teenth of August, 1916, Madame
Balli had labored unceasingly; she is known to the Government as one
of its most valuable and resourceful aids; and she works until two in
the morning, during the quieter hours, with her correspondence and
books (the police descend at frequent and irregular intervals to
examine the books of all oeuvres, and one mistake means being haled to
court), and she had not up to that time taken a day's rest. I have
seen her so tired she could hardly go on, and she said once quite
pathetically, "I am not even well-groomed any more." I frequently
straightened her dress in the back, for her maids work almost as hard
as she does. When her husband died, a year after the war broke out,
and she found herself no longer a rich woman, her maids offered to
stay with her on reduced wages and work for her oeuvres, being so
deeply attached to her that they would have remained for no wages at
all if she had really been poor. I used to beg her to go to Vichy for
a fortnight, but she would not hear of it. Certain things depended
upon her alone, and she must remain at her post unless she broke down
utterly.[A]

[A] She is still hard at work, June, 1917.

One of her friends said to me: "Helene must really be a tremendously
strong woman. Before the war we all thought her a semi-invalid who
pulled herself together at night for the opera, or dinners, or balls.
But we didn't know her then, and sometimes we feel as if we knew her
still less now."

It was Madame Balli who invented the "comfort package" which other
organizations have since developed into the "comfort bag," and founded
the oeuvre known as "Reconfort du Soldat." Her committee consists of
Mrs. Frederick H. Allen of New York, who has a home in Paris and is
identified with many war charities; Mrs. Edward Tuck, who has lived in
and given munificently to France for thirty years; Madame Paul Dupuy,
who was Helen Brown of New York and has her own oeuvre for supplying
war-surgeons with rubber, oil-cloth, invalid chairs, etc.; the
Marquise de Noialles, President of a large oeuvre somewhat similar to
Madame Dupuy's; the Comtesse de Fels, Madame Brun, and Mr.
Holman-Black, an American who has lived the greater part of his life
in France. Mrs. Willard sends her supplies from New York by every
steamer.

Madame Balli also has a long list of contributors to this and her
other oeuvres, who sometimes pay their promised dues and sometimes do
not, so that she is obliged