overwhelmed for so long under misery, both physical and moral. Ah! I do not forget your motherly goodness, your divine sympathy for those who suffer. . . . Well, then as soon as you wish to come to Paris, you will come without even letting us know. You will come to the Rue Fortunee exactly as to your own house, absolutely as I used to go to Frapesle. I claim this as my right. I recall to your mind what you said to me at Angouleme, when broken down after writing /Louis Lambert/, ill, and as you know, fearing lest I should go mad. I spoke of the neglect to which these unhappy ones are abandoned. 'If you were to go mad, I would take care of you.' Those words, your look, and your expression have never been forgotten. All this is still living in me now, as in the month of July 1832. It is in virtue of that word that I claim your promise to-day, for I have almost gone mad with happiness. . . . When I have been questioned here about my friendships you have been named the first. I have described that fireside always burning, which is called Zulma, and you have two sincere woman-friends (which is an achievement), the Countess Mniszech and my wife."[*] [*] Balzac is not exaggerating about the free use he made of her home, for besides going there for rest, he worked there, and two of his works, /La Grenadiere/ and /La Femme abandonnee/, were signed at Angouleme. His devotion is again seen in the beautiful words with which he dedicates to her in 1838 /La Maison Nucingen/: "To Madame Zulma Carraud. "To whom, madame, but to you should I inscribe this work, to you whose lofty and candid intellect is a treasury to your friends, to you who are to me not only an entire public, but the most indulgent of sisters? Will you deign to accept it as a token of a friendship of which I am proud? You, and some few souls as noble as your own, will grasp my thought in reading /la Maison Nucingen/ appended to /Cesar Birotteau/. Is there not a whole social contrast between the two stories? "DE BALZAC."