As to whether Balzac always sustained an indifferent attitude towards the Princesse Belgiojoso there is some question, but he always expressed a feeling of nonchalance in writing about her to Madame Hanska.  He regarded her as a courtesan, a beautiful Imperia, but of the extreme blue-stocking type.  She was superficial in her criticism, and received numbers of criticons who could not write.  She wrote him at the request of the editor asking him to contribute a story for the Democratie Pacifique.

Balzac visited her frequently, calling her the Princesse Bellejoyeuse, and she rendered him many services, but he probably guarded against too great an intimacy, having witnessed the fate of Alfred de Musset.  He was, however, greatly impressed by her beauty, and in the much discussed letter to his sister Laure he speaks of Madame Hanska as a masterpiece of beauty who could be compared only to the Princesse Bellejoyeuse, only infinitely more beautiful.  Some years later, however, this beauty had changed for him into an ugliness that was even repulsive.

It amused the novelist very much to have people think that he had dedicated to the Princesse Belgiojoso Modeste Mignon, a work written in part by Madame Hanska, and dedicated to her.  In the first edition this book was dedicated to a foreign lady, but seeing the false impression made he dedicated it, in its second edition to a Polish lady.  He did, however, dedicate Gaudissart II to: 

  Madame la Princesse de Belgiojoso, nee Trivulce.

Balzac found much rest and recuperation in travel, and in going to Turin, in 1836, instead of traveling alone, he was accompanied by a most charming lady, Madame Caroline Marbouty.  She had literary pretensions and some talent, writing under the pseudonym of Claire Brune.  Her work consisted of a small volume of poetry and several novels.  She was much pleased at being taken frequently for George Sand, whom she resembled very much; and like her, she dressed as a man.  Balzac took much pleasure in intriguing every one regarding his charming young page, whom he introduced in aristocratic Italian society; but to no one did he disclose the real name or sex of his traveling companion.

On his return from Turin he wrote to Comte Frederic Sclopis de Salerano explaining that his traveling companion was by no means the person whom he supposed.  Knowing his chivalry, Balzac confided to the Count that it was a charming, clever, virtuous woman, who never having had the opportunity of breathing the Italian air and being able to escape the ennui of housekeeping for a few weeks, had relied upon his honor.  She knew whom the novelist loved, and found in that the greatest of guarantees.  For the first and only time in her life she amused herself by playing a masculine role, and on her return home had resumed her feminine duties.