f jealous by his devotion to Lady Arabelle Dudley. It will be
remembered that Madame Hanska was suspicious of Balzac's relations
with an English lady, Countess Visconti, although the novelist states
that he had written this work before he knew Madame Visconti. The
novelist has doubtless combined traits of various women in a single
character, but the fact still remains that he was depicting life as he
knew it, even if he did not attempt exact portraiture.

While the famous Vicomtesse de Beauseant (_La Femme abandonnee_) has
many characteristics of the Duchesse d'Abrantes, and some of those of
Madame de Berny, and _La Femme abandonnee_ was written the year Balzac
severed his relations with his _Dilecta_. But it is especially in the
gentleness and patience portrayed in Madame Firmiani, in the affection
and self-sacrifice of Pauline de Villenoix for Louis Lambert, and the
devotion of Pauline Gaudin to Raphael in _La Peau de Chagrin_ that
Madame de Berny is most strikingly represented. She was all this and
more to Balzac. Furthermore, he may have obtained from her his
historical color for _Un Episode sous la Terreur_, just as he was
influenced by Madame Junot in writing stories of the Empire and
Corsican vengeance.

It was perhaps to avoid recognition of the heroine and to revenge
himself on Madame de Castries that he made the Duchesse de Langeais
enter a convent and die, after her failure to master the Marquis de
Montriveau, while for his part the hero soon forgot her.

Soon after introducing Madame de Mortsauf (_Le Lys dans la Vallee_),
Balzac compares her to the fragrant heather gathered on returning from
the Villa Diodati. After studying carefully his long period of
association with Madame Hanska, one can see the importance which the
Villa Diodati had in his life. This is only another incident, small
though it be, showing how this woman impressed herself so deeply on
the novelist that almost unconsciously he brought memories of his
_Predilecta_ into his work. It has been shown that she served as a
model for some of his most attractive heroines; was honored, under
different names, with the dedication of three works besides the one
dedicated to her daughter; and was the originator of one of his most
popular novels for young girls, while many traces of herself and her
family connections are found throughout the whole _Comedie humaine_.

Though by far the most important of them all, she was only one of the
many _etranger