love or devotion beyond a light veneer, because nature had created
some women morally poor."

At first, Balzac was too enraptured to judge her accurately, but after
frequenting her salon for several months, he says of her:

"It is necessary that I go and climb about at Aix, in Savoy, to run
after some one who, perhaps, will laugh at me--one of those
aristocratic women of whom you no doubt have a horror; one of
those angelic beauties to whom one ascribes a soul; a true
duchess, very disdainful, very loving, subtle, witty, a coquette,
like nothing I have ever yet seen, and who says she loves me, who
wants to keep me in a palace at Venice (for I tell you
everything), and who desires I should write nothing, except for
her; one of those women who must be worshiped on one's knees when
they wish it, and whom one has such pleasure in conquering; a
woman to be dreamt of, jealous of everything."

A few weeks later he writes from Aix:

"I have come here to seek at once both much and little. Much,
because I see daily a person full of grace and amiability, little,
because she is never likely to love me."

Under the influence of the Duchesse de Castries and the Duc de
Fitz-James, Balzac gave more and more prominence to Catholic and
Legitimist sentiments; and it was perhaps for her sake that the
novelist offered himself as a candidate for deputy in several
districts, but was defeated in all of them. He thought it quite
probable that the Duc de Fitz-James would be elected in at least two