would have done better to pay me what he owes me!"

Another poor old woman, playing a far more important role in Balzac's
work, lived at Issoudun and was called "La Rabouilleuse." For a long
time, she had been the servant and mistress of a physician in the
town. This wretched creature had an end different to the one Balzac
gave his Rabouilleuse, but just as miserable, for having grown old,
sick, despoiled and without means, she did not have the patience to
wait until death sought her, but ended her miserable existence by
throwing herself into a well.

The doctor, it seems, at his death had left her a little home and some
money, but his heirs had succeeded in robbing her of it entirely.
--Perhaps this story is the origin of the contest of Dr. Rouget's
heirs with his mistress.

This Rabouilleuse had a daughter who inherited her name, there being
nothing else to inherit; she was a dish washer at the Hotel de la
Cloche, where Balzac often dined while at Issoudun. Can it be that he
saw her there and learned from her the story of her mother?


Balzac was acquainted also with Madame Carraud's sister, Madame
Philippe Nivet. M. Nivet was an important merchant of Limoges, living
in a pretty, historical home there. It was in this home that Balzac
visited early in his literary career, going there partly in order to
visit these friends, partly to see Limoges, and partly to examine the
scene in which he was going to place one of his most beautiful novels,
_Le Cure de Village_. While crossing a square under the conduct of the
young M. Nivet, Balzac perceived at the corner of the rue de la