thousand _ecus_, pay all his creditors within two years, amass a dowry
for her and become a peer of France!

Balzac had forbidden his nieces to read his books, promising to write
one especially for them. The book referred to here is _Ursule Mirouet_
which he dedicated to Sophie as follows:

"To Mademoiselle Sophie Surville.

"It is a real pleasure, my dear niece, to dedicate to you a book of
which the subject and the details have gained the approbation--so
difficult to secure--of a young girl to whom the world is yet
unknown, and who will make no compromise with the high principles
derived from a pious education. You young girls are a public to be
dreaded; you ought never to be permitted to read any books less
pure than your own pure souls, and you are forbidden certain
books, just as you are not allowed to see society as it really is.
Is it not enough, then, to make a writer proud, to know that he
has satisfied you? Heaven grant that affection may not have misled
you! Who can say? The future only, which you, I hope, will see,
though he may not, who is your uncle
"BALZAC."

To Valentine Surville he dedicated _La Paix du Menage_.

The novelist was interested in helping his sister find suitable
husbands for her daughters. He and Sophie had a wager as to which--she
or he--would marry first; so when Balzac finally reached his own
long-sought goal, he did not forget to remind his niece that she owed
him a wedding gift.