detail concerning the family life. Of his grandmother, we find the
following:

"Grandmamma begs me to say all the pretty things she would write if
that unfortunate malady did not rob her of all her facilities!
Nevertheless she begins to think her head is better, and if the
spring comes there is every reason to hope she will recover her
wonted gaiety. . . . Grandmamma is suffering from a nervous
attack; . . . Papa says that grandmamma is a clever actress who
knows the value of a walk, of a glance, and how to fall gracefully
into an easy chair."

If Madame Sallambier with her nervous attacks annoyed Balzac in his
youth, he spoke beautifully of her after her death, and referred to
her as his "grandmother who loved him," or his "most excellent
grandmother." In speaking of his grief over the death of Madame de
Berny, he said that never, since the death of his grandmother, had he
so deeply sounded the gulf of separation. One of his characteristics
he inherited from his grandmother, that of keeping trivial things
which had belonged to those he loved.


Not a great deal is said of Balzac's younger sister, Laurentia, but he
has left this pen picture of her:

"On the whole you know that Laurentia is as beautiful as a picture
--that she has the prettiest of arms and hands, that her
complexion is pale and lovely. In conversation people give her
credit for plenty of sense, and find that it is all a natural
sense, which is not yet developed. She has beautiful eyes, and