polished in the art of conversing. His conversation was but little
more than an amusing monologue, bright and at times noisy, but
uniquely filled with himself, and that which concerned him personally.
The good, like the evil, was so grossly exaggerated that both lost all
appearance of truth. As time went on, his financial embarrassments
continually growing and his hopes of relieving them increasing in the
same proportion, his future millions and his present debts were the
subject of all his discourses.

Madame Gay was by no means universally beloved. In her sharp and
disagreeable voice she said much good of herself and much evil of
others. She had a mania for titles and was ever ready to mention some
count, baron or marquis. In her drawing-room, Balzac found a direct
contrast to the Royalist salon of the beautiful Duchesse de Castries
which he frequented. In both salons, he met a society entirely
unfamiliar to him, and acquainted himself sufficiently with the
conventions of these two spheres to make use of them in his novels.

The _Physiologie du Mariage_, published anonymously in December, 1829,
gave rise to a great deal of discussion. According to Spoelberch de
Lovenjoul, two women well advanced in years, Madame Sophie Gay and
Madame Hamelin, are supposed to have inspired the work, and even to
have dictated some of its anecdotes least flattering to their sex.
This Madame Hamelin, born in Guadeloupe about 1776, was the marvel of
the _Directoire_, and several times was sent on secret missions by
Napoleon. The role she played under the _Directoire_, the _Consulat_
and the Empire is not clear, but she was a confidential friend of
Chateaubriand, lived in the noted house called the _Madeleine_, near
the forest of Fontainebleau, and wrote about it as did Madame de
Sevigne about _Les Rochers_. While living there, she received her