weighing on Balzac's soul when he relates, in _Le Cure de
Village_, the tragic story of the young workman who dies from love
without opening his lips.

M. Brunetiere has suggested that the woman whose traits best recall
Madame de Berny is Marguerite Claes, the victim in _La Recherche de
l'Absolu_, while the nature of Balzac's affection for this great
friend of his youth has not been better expressed than in Balthasar
Claes, she always ready to sacrifice all for him, and he, as
Balthasar, always ready, in the interest of his "grand work," to rob
her and make her desperate while loving her. However, Balzac states,
in speaking of Madame de Berny:

"At any moment death may take from me an angel who has watched over
me for fourteen years; she, too, a flower of solitude, whom the
world had never touched, and who has been my star. My work is not
done without tears! The attentions due to her cast uncertainty
upon any time of which I could dispose, though she herself unites
with the doctor in advising me some strong diversions. She pushes
friendship so far as to hide her sufferings from me; she tries to
seem well for me. You understand that I have not drawn Claes to do
as he! Great God! what changes in her have been wrought in two
months! I am overwhelmed."

M. le Breton has suggested that Madame de Berny is Catherine in _La
Derniere Fee_, Madame d'Aiglemont in _La Femme de trente Ans_, and
Madame de Beauseant in _La Femme abandonnee_, and has strengthened
this last statement by pointing out that Gaston de Nueil came to
Madame de Beauseant after she had been deserted by her lover, the
Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, just as the youthful Balzac came to Madame de