“My dear friend,—­Here are the proofs of Beatrix:  a book for which you have made me feel an affection, such as I have not felt for any other book.  It has been the ring which has united our friendship.  I never give these things except to those I love, for they bear witness to my long labors, and to that patience of which I spoke to you.  My nights have been passed over these terrible pages, and amongst all to whom I have presented them, I know no heart more pure and noble than yours, in spite of those little attacks of want of faith in me, which no doubt arises from your great wish to find a poor author more perfect than he can be. . . .”

In contradiction to the preceding, M. Leon Seche thinks that Beatrix was dedicated to Madame Helene-Marie-Felicite Valette, and that she is the “Madame de V-----” to whom the letter is addressed.  Helene de Valette (she probably had no right to the “nobiliary” de although she signed her name thus) was the daughter of Pierre Valette, Lieutenant de Vaisseau, who after the death of Madame Valette, in 1818, became a priest at Vannes in order to be near their daughter Helene, who was in the convent of the Ursulines.  At the age of eighteen he married her to a notary of Vannes, thirty years her senior, a widower with a bad reputation, whose name was Jean-Marie-Angele Gougeon.  Scarcely had she married when she had an intrigue with a physician; her husband died soon after this, and she resumed her maiden name.  She adopted the daughter of a paludier,[*] Le Gallo, whose wife had saved her from drowning, and named her “Marie” in memory of de Balzac’s favorite name for herself.

[*] Paludier.  One who works in the salt marshes.

In stating that the letter to “Madame de V-----” is addressed to
Madame Valette, M. Seche publishes a letter almost identical with the
one that is found in both the Memoir and Letters of Balzac and the
Correspondence, 1819-1850, one of the chief differences being that
in this letter Balzac addresses her as “My dear Marie” instead of “My
dear friend.”  In telling “Madame de V-----” that he is sending her the
proofs of Beatrix, Balzac refers to the suppression of his play
Vautrin, and says that the director des beaux-arts has come a
second time to offer him an indemnity which ne faisait pas votre
somme.  This might lead one to think that he had had some financial
dealings with her.

In the dedication of Beatrix, dated Aux Jardies, December, 1838, Balzac speaks of Sarah’s being a pearl of the Mediterranean.  In the Island of Malta is a town called Cite-Vallette—­suggestive of the name Felicite Valette.  Felicite is also the name of the heroine, Felicite des Touches, although Marie is the name of Madame Valette that Balzac liked best.