Such assistance was naturally much appreciated by a woman so utterly
ignorant of business matters. But if Balzac aided the Duchess, he
caused her publishers much annoyance, and more than once he received a
sharp letter rebuking him for interfering with the affairs of Madame
d'Abrantes.

It was doubtless due to the suggestion of Balzac that Madame
d'Abrantes wrote her _Memoires_. He was so thrilled by her vivid
accounts of recent history, that he was seized with the idea that she
had it in her power to do for a brilliant epoch what Madame Roland
attempted to do for one of grief and glory. He felt that she had
witnessed such an extraordinary multiplicity of scenes, had known a
remarkable number of heroic figures and great characters, and that
nature had endowed her with unusual gifts.

A few years before her death, _La Femme abandonnee_ was dedicated:

"To her Grace the Duchesse d'Abrantes,

"from her devoted servant,

"HONORE DE BALZAC."

If such was the role played by Balzac in the life of Madame
d'Abrantes, how is she reflected in the _Comedie humaine_?

It is a well known fact that Balzac not only borrowed names from
living people, but that he portrayed the features, incidents and
peculiarities of those with whom he was closely associated. In the
_Avant-propos de la Comedie humaine_, he writes: "In composing types