writes: "In composing types
by putting together traits of homogeneous natures, I might perhaps
attain to the writing of that history forgotten by so many
historians,--the history of manners."

In fact, he too might have said: "I take my property wherever I find
it;" accordingly one would naturally look for characteristics of
Madame d'Abrantes in his earlier works.

According to M. Joseph Turquain, Mademoiselle des Touches, in
_Beatrix_, generally understood to be George Sand, has also some of
the characteristics of Madame d'Abrantes. Balzac describes
Mademoiselle des Touches as being past forty and _un peu homme_, which
reminds one that the Countess Dash describes Madame d'Abrantes as
being rather masculine, with an _organe de rogome_, and a virago when
past forty. Calyste became enamored of Beatrix after having loved
Mademoiselle des Touches, while Balzac became infatuated with Madame
de Castries after having been in love with Madame d'Abrantes, in each
case, the blonde after the brunette.

Mademoiselle Josephine, the elder and beloved daughter of Madame
d'Abrantes, entered the Convent of the Sisters of Charity of
Saint-Vincent de Paul, contrary to the desires of her mother. In writing
to the Duchess (1831), Balzac asks that Sister Josephine may not forget
him in her prayers, for he is remembering her in his books. Balzac may