muttered maledictions on the old woman. Madame de Girardin pretended
that Balzac had invented all this for the sake of a carriage drive to
Auteuil, and to procure agreeable traveling companions. But if
disappointed on this occasion, Balzac was more successful at another
time, when with Madame de Girardin he visited the "magnetizer," M.
Dupotet, rue du Bac.

Besides enjoying for a long time the "happiness of being beautiful,"
Delphine also enjoyed almost exclusively, in her set, that of being
good. In this respect, she was superior to her mother who for the sake
of a witticism, never hesitated to offend another. She had but few
enemies, and, wishing to have none, tried to win over those who were
inimical towards her. For twenty-five years she played the diplomat
among all the rivals in talent and in glory who frequented her salon
in the rue Laffitte or in the Champs-Elysees. She prevented Victor
Hugo from breaking with Lamartine; she remained the friend of Balzac
when he quarreled with her autocratic husband. She encouraged Gautier,
she consoled George Sand; she had a charming word for every one; and
always and everywhere prevailed her merry laughter--even when she
longed to weep. But her cheery laugh was not her highest endowment;
her greatest gift was in making others laugh.

Balzac had a sincere affection for Delphine Gay and enjoyed her salon.
In his letters to her he often addressed her as _Cara_ and _Ma chere
ecoliere_. Her poetry having been converted into prose by her prosaic
husband, she submitted her writings to Balzac as to an enlightened
master. He asked _Delphine Divine_ to write a preface for his _Etudes
de Femmes_, but she declined, saying that an habitue of the opera who
could so transform himself so as to paint the admirable Abbe
Birotteau, could certainly surpass her in writing _une preface de