Part 31

NISERON (Auguste), son of the preceding; soldier of the Republic and of the Empire; while an artilleryman in 1809, he seduced, at Zahara, a young Montenegrin, Zena Kropoli, who died, at Vincennes, early in the year 1810, leaving him an infant daughter. Thus he could not realize his purpose of marrying her. He himself was killed, before Montereau, during the year 1814, by the bursting of a shell. [The Peasantry.]

NISERON (Genevieve), natural daughter of the preceding and the Montenegrin woman, Zena Kropoli; born in 1810, and named Genevieve after a paternal aunt; an orphan from the age of four, she was reared in Bourgogne by her grandfather, Jean-Francois Niseron. She had her father's beauty and her mother's peculiarities. Her patronesses, Madame Montcornet and Madame de Michaud, bestowed upon her the surname Pechina, and, to guard her against Nicholas Tonsard's attentions, placed her in a convent at Auxerre, where she might acquire skill in sewing and forget Justin Michaud, whom she loved unconsciously. [The Peasantry.]

NOEL, book-keeper for Jean-Jules Popinot of Paris, in 1828, at the time that the judge questioned the Marquis d'Espard, whose wife tried to deprive him of the right to manage his property. [The Commission in Lunacy.]

NOSWELL (Mistress), a rich and eccentric Englishwoman, who was in Paris at the Hotel Lawson about the middle of Louis Philippe's reign; after much mental debate she bought of Fritot the shawl called Selim, which he said at first it was "impossible" for him to sell. [Gaudissart II.]

NOUASTRE (Baron de), a refugee of the purest noble blood. A ruined man, he returned to Alencon in 1800, with his daughter, who was twenty-two years of age, and found a home with the Marquis d'Esgrignon, and died of grief two months later. Shortly afterwards the marquis married the orphan daughter. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

NOURRISSON (Madame), was formerly, under the Empire, attached to the service of the Prince d'Ysembourg in Paris. The sight of the disorderly life of a "great lady" of the times decided Madame Nourrisson's profession. She set up shop as a dealer in old clothes, and was also known as mistress of various houses of shame. Intimate relations with Jacqueline Collin, continued for more than twenty years, made this two-fold business profitable. The two matrons willingly exchanged, at times, names and business signs, resources and profits. It was in the old clothes shop, on the rue Neuve-Saint-Marc, that Frederic de Nucingen bargained for Esther van Gobseck. Towards the end of Charles X.'s reign, one of Madame Nourrisson's establishments, on rue Saint-Barbe, was managed by La Gonore; in the time of Louis Philippe another--a secret affair--existed at the so-called "Pate des Italiens"; Valerie Marneffe and Wenceslas Steinbock were once caught there together. Madame Nourrisson, first of the name, evidently continued to conduct her business on the rue Saint-Marc, since, in 1845, she narrated the minutiae of it to Madame Mahuchet before an audience composed of the well-known trio, Bixiou, Lora and Gazonal, and related to them her own history, disclosing to them the secrets of her own long past beginnings in life. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Cousin Betty. The Unconscious Humorists.]

NOUVION (Comte de), a noble refugee, who had returned in utter poverty; chevalier of the Order of Saint-Louis; lived in Paris in 1828, subsisting on the delicately disguised charity of his friend, the Marquis d'Espard, who made him superintendent of the publication, at No. 22 rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, of the "Picturesque History of China," and offered him a share in the possible profits of the work. [The Commission in Lunacy.]

NOVERRE, a celebrated dancer, born in Paris 1727; died in 1807; was the rather unreliable customer of Chevrel the draper, father-in-law and predecessor of Guillaume at the Cat and Racket. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.]

NUCINGEN (Baron Frederic de), born, probably at Strasbourg, about 1767. At that place he was formerly clerk to M. d'Aldrigger, an Alsatian banker. Of better judgment than his employer, he did not believe in the success of the Emperor in 1815 and speculated very skilfully on the battle of Waterloo. Nucingen now carried on business alone, and on his own account, in Paris and elsewhere; he thus prepared by degrees the famous house of the rue Saint-Lazare, and laid the foundation of a fortune, which, under Louis Philippe, reached almost eighteen million francs. At this period he married one of the two daughters of a rich vermicelli-maker, Mademoiselle Delphine Goriot, by whom he had a daughter, Augusta, eventually the wife of Eugene de Rastignac. From the first years of the Restoration may be dated the real brilliancy of his career, the result of a combination with the Kellers, Ferdinand du Tillet, and Eugene de Rastignac in the successful manipulation of schemes in connection with the Wortschin mines, followed by opportune assignments and adroitly managed cases of bankruptcy. These various combinations ruined the Ragons, the Aiglemonts, the Aldriggers, and the Beaudenords. At this time, too, Nucingen, though clamorously declaring himself an out-and-out Bourbonist, turned a deaf ear to Cesar Birotteau's appeals for credit, in spite of knowing of the latter's consistent Royalism. There was a time in the baron's life when he seemed to change his nature; it was when, after giving up his hired dancer, he madly entered upon an amour with Esther van Gobseck, alarmed his physician, Horace Bianchon, employed Corentin, Georges, Louchard, and Peyrade, and became especially the prey of Jacques Collin. After Esther's suicide, in May, 1830, Nuncingen abandoned "Cythera," as Chardin des Lupeaulx had done before, and became again a man of figures, and was overwhelmed with favors: insignia, the peerage, and the cross of grand officer of the Legion of Honor. Nucingen, being respected and esteemed, in spite of his blunt ways and his German accent, was a patron of Beaudenord, and a frequent guest of Cointet, the minister; he went everywhere, and, at the mansion of Mademoiselle des Touches, heard Marsay give an account of some of his old love-affairs; witnessed, before Daniel d'Arthez, the calumniation of Diane de Cadignan by every one present in Madame d'Espard's parlor; guided Maxime de Trailles between the hands, or, rather, the clutches of Claparon-Cerizet; accepted the invitation of Josepha Mirah to her reception on the rue Ville-l'Eveque. When Wenceslas Steinbock married Hortense Hulot, Nucingen and Cottin de Wissembourg were the bride's witnesses. Furthermore, their father, Hector Hulot d'Ervy, borrowed of him more than a hundred thousand francs. The Baron de Nucingen acted as sponsor to Polydore de la Baudraye when he was admitted to the French peerage. As a friend of Ferdinand du Tillet, he was admitted on most intimate terms to the boudoir of Carabine, and he was seen there, one evening in 1845, along with Jenny Cadine, Gazonal, Bixiou, Leon de Lora, Massol, Claude Vignon, Trailles, F. du Bruel, Vauvinet, Marguerite Turquet, and the Gaillards of the rue Menars. [The Firm of Nucingen. Father Goriot. Pierrette. Cesar Birotteau. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Another Study of Woman. The Secrets of a Princess. A Man of Business. Cousin Betty. The Muse of the Department. The Unconscious Humorists.]

NUCINGEN (Baronne Delphine de), wife of the preceding, born in 1792, of fair complexion; the spoiled daughter of the opulent vermicelli-maker, Jean-Joachim Goriot; on the side of her mother, who died young, the granddaughter of a farmer. In the latter period of the Empire she contracted, greatly to her taste, a marriage for money. Madame de Nucingen formerly had as her lover Henri de Marsay, who finally abandoned her most cruelly. Reduced, at the time of Louis XVIII., to the society of the Chaussee-d'Antin, she was ambitious to be admitted to the Faubourg Saint-Germain, a circle of which her elder sister, Madame de Restaud, was a member. Eugene de Rastignac opened to her the parlor of Madame de Beauseant, his cousin, rue de Greville, in 1819, and, at about the same time, became her lover. Their liaison lasted more than fifteen years. An apartment on the rue d'Artois, fitted up by Jean-Joachim Goriot, sheltered their early love. Having entrusted to Rastignac a certain sum for play at the Palais-Royal, the baroness was able with the proceeds to free herself of a humiliating debt to Marsay. Meanwhile she lost her father. The Nucingen carriage, without an occupant, however, followed the hearse. [Father Goriot.] Madame de Nucingen entertained a great deal on the rue Saint-Lazare. It was there that Auguste de Maulincour saw Clemence Desmarets, and Adolphe des Grassins met Charles Grandet. [The Thirteen. Eugenie Grandet.] Cesar Birotteau, on coming to beg credit of Nucingen, as also did Rodolphe Castanier, immediately after his forgery, found themselves face to face with the baroness. [Cesar Birotteau. Melmoth Reconciled.] At this period, Madame de Nucingen took the box at the Opera which Antoinette de Langeais had occupied, believing undoubtedly, said Madame d'Espard, that she would inherit her charms, wit and success. [Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. The Commission in Lunacy.] According to Diane de Cadignan, Delphine had a horrible journey when she went to Naples by sea, of which she brought back a most painful reminder. The baroness showed a haughty and scornful indulgence when her husband became enamored of Esther van Gobseck. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] Forgetting her origin she dreamed of seeing her daughter Augusta become Duchesse d'Herouville; but the Herouvilles, knowing the muddy source of Nucingen's millions, declined this alliance. [Modeste Mignon. The Firm of Nucingen.] Shortly after the year 1830, the baroness was invited to the house of Felicite des Touches, where she saw Marsay once more, and heard him give an account of an old love-affair. [Another Study of woman.] Delphine aided Marie de Vandenesse and Nathan to the extent of forty thousand francs during the checkered course of their intrigues. She remembered indeed having gone through similar experiences. [A Daughter of Eve.] About the middle of the monarchy of July, Madame de Nucingen, as mother-in-law of Eugene de Rastignac, visited Madame d'Espard and met Maxime de Trailles and Ferdinand du Tillet in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. [The Member for Arcis.]

NUEIL (De), proprietor of the domain of the Manervilles, which, doubtless, descended to the younger son, Gaston. [The Deserted Woman.]

NUEIL (Madame de), wife of the preceding, survived her husband, and her eldest son, became the dowager Comtesse de Nueil, and afterwards owned the domain of Manerville, to which she withdrew in retirement. She was the type of the scheming mother, careful and correct, but worldly. She matched off Gaston, and was thereby involuntarily the cause of his death. [The Deserted Woman.]

NUEIL (De), eldest son of the preceding, died of consumption in the reign of Louis XVIII., leaving the title of Comte de Nueil to his younger brother, Baron Gaston. [The Deserted Woman.]

NUEIL (Gaston de), son of the Nueils and brother of the preceding, born about 1799, of good extraction and with fortune suitable to his rank. He went, in 1822, to Bayeux, where he had family connections, in order to recuperate from the wearing fatigues of Parisian life; had an opportunity to force open the closed door of Claire de Beauseant, who had been living in retirement in that vicinity ever since the marriage of Miguel d'Ajuda-Pinto to Berthe de Rochefide; he fell in love with her, his love was reciprocated, and for nearly ten years he lived with her as her husband in Normandie and Switzerland. Albert Savarus, in his autobiographical novel, "L'Ambitieux par Amour," made a vague reference to them as living together on the shore of Lake Geneva. After the Revolution of 1830, Gaston de Nueil, already rich from his Norman estates that afforded an income of eighteen thousand francs, married Mademoiselle Stephanie de la Rodiere. Wearying of the marriage tie, he wished to renew his former relations with Madame de Beauseant. Exasperated by the haughty repulse at the hands of his former mistress, Nueil killed himself. [The Deserted Woman. Albert Savarus.]

NUEIL (Madame Gaston de), born Stephanie de la Rodiere, about 1812, a very insignificant character, married, at the beginning of Louis Philippe's reign, Gaston de Nueil, to whom she brought an income of forty thousand francs a year. She was enceinte after the first month of her marriage. Having become Countess de Nueil, by succession, upon the death of her brother-in-law, and being deserted by Gaston, she continued to live in Normandie. Madame Gaston de Nueil survived her husband. [The Deserted Woman.]

O

O'FLAHARTY (Major), maternal uncle of Raphael de Valentin, to whom he bequeathed ten millions upon his death in Calcutta, August, 1828. [The Magic Skin.]

OIGNARD, in 1806 was chief clerk to Maitre Bordin, a Parisian lawyer. [A Start in Life.]

OLGA, daughter of the Topinards, born in 1840. She was not a legitimate child, as her parents were not married at the time when Schmucke saw her with them in 1846. He loved her for the beauty of her light Teutonic hair. [Cousin Pons.]

OLIVET, an Angouleme lawyer, succeeded by Petit-Claude. [Lost Illusions.]

OLIVIER was in the service of the policeman, Corentin and Peyrade, when they found the Hauteserres and the Simeuses with the Cinq-Cygne family in 1803. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

OLIVIER (Monsieur and Madame), first in the employ of Charles X. as outrider and laundress; had charge of three children, of whom the eldest became an under notary's clerk; were finally, under Louis Philippe, servants of the Marneffes and of Mademoiselle Fischer, to whom, through craftiness or gratitude, they devoted themselves exclusively. [Cousin Betty.]

ORFANO (Duc d'), title of Marechal Cottin.

ORGEMONT (D'), wealthy and avaricious banker, proprietor at Fougeres, bought the Abbaye de Juvigny's estate. He remained neutral during the Chouan insurrection of 1799 and came into contact with Coupiau, Galope-Chopine, and Mesdames du Gua-Saint-Cyr and de Montauran. [The Chouans.]

ORGEMONT (D'), brother of the preceding, a Breton priest who took the oath of allegiance. He died in 1795 and was buried in a secluded spot, discovered and preserved by M. d'Orgemont, the banker, as a place of hiding from the fury of the Vendeans. [The Chouans.]

ORIGET, famous Tours physician; known to the Mortsaufs, chatelains of Clochegourde. [The Lily of the Valley.]

ORSONVAL (Madame d'), frequently visited the Cruchot and Grandet families at Saumur. [Eugenie Grandet.]

OSSIAN, valet in the service of Mougin, the well-known hair-dresser on the Place de la Bourse, in 1845. Ossian's duty was to show the patrons out, and in this capacity he attended Bixiou, Lora and Gazonal. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

OTTOBONI, an Italian conspirator who hid in Paris. In 1831, on dining at the Giardinis on rue Froidmanteau, he became acquainted with the Gambaras. [Gambara.]

P

PACCARD, released convict, in Jacques Collin's clutches, well known as a thief and drunkard. He was Prudence Servien's lover, and both were employed by Esther van Gobseck at the same time, Paccard being a footman; lived with a carriage-maker on rue de Provence, in 1829. After stealing seven hundred and fifty thousand francs, which had been left by Esther van Gobseck, he was obliged to give up seven hundred and thirty thousand of them. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

PACCARD (Mademoiselle), sister of the preceding, in the power of Jacqueline Collin. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

PALMA, Parisian banker of the Poissoniere suburbs; had, during the regime of the Restoration and of July, great fame as a financier. He was "private counsel for the Keller establishment." Birotteau, the perfumer, at the time of his financial troubles, vainly asked him for help. [The Firm of Nucingen. Cesar Birotteau.] With Werbrust as a partner he dealt in discounts as shrewdly as did Gobseck and Bidault, and thus was in a position to help Lucien de Rubempre. [Gobseck. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] He was also M. Werbrust's associate in the muslin, calico and oil-cloth establishment at No. 5 rue du Sentier, when Maximilien was so friendly with the Fontaines. [The Ball at Sceaux.]

PAMIERS (Vidame de), "oracle of Faubourg Saint-Germain at the time of the Restoration," a member of the family council dealing with Antoinette de Langeais, who was accused of compromising herself with Montriveau. Past-commander of the Order of Malta, prominent in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, old and confidential friend of the Baronne de Maulincour. Pamiers reared the young Baron Auguste de Maulincour, defending him with all his power against Bourignard's hatred. [The Thirteen.] As a former intimate friend of the Marquis d'Esgrignon, the vidame introduced the Vicomte d'Esgrignon--Victurnien --to Diane de Maufrigneuse. An intimate friendship between the young man and the future Princess de Cadignan was the result. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

PANNIER, merchant and banker after 1794; treasurer of the "brigands"; connected with the uprising of the Chauffeurs of Mortagne in 1809. Having been condemned to twenty years of hard labor, Pannier was branded and placed in the galleys. Appointed lieutenant-general under Louis XVIII., he governed a royal castle. He died without children. [The Seamy Side of History.]

PARADIS, born in 1830; Maxime de Trailles' servant-boy or "tiger"; quick and bold; made a tour, during the election period in the spring of 1839, through the Arcis-sur-Aube district, with his master, meeting Goulard, the sub-prefect, Poupart, the tavern-keeper, and the Maufrigneuses and Mollots of Cinq-Cygne. [The Member for Arcis.]

PARQUOI (Francois), one of the Chouans, for whom Abbe Gudin held a funeral mass in the heart of the forest, not far from Fougeres, in the autumn of 1799. Francois Parquoi died, as did Nicolas Laferte, Joseph Brouet and Sulpice Coupiau, of injuries received at the battle of La Pelerine and at the siege of Fougeres. [The Chouans.]

PASCAL, porter of the Thuilliers in the Place de la Madeleine house; acted also as beadle at La Madeleine church. [The Middle Classes.]

PASCAL (Abbe), chaplain at Limoges prison in 1829; gentle old man. He tried vainly to obtain a confession from Jean-Francois Tascheron, who had been imprisoned for robbery followed by murder. [The Country Parson.]

PASTELOT, priest in 1845, in the Saint-Francois church in the Marais, on the street now called rue Charlot; watched over the dead body of Sylvain Pons. [Cousin Pons.]

PASTUREAU (Jean Francois), in 1829, owner of an estate in Isere, the value of which was said to have been impaired by the passing by of Doctor Benassis' patients. [The Country Doctor.]

PATRAT (Maitre), notary at Fougeres in 1799, an acquaintance of D'Orgemont, the banker, and introduced to Marie de Verneuil by the old miser. [The Chouans.]

PATRIOTE, a monkey, which Marie de Verneuil, its owner, had taught to counterfeit Danton. The craftiness of this animal reminded Marie of Corentin. [The Chouans.]

PAULINE, for a long time Julie d'Aiglemont's waiting-maid. [A Woman of Thirty.]

PAULMIER, employed under the Restoration in the Ministry of Finance in Isidore Baudoyer's bureau of Flamet de la Billardiere's division. Paulmier was a bachelor, but quarreled continually with his married colleague, Chazelles. [The Government Clerks.]

PAZ (Thaddee), Polish descendant of a distinguished Florentine family, the Pazzi, one of whose members had become a refugee in Poland. Living contemporaneously with his fellow-citizen and friend, the Comte Adam Mitgislas Laginski, like him Thaddee Paz fought for his country, later on following him into exile in Paris, during the reign of Louis Philippe. Bearing up bravely in his poverty, he was willing to become steward to the count, and he made an able manager of the Laginski mansion. He gave up this position, when, having become enamored of Clementine Laginska, he saw that he could no longer control his passion by means of a pretended mistress, Marguerite Turquet, the horsewoman. Paz (pronounced Pac), who had willingly assumed the title of captain, had seen the Steinbocks married. His departure from France was only feigned, and he once more saw the Comtesse Laginska, during the winter of 1842. At Rusticoli he took her away from La Palferine, who was on the point of carrying her away. [The Imaginary Mistress. Cousin Betty.]

PECHINA (La), nick-name of Genevieve Niseron.

PEDEROTTI (Signor), father of Madame Maurice de l'Hostal. He was a Genoa banker; gave his only daughter a dowry of a million; married her to the French consul, and left her, on dying six months later in January, 1831, a fortune made in grain and amounting to two millions. Pederotti had been made count by the King of Sardinia, but, as he left no male heir, the title became extinct. [Honorine.]

PELLETIER, one of Benassis' patients in Isere, who died in 1829, was buried on the same day as the last "cretin," which had been kept on account of popular superstition. Pelletier left a wife, who saw Genestas, and several children, of whom the eldest, Jacques, was born about 1807. [The Country Doctor.]

PEN-HOEL (Jacqueline de), of a very old Breton family, lived at Guerande, where she was born about 1780. Sister-in-law of the Kergarouets of Nantes, the patrons of Major Brigaut, who, despite the displeasure of the people, did not themselves hesitate to assume the name of Pen-Hoel. Jacqueline protected the daughters of her younger sister, the Vicomtesse de Kergarouet. She was especially attracted to her eldest niece, Charlotte, to whom she intended to give a dowry, as she desired the girl to marry Calyste du Guenic, who was in love with Felicite des Touches. [Beatrix.]

PEROUX (Abbe), brother of Madame Julliard; vicar of Provins during the Restoration. [Pierrette.]

PERRACHE, small hunchback, shoemaker by trade, and, in 1840, porter in a house belonging to Corentin on rue Honore-Chevalier, Paris. [The Middle Classes.]

PERRACHE (Madame), wife of the preceding, often visited Madame Cardinal, niece of Toupillier, one of Corentin's renters. [The Middle Classes.]

PERRET, with his partner, Grosstete, preceded Pierre Graslin in a banking-house at Limoges, in the early part of the nineteenth century. [The Country Parson.]

PERRET (Madame), wife of the preceding, an old woman in 1829, disturbed herself, as did every one in Limoges, over the assassination committed by Jean-Francois Tascheron. [The Country Parson.]

PERROTET, in 1819, laborer on Felix Grandet's farm in the suburbs of Saumur. [Eugenie Grandet.]

PETIT-CLAUD, son of a very poor tailor of L'Houmeau, a suburb of Angouleme, where he pursued his studies in the town lyceum, becoming acquainted at the same time with Lucien de Rubempre. He studied law at Poitiers. On going back to the chief city of La Charente, he became clerk to Maitre Olivet, an attorney whom he succeeded. Now began Petit-Claud's period of revenge for the insults which his poverty and homeliness had brought on. He met Cointet, the printer, and went into his employ, although at the same time he feigned allegiance to the younger Sechard, also a printer. This conduct paved the way for his accession to the magistracy. He was in turn deputy and king's procureur. Petit-Claud did not leave Angouleme, but made a profitable marriage in 1822 with Mademoiselle Francoise de la Haye, natural daughter of Francis du Hautoy and of Madame de Senonches. [Lost Illusions.]

PETIT-CLAUD (Madame), wife of the preceding, natural daughter of Francis du Hautoy and of Madame de Senonches; born Francoise de la Haye, given into the keeping of old Madame Cointet; married through the instrumentality of Madame Cointet's son, the printer, known as Cointet the Great. Madame Petit-Claud, though insignificant and forward, was provided with a very substantial dowry. [Lost Illusions.]