“I should be very glad to learn that Valentine studies as much as the young Countess, who, besides all her other studies, practices daily at her piano.  The success of this education is owing to hard work, which Miss Valentine shuns a little too much.  Now, I say to my dear niece that to do nothing except what we feel inclined to do is the origin of all deterioration, especially in women.  Rules obeyed and duties fulfilled have been the law of the young Countess from childhood, although she is an only child and a rich heiress. . . .  Thus I beg Valentine not to exhibit a Creole nonchalance; but to listen to the advice of her sister, to impose tasks on herself, and to do work of various sorts, without neglecting the ordinary and daily cares of the household, and, above all, constantly to withstand the inclination we all have, more or less, to give ourselves up to what we find pleasant; it is by this yielding to inclination that we deteriorate and fall into misfortune.”

While Balzac was living in Wierzchownia, he urged his nieces to write to him oftener, as the young Countess Anna took the greatest interest in their chatter; they were like two nightingales coming by post to enchant the Ukrainian solitude.  He had portrayed them so well that all took an interest in them, and their letters were called for first whenever he received a package from Paris.  He requested them to send him certain favorite recipes, and planned to have Sophie play with the young countess.

Sophie seemed to have some of the traits of her grandmother; for the novelist wrote his sister: 

“Sophie has traced out a catechism of what she considers my duties towards you, just as last year my mother wrote me a catechism of my duties towards my nieces; it is a sort of cholera peculiar to our family, to lecture uncles both at home and abroad.  I make fun if it, but all these little things are remarked upon, which I do not like; then these blank pages make me furious.  I forgive Sophie on account of the motif, which is you, and for all she and Valentine have done for your fete.  Ah! if my wishes are ever realized, how I shall enjoy introducing my dear nieces, both so unspoiled by the devil!  I have sung their praises here.  I have said Sophie is a great musician:  I add, Valentine is a man of letters, and she is tired with writing three pages.”

If certain letters received by Balzac from his family irritated him, he perhaps unconsciously was making his sister jealous by continually extolling the young Countess Mniszech: 

“She has a genius, as well as a love, for music; if she had not been an heiress, she would have been a great artiste.  If she comes to Paris in eighteen months or two years, she will take lessons in thorough bass and composition.  It is all she needs as regards music.  She has (without exaggeration) hands the size of a child of eight years old.  These minute, supple, white