ry age, and vexed with nothing because she
has the tact of foreseeing everything. At once tender and gay, she
first constrains and then consoles you. You love her so truly that
if this angel does wrong, you are ready to justify her. Such was
Madame Firmiani."

It was to Madame de Berny's son, Alexandre, that Balzac dedicated
_Madame Firmiani_, and he no doubt recognized the portrait.

Balzac often portrayed his own life and his association with women in
his works. In commenting on _La Peau de Chagrin_, he writes:

"Pauline is a real personage for me, only more lovely than I could
describe her. If I have made her a dream it is because I did not
wish my secret to be discovered."

And again, in writing of _Louis Lambert_:

"You know when you work in tapestry, each stitch is a thought.
Well, each line in this new work has been for me an abyss. It
contains things that are secrets between it and me."

In portraying the yearnings and sufferings of Louis Lambert (_Louis
Lambert_), of Felix de Vandenesse (_Le Lys dans la Vallee_) and of
Raphael (La Peau de Chagrin_), Balzac is picturing his own life.
Pauline de Villenoix (_Louis Lambert_) and Pauline Gaudin (_Le Peau de
Chagrin_) are possibly drawn from the same woman and have many
characteristics of Madame de Berny. Madame de Mortsauf (_Le Lys dans
la Vallee_) is Pauline, though not so outspoken. Then, is it not _La
Dilecta_ whom the novelist had in mind when Louis Lambert writes:

"When I lay my head on your knees, I could wish to attract to you
the eyes of the whole world, just as I long to concentrate in my
love every idea, every power within me";

and near the end of life, could not Madame de Berny say as did Pauline
in the closing lines of _Louis Lambert_:

"His heart was mine; his genius is with God"?

The year 1832 was a critical one in the private life of Balzac. Madame
de Berny, more than twenty years his senior, felt that they should
sever their close connection and remain as friends only. Balzac's
family had long been opposed to this intimate relationship and had
repeatedly tried to find a rich wife for him. Madame de Castries, who
had begun an anonymous correspondence with him, revealed her identity
early in that year, and the first letter from l'Etrangere, who was
soon to over-shadow all his other loves, arrived February 28, 1832.
During the same period Mademoiselle de Trumilly rejected his hand.
With so many distractions, Balzac