be the model for her. I have reached the seventy-second woman who
has had the impertinence to recognize herself in that character.
They are all of ripe age. Even Madame Recamier is willing to
_foedorize herself_. Not a word of all that is true. I made
Foedora out of two women whom I have known without having been
intimate with them. Observation sufficed me, besides a few
confidences. There are also some kind souls who will have it that
I have courted the handsomest of Parisian courtesans and have
concealed myself behind her curtains. These are calumnies. I have
met a Foedora; but that one I shall not paint; besides, it has
been a long time since _La Peau de Chagrin_ was published."

Quoting Amedee Pichot and Dr. Meniere, S. de Lovenjoul states that
Mademoiselle Olympe Pelissier is the woman whom Balzac used as a model
for his Foedora, and that, like Raphael, he concealed himself in her
bedroom. She is indeed the woman without a heart; she kept in the rue
Neuve-du-Luxembourg a salon frequented by noted political people such
as the Duc de Fitz-James. Being rich as well as beautiful, and having
an exquisite voice, she was highly attractive to the novelist, who
aspired to her hand, and who regarded her refusal with bitterness all
his life. Several years later she was married to her former voice
teacher, M. Rossini.

Balzac met the famous Olympe early in his literary career; he says of
her:

"Two years ago, Sue quarreled with a _mauvaise courtesone_
celebrated for her beauty (she is the original of Vernet's
_Judith_). I lowered myself to reconcile them, and they gave her
to me. M. de Fitz-James, the Duc de Duras, and the old count went