"To Sofka.

"Have you not observed, mademoiselle, that the painters and
sculptors of the Middle Ages, when they placed two figures in
adoration, one on each side of a fair Saint, never fail to give
them a family likeness? On seeing your name among those who are
dear to me, and under whose auspices I place my works, remember
that touching harmony, and you will see in this not so much an act
of homage as an expression of the brotherly affection of your
devoted servant,
"DE BALZAC."


LA COMTESSE TURHEIM--LA COMTESSE DE BOCARME--LA COMTESSE MERLIN
--LA PRINCESSE GALITZIN DE GENTHOL--LA BARONNE DE ROTHSCHILD
--LA COMTESSE MAFFEI--LA COMTESSE SERAFINA SAN-SERVERINO
--LA COMTESSE BOLOGNINI

"I have found a letter from the kind Comtesse Loulou, who loves you
and whom you love, and in whose letter your name is mentioned in a
melancholy sentence which drew tears to my eyes; . . . I am going
to write to the good Loulou without telling her all she has done
by her letter, for such things are difficult to express, even to
that kind German woman. But she spoke of you with so much soul
that I can tell her that what in her is friendship, in me is
worship that can never end."

The Countess Louise Turheim called "Loulou" by her intimate friends
and her sister Princess Constantine Razumofsky, met Madame Hanska in