economy and devotion seemed to increase with time, and enabled him to
travel without any worry about his home. What must not have been the
trial to him when this happy household came to be broken up later by
her marriage!


Madame Delannoy was an old family friend of the Balzacs. She aided
Balzac in his financial troubles as early in his career as 1826, and
though he remained indebted to her for more than twenty years, he
tried to repay her and was ever grateful to her, calling her his
second mother. The following, written late in his career, reveals his
general attitude towards her:

"I have just written a long letter to Madame Delannoy, with whom I
have settled my business; but this still leaves me with
obligations of conscientiousness towards her, which my first book
will acquit. No one could have behaved more like a mother, or been
more adorable than she has been throughout all this business. She
has been a mother, I will be a son."

But if she remained one of his principal creditors, she received many
literary proofs of his appreciation. As early as 1831 he dedicated to
her a volume of his _Romans et Contes philosophiques_, but later
changed the title to _Etudes philosophiques_, and dedicated to her _La
Recherche de L'Absolu_:

"To Madame Josephine Delannoy, nee Doumerg.

"Madame, may God grant that this book have a longer life than mine!
The gratitude which I have vowed to you, and which I hope will