of the wealth of history it recalled. He was happy to make the
acquaintance of one who could give him precise information of the
details of the _Directoire_ and of the Empire, an instruction begun by
the _commere Gay_. Thus the Duchesse d'Abrantes was to exercise over
him, though in a less degree, the same influence for the comprehension
of the Imperial world that Madame de Berry did for the Royalist world,
just as the Duchesse de Castries later was to initiate him into the
society of the Faubourg Saint-Germain.

Madame d'Abrantes, pleased as she was to meet literary people,
welcomed most cordially the young author who came to her seeking
stories of the Corsican. Owing to financial difficulties she was
leading a rather retired and melancholy life, and the brilliant and
colorful language of Balzac, fifteen years her junior, aroused her
heart from its torpor, and her friendship for him took a peculiar
tinge of sentiment which she allowed to increase. It had been many
years since she had been thus moved, and this new feeling, which came
to her as she saw the twilight of her days approaching, was for her a
love that meant youth and life itself.

Hence her words pierced the very soul of Balzac and kindled an
enthusiasm which made her appear to him greater than she really was;
she literally dazzled and subjugated him. Her gaiety and animation in
relating incidents of the Imperial court, and her autumnal sunshine,
its rays still glowing with warmth as well as brightness, compelled
Balzac to perceive for the second time in his life the insatiability
of the woman who has passed her first youth--the woman of thirty, or
the tender woman of forty. The fact is, however, not that Balzac
created _la femme sensible de guarante ans_, as is stated by Philarete
Chasles, so much as that two women of forty, Madame de Berny and