the memory of his _Dilecta_ that nine years
after her death, he was deeply affected on seeing at the _Cour
d'Assises_ a woman about forty-five years of age, who strongly
resembled Madame de Berny, and who was being arraigned for deeds
caused by her devotion to a reckless youth.

LA DUCHESSE DE CASTRIES.--MADEMOISELLE DE TRUMILLY

"He who has not seen, at some ball of Madame, Duchesse de Berry,
glide airily, scarcely touching the floor, so moving that one
perceived in her only grace before knowing whether she was a
beauty, a young woman with blond, deep-golden hair; he who has not
seen appear then the young Marquise de Castries in a fete, cannot,
without doubt, form an idea of this new beauty, charming, aerial,
praised and honored in the salons of the Restoration."

Balzac had a brief, yet ardent friendship with the Duchesse de
Castries which ended so unhappily for him that one might say: "Heaven
has no rage like love to hatred turned." Madame de Castries was the
daughter of the Duchesse (nee Fitz-James) and the Duc de Maille. She
did not become a duchess until in 1842, and bore the title of marquise
previous to that time. Separated from her husband as the result of a
famous love affair, the Marquise gathered round her a group of
intellectual people, among whom were the writers Balzac, Musset,
Sainte-Beuve, etc., and continued active in literary and artistic
circles until her death (1861).

On Balzac's return to Paris after a prolonged visit with his friends
at Sache during the month of September, 1831, he received an anonymous
letter, dated at Paris, a circumstance which was with him of rather
frequent occurrence, as with many men of letters.

This lady criticized the _Physiologie du Mariage_, to which Balzac
replies, defending his position:

"The _Physiologie du Mariage_, madame, was a work undertaken for
the purpose of defending the cause of women. I knew that if, with
the view of inculcating ideas favorable to their emancipation and
to a broad and thorough system of education for them, I had gone
to work in a blundering way, I should at best, have been regarded
as nothing more than an author of a theory more or less plausible.
I was therefore, obliged to clothe my ideas, to disguise them
under a new shape, in biting, incisive words that should lay hold
on the mind of my readers, awaken their attention and leave
behind, reflections upon which they might meditate. Thu