slightest movement. The lines of her forehead gathered between her
brows, and the expression of her face grew dark in the soft
candle-light. . . ." The Duchesse d'Abrantes had on two occasions rung
to dismiss her lovers, M. de Montrond and General Sebastiani. Balzac
had doubtless heard her relate these incidents, and they are contained
in the _Journal intime_, which she gave him.[*]

[*] Madame d'Abrantes presented several objects of a literary nature
to Balzac, among others, a book of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a few
leaves of which he presented to Madame Hanska for her collection
of autographs.

In _La Femme abandonnee_, Balzac describes Madame de Beauseant as
having taken refuge in Normandy, "after a notoriety which women for
the most part envy and condemn, especially when youth and beauty in
some way excuse the transgression." Can it be that the novelist thus
condones the fault of this noted character because he wishes to pardon
the _liaison_ of Madame d'Abrantes with the Comte de Metternich?

Is it then because so many traces of Madame d'Abrantes are found in
_La Femme abandonnee_, and allusions are made to minute episodes known
to them alone, that he dedicated it to her?

Was Balzac thinking of the Duchesse d'Abrantes when, in _Un Grand
Homme de Province a Paris_, speaking of Lucien Chardon, who had just
arrived in Paris at the beginning of the Restoration, he writes: "He
met several of those women who will be spoken of in the history of the
nineteenth century, whose wit, beauty and loves will be none the less
celebrated than those of queens in times past."