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 femme.  She did, however, write the sonnet on the Marguerite which Lucien de Rubempre displayed as one of the samples of his volume of verses to the publisher Dauriat; also Le Chardon.  Balzac made use of this poem, however, only in the original edition of his work; it was replaced in the Comedie humaine by another sonnet, written probably by Lassailly.  Madame de Girardin brings her master before the public by mentioning his name in her Marguerite, ou deux Amours, where a personage in the book tells about Balzac’s return from Austria and his inability to speak German when paying the coachman.

It was at the home of Madame de Girardin that Lamartine met Balzac for the first time, June, 1839.  He asked her to invite Balzac to dinner with him that he might thank him, as he was just recovering from an illness during which he had “simply lived” on the novels of the Comedie humaine.  The invitation she wrote Balzac runs as follows:  “M. de Lamartine is to dine with me Sunday, and wishes absolutely to dine with you.  Nothing would give him greater pleasure.  Come then and be obliging.  He has a sore leg, you have a sore foot, we will take care of both of you, we will give you some cushions and footstools.  Come, come!  A thousand affectionate greetings.”  And Lamartine has left this appreciation of her and her friendship for Balzac: 

“Madame Emile de Girardin, daughter of Madame Gay who had reared her to succeed on her two thrones, the one of beauty, the other of wit, had inherited, moreover, that kindness which inspires love with admiration.  These three gifts, beauty, wit, kindness, had made her the queen of the century.  One could admire her more or less as a poetess, but, if one knew her thoroughly, it was impossible not to love her as a woman.  She had some passion, but no hatred.  Her thunderbolts were only electricity; her imprecations against the enemies of her husband were only anger; that passed with the storm.  It was always beautiful in her soul, her days of hatred had no morrow. . . .  She knew my desire to know Balzac.  She loved him, as I was disposed to love him myself. . . .  She felt herself in unison with him, whether through gaiety with his joviality, through seriousness with his sadness, or through imagination with his talent.  He regarded her also as a rare creature, near whom he could forget all the discomforts of his miserable existence.”

A few years after their meeting, Lamartine inquired Balzac’s address of Madame de Girardin, as she was one of the few people who knew where he was hiding on account of his debts.  Balzac was appreciative of the many courtesies extended to him by Madame de Girardin and was delighted to have her received by his friends, among whom was the Duchesse de Castries.