himself only twenty. The union seems to have resulted unhappily, in
spite of the fact that it was blessed with nine children; the
sensibility of the wife and her warm-hearted tenderness accorded ill
with the cold and reserved character of the husband.

When Balzac entered into his close friendship with Mme. de Berny, the
latter was forty-five years of age and a grandmother. In spite of her
years and her many children, she was still beautiful, on the order of
tender and mature beauty. Balzac borrowed certain traits from her for
the noblest heroines in his works; and she served successively as model
for Mme. Firmiani, for Mme. de Mortsauf in The Lily in the Valley, and
for Pauline in Louis Lambert; and he spoke constantly of her in his
correspondence with Mme. de Hanska, yet always with a sort of reverence
and passionate gratitude.

She was a woman of almost clairvoyant intelligence, instinctive and
unerring, and was endowed with rich qualities of heart and brain, which
she had never had a chance to use. She treasured letters and souvenirs,
and she held in reserve a store of tenderness of a rather maternal
sort. Balzac, isolated in the midst of his own family, thrust back upon
himself and suffering from the need of expansion, surrendered himself
utterly to this new friend, with the impetuosity born of happiness and
freedom. She was his confidential adviser, his comforter and his
friend. She listened to his dreams, she shared the elation of his
ambitions, she espoused his projects and fostered his genius; and when
he was too cruelly wounded in the struggle, she consoled him with words
of soothing tenderness.

It caused Mme. de Berny actual suffering to see her young friend
toiling for sheer mercenary ends, and squandering the precious years of