the secret she probably suspected in the heart of her mother, and
which she felt was not complimentary to the memory of her father. And
also, in _La Recherche de l'Absolu_: "There comes a moment, in the
inner life of families, when the children become, either voluntarily
or involuntarily, the judges of their parents."

In writing the introduction to the _Physiologie du Mariage_, Balzac
states that here he is merely the humble secretary of two women. He is
doubtless referring to Madame d'Abrantes as one of the two when he
says:

"Some days later the author found himself in the company of two
ladies. The first had been one of the most humane and most
intellectual women of the court of Napoleon. Having attained a
high social position, the Restoration surprised her and caused her
downfall; she had become a hermit. The other, young, beautiful,
was playing at that time, in Paris, the role of a fashionable
woman. They were friends, for the one being forty years of age,
and the other twenty-two, their aspirations rarely caused their
vanity to appear on the same scene. 'Have you noticed, my dear,
that in general women love only fools?'--'_What are you saying,
Duchess?_'"[*]

[*] M. Turquain states that Madame Hamelin is one of these women and
that the Duchesse d'Abrantes in incontestably the other. For a
different opinion, see the chapter on Madame Gay. The italics are
the present writer's.

In _La Femme abandonnee_, Madame de Beauseant resembles the Duchess as
portrayed in this description: