him certain favorite recipes, and planned to have Sophie play with the
young countess.

Sophie seemed to have some of the traits of her grandmother; for the
novelist wrote his sister:

"Sophie has traced out a catechism of what she considers _my
duties_ towards you, just as last year my mother wrote me a
catechism of my duties towards my nieces; it is a sort of cholera
peculiar to our family, to lecture uncles both at home and abroad.
I make fun if it, but all these little things are remarked upon,
which I do not like; then these blank pages make me furious. I
forgive Sophie on account of the _motif_, which is you, and for
all she and Valentine have done for your _fete_. Ah! if my wishes
are ever realized, how I shall enjoy introducing my dear nieces,
both so unspoiled by the devil! I have sung their praises here. I
have said Sophie is a great musician: I add, Valentine is a _man
of letters_, and she is tired with writing three pages."


If certain letters received by Balzac from his family irritated him,
he perhaps unconsciously was making his sister jealous by continually
extolling the young Countess Mniszech:

"She has a genius, as well as a love, for music; if she had not
been an heiress, she would have been a great artiste. If she comes
to Paris in eighteen months or two years, she will take lessons in
thorough bass and composition. It is all she needs as regards
music. She has (without exaggeration) hands the size of a child of
eight years old. These minute, supple, white hands, three of which