become a regular
attendant only a few months before that date. Sainte-Beuve himself
has told us that the Faubourg Saint-Germain _was closed to men of
letters before 1830_, and since it had to spend a few years
becoming accustomed to their admittance, Sainte-Beuve's testimony
is not at all valid as regards the great ladies of the
Restoration, even at the end."

Perhaps it is due partly to the above statement and partly to the fact
that Balzac tried to give the impression that he led a sort of
monastic life, that it is generally believed the novelist never had
access to the aristocratic society of his time, and never had an
opportunity of observing the great ladies or of frequenting the
marvelous balls and receptions that fill so large a place in his
writings. Whether he made a success of such descriptions is not the
question here, but the following pages will at least furnish proof
that he not only had many social opportunities, but that his presence
was sought by many women belonging to high life and the nobility.

In presenting in the following pages a somewhat imposing list of
duchesses, countesses and women of varying degrees of nobility, it is
not intended to picture Balzac as a _preux chevalier_, for he was far
from being one. Even in the most refined of _salons_, he displayed his
Rabelaisian manners and costume, and remained the typical author of
the _Contes drolatiques_; but to maintain that he never knew women of
the upper class or never even entered their society, involves a
misapprehension of the facts. Neither would the present writer give
the impression that this was the only class of women he knew or
associated with, for he certainly was acquainted with many of the
_bourgeoisie_ and of the peasant class; but here it is difficult to
make out a case, since his letters to or about women of these classes
are rare, and literary men of his day have not given many details of
his association with them.

From Balzac's youth, his most intense longings were to be famous and
to be loved. At times it might almost be thought that the second
desire took precedence over the first, but it was not the ordinary
woman that this future _Napoleon litteraire_ was seeking. His desire
was to win the affection of some lady of high standing, and when urged
by his family to consider marriage with a certain rich widow of the
_bourgeoisie_, it can be imagined with what a sense of relief he wrote
his mother that the bird