Repertory of The Comedie Humaine - Part 26
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Part 26

JEAN, landscape gardener and farm-hand for Felix Grandet, enagaged about November, 1819, in a field on the bank of the Loire, filling holes left by removed populars and planting other trees. [Eugenie Grandet.]

JEAN, one of the keepers of Pere-Lachaise cemetery in 1820-21; conducted Desmarets and Jacquet to the tomb of Clemence Bourignard, who had recently been interred.* [The Thirteen.]

* In 1868, at Paris, MM. Ferdinand Dugue and Peaucellier presented a play at the Gaite theatre, where one of the chief characters was Clemence Bourignard-Desmarets.

JEAN, lay brother of an abbey until 1791, when he found a home with Niseron, cure of Blangy, Burgundy; seldom left Gregoire Rigou, whose factotum he finally became. [The Peasantry.]

JEANNETTE, born in 1758; cook for Ragon at Paris in 1818, in rue du Pet.i.t-Lion-Saint-Sulpice; distinguished herself at the Sunday receptions. [Cesar Birotteau.]

JEANRENAUD (Madame), a Protestant, widow of a salt bargeman, by whom she had a son. A stout, ugly and vulgar woman, who recovered, during the Restoration, a fortune that had been stolen by the Catholic ancestors of D'Espard and was restored to him despite a suit to restrain him by injunction. Mme. Jeanrenaud lived at Villeparisis, and then at Paris, where she dwelt successively on rue de la Vrilliere --No. 8--and on Grand rue Verte. [The Commission in Lunacy.]

JEANRENAUD, son of the preceding, born about 1792. He served as officer in the Imperial Guard, and, through the influence of D'Espard-Negrepelisse, became, in 1828, chief of squadron in the First regiment of the Cuira.s.siers of the Guard. Charles X. made him a baron.

He then married a niece of MoneG.o.d. His beautiful villa on Lake Geneva is mentioned by Albert Savarus in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," published in the reign of Louis Philippe. [The Commission in Lunacy. Albert Savarus.]

JENNY was, during the Restoration, maid and confidante of Aquilina de la Garde; afterwards, but for a very brief time, mistress of Castanier. [Melmoth Reconciled.]

JEROME (Pere), second-hand book-seller on Pont Notre-Dame, Paris, in 1821, at the time when Rubempre was making a start there. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

JEROME, valet successively of Galard and of Albert Savarus at Besancon. He may have served the Parisian lawyer less sedulously because of Mariette, a servant at the Wattevilles, whose dowry he was after. [Albert Savarus.]

JOHNSON (Samuel), a.s.sumed name of the police-agent, Peyrade.

JOLIVARD, clerk of registry, rue de Normandie, Paris, about the end of Louis Philippe's reign. He lived on the first floor of the house owned by Pillerault, attended by the Cibots and tenanted by the Chapoulots, Pons and Schmucke. [Cousin Pons.]

JONATHAS, valet of M. de Valentin senior; foster-father of Raphael de Valentin, whose steward he afterwards became when the young man was a multi-millionaire. He served him faithfully and survived him. [The Magic Skin.]

JORDY (De) had been successively captain in a regiment of Royal-Suedois and professor in the Ecole Militaire. He had a refined nature and a tender heart; was the type of a poor but uncomplaining gentleman. His soul must have been the scene of sad secrets. Certain signs led one to believe that he had had children whom he had adored and lost. M. de Jordy lived modestly and quietly at Nemours. A similiarity of tastes and character drew him towards Denis Minoret whose intimate friend he became, and at whose home he conceived a liking for the doctor's young ward--Mme. Savinien de Portenduere. He had great influence over her, and left her an income of fourteen hundred francs when he died in 1823. [Ursule Mirouet.]

JOSEPH, with Charles and Francois, was of the establishment of Montcornet at Aigues, Burgundy, about 1823. [The Peasantry.]

JOSEPH, faithful servant of Rastignac at Paris, under the Restoration.

In 1828 he carried to the Marquise de Listomere a letter written by his master to Mme. de Nucingen. This error, for which Joseph could hardly be held responsible, caused the scorn of the marquise when she discoverd that the missive was intended for another. [The Magic Skin.

A Study of Woman.]

JOSEPH, in the service of F. du Tillet, Paris, when his master was fairly launched in society and received Birotteau in state. [Cesar Birotteau.]

JOSEPH, given name of a worthy chimney-builder of rue Saint-Lazare, Paris, about the end of the reign of Louis Philippe. Of Italian origin, the head of a family, saved from ruin by Adeline Hulot, who acted for Mme. de la Chanterie. Joseph was in touch with the scribe, Vyder, and when he took Mme. Hulot to see the latter she recognized in him her husband. [Cousin Betty.]

JOSEPHA, (See Mirah, Josepha.)

JOSETTE, cook for Claes at Douai; greatly attached to Josephine, Marguerite and Felicie Claes. Died about the end of the Restoration.

[The Quest of the Absolute.]

JOSETTE, old housekeeper for Maitre Mathias of Bordeaux during the Restoration. She accompanied her master when he bade farewell to Paul de Manerville the emigrant. [A Marriage Settlement.]

JOSETTE, in and previous to 1816 chambermaid of Victoire-Rose Cormon of Alencon. She married Jacquelin when her mistress married du Bousquier. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

JUDICI (Atala), born about 1829, of Lombard descent; had a paternal grandfather, who was a wealthy chimney-builder of Paris during the first Empire, an employer of Joseph; he died in 1819. Mlle. Judici did not inherit her grandfather's fortune, for it was run through with by her father. In 1844 she was given by her mother--so the story goes--to Hector Hulot for fifteen thousand francs. She then left her family, who lived on rue de Charonne, and lived on Pa.s.sage du Soleil. The pretty Atala was obliged to leave Hulot when his wife found him. Mme.

Hulot promised her a dowry and to wed her to Joseph's oldest son. She was sometimes called Judix, which is a French corruption of the Italian name. [Cousin Betty.]

JUDITH. (See Mme. Genestas.)

JULIEN, one of the turnkeys of the Conciergerie in 1830, during the trial of Herrera--Vautrin--and Rubempre. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

JULIEN, probably a native of Champagne; a young man in 1839, and in the service of Sub-Prefect Goulard, in Arcis-sur-Aube. He learned through Anicette, and revealed to the Beauvisages and Mollots, the Legitimist plots of the Chateau de Cinq-Cygne, where lived Georges de Maufrigneuse, Daniel d'Arthez, Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, Diane de Cadignan and Berthe de Maufrigneuse. [The Member for Arcis.]

JULLIARD, head of the firm of Julliard in Paris, about 1806. At the "Ver Chinois," rue Saint-Denis, he sold silk in bolls. Sylvie Rogron was a.s.sistant saleswoman. Twenty years later he met her again in their native country of Provins, where he had retired in 1815, the head of a family grouped about the Guepins and the Guenees, thus forming three great clans. [Pierrette.]

JULLIARD, elder son of the preceding; married the only daughter of a rich farmer and also conceived a platonic affection at Provins for Melanie Tiphaine, the most beautiful woman of the official colony during the Restoration. Julliard followed commerce and literature; he maintained a stage line, and a journal christened "La Ruche," in which latter he burned incense to Mme. Tiphaine. [Pierrette.]

JUSSIEU (Julien), youthful conscript in the great draft of 1793. Sent with a note for lodgment to the home of Mme. de Dey at Carentan, where he was the innocent cause of that woman's sudden death; she was just then expecting the return of her son, a Royalist hunted by the Republican troops. [The Conscript.]

JUSTE, born in 1811, studied medicine in Paris, and afterwards went to Asia to practice. In 1836 he lived on rue Corneille with Charles Rabourdin, when they helped the poverty-stricken Zephirin Marcas. [Z.

Marcas.]

JUSTIN, old and experienced valet of the Vidame de Pamiers; was secretly slain by order of Bourignard because he had discovered the real name, but carefully concealed, of the father of Mme. Desmarets.

[The Thirteen.]

JUSTINE, was maid to the Comtesse Foedora, in Paris, when her mistress received calls from M. de Valentin. [The Magic Skin.]

K

KATT, a Flemish woman, the nurse of Lydie de la Peyrade, whom she attended constantly in Paris on rue des Moineaux about 1829, and during her mistress' period of insanity on Rue Honore Chevalier in 1840. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

KELLER (Francois), one of the influential and wealthy Parisian bankers, during a period extending perhaps from 1809 to 1839. As such, in November, 1809, under the Empire, he was one of the guests at a fine reception, given by Comte Malin de Gondreville, meeting there Isemberg, Montcornet, Mesdames de Lansac and de Vandemont, and a mixed company composed of members of the aristocracy and people ill.u.s.trious under the Empire. At this time, moreover, Francois Keller was in the family of Malin de Gondreville, one of whose daughters he had married.

This marriage, besides making him the brother-in-law of the Marechal de Carigliano, gave him a.s.surance of the deputyship, which he obtained in 1816 and held until 1836. The district electors of Arcis-sur-Aube kept him in the legislature during that long period. Francois Keller had, by his marriage with Mademoiselle de Gondreville, one son, Charles, who died before his parents in the spring of 1839. As deputy, Francois Keller became one of the most noted orators of the Left Centre. He shone as a member of the opposition, especially from 1819 to 1825. Adroitly he drew about himself the robe of philanthropy.

Politics never turned his attention from finance. Francois Keller, seconded by his brother and partner, Adolphe Keller, refused to aid the needy perfumer, Cesar Birotteau. Between 1821 and 1823 the creditors of Guillaume Grandet, the bankrupt, unanimously selected him and M. des Gra.s.sins of Saumur as adjusters. Despite his display of Puritanical virtues, the private career of Francois Keller was not spotless. In 1825 it was known that he had an illegitimate and costly liaison with Flavie Colleville. Rallying to the support of the new monarchy from 1830 to 1836, Francois Keller saw his Philippist zeal rewarded in 1839. He exchanged his commission at the Palais-Bourbon for a peerage, and received the t.i.tle of count. [Domestic Peace. Cesar Birotteau. Eugenie Grandet. The Government Clerks. The Member for Arcis.]

KELLER (Madame Francois), wife of the preceding; daughter of Malin de Gondreville; mother of Charles Keller, who died in 1839. Under the Restoration, she inspired a warm pa.s.sion in the heart of the son of the d.u.c.h.esse de Marigny. [Domestic Peace. The Member for Arcis. The Thirteen.]

KELLER, (Charles), born in 1809, son of the preceding couple, grandson of the Comte de Gondreville, nephew of the Marechale de Carigliano; his life was prematurely ended in 1839, at a time when a brilliant future seemed before him. As a major of staff at the side of the Prince Royal, Ferdinand d'Orleans, he took the field in Algeria. His bravery urged him on in pursuit of the Emir Abd-el-Kader, and he gave up his life in the face of the enemy. Becoming viscount as a result of the knighting of his father, and a.s.sured of the favors of the heir presumptive to the throne, Charles Keller, at the moment when death surprised him, was on the point of taking his seat in the Lower Chamber; for the body of electors of the district of Arcis-sur-Aube were almost sure to elect a man whom the Tuileries desired so ardently. [The Member for Arcis.]

KELLER (Adolphe), brother--probably younger--of Francois and his partner; a very shrewd man, who was really in charge of the business, a "regular lynx." On account of his intimate relations with Nucingen and F. du Tillet, he flatly refused to aid Cesar Birotteau, who implored his a.s.sistance. [The Middle Cla.s.ses. Pierrette. Cesar Birotteau.]

KERGAROUET (Comte de), born about the middle of the eighteenth century; of the Bretagne n.o.bility; entered the navy, served long and valiantly upon the sea, commanded the "Belle-Poule," and died a vice-admiral. Possessor of a great fortune, by his charity he made amends for the foulness of some of his youthful love affairs (1771 and following), and at Paris, near the Madeleine, towards the beginning of the nineteenth century, with much delicacy, he helped the Baronne Leseigneur de Rouville. A little later, at the age of seventy-two, having for a long time been a widower and retired from the navy, while enjoying the hospitality of his relatives, the Fontaines and the Planat de Baudrys, who lived in the neighborhood of Sceaux, Kergarouet married his niece, one of the daughters of Fontaine. He died before her. M. de Kergarouet was also a relative of the Portendueres and did not forget them. [The Purse. The Ball at Sceaux. Ursule Mirouet.]

KERGAROUET (Comtesse de). (See Vandenesse, Marquise Charles de.)

KERGAROUET (Vicomte de), nephew of the Comte de Kergarouet, husband of a Pen-Hoel, by whom he had four daughters. Evidently lived at Nantes in 1836. [Beatrix.]

KERGAROUET (Vicomtesse de), wife of the preceding, born at Pen-Hoel in 1789; younger sister of Jacqueline; mother of four girls, very affected woman and looked upon as such by Felicite des Touches and Arthur de Rochefide. Lived in Nantes in 1836. [Beatrix.]

KERGAROUET (Charlotte de), born in 1821, one of the daughters of the preceding, grand-niece of the Comte de Kergarouet; of his four nieces she was the favorite of the wealthy Jacqueline de Pen-Hoel; a good-hearted little country girl; fell in love with Calyste du Guenic in 1836, but did not marry him. [Beatrix.]

KOLB, an Alsatian, served as "man of all work" at the home of the Didots in Paris; had served in the cuira.s.siers. Under the Restoration he became "printer's devil" in the establishment of David Sechard of Angouleme, for whom he showed an untiring devotion, and whose servant, Marion, he married. [Lost Illusions.]

KOLB (Marion), wife of the preceding, with whom she became acquainted while at the home of David Sechard. She was, at first, in the service of the Angouleme printer, Jerome-Nicholas Sechard, for whom she had less praise than for David. Marion Kolb was like her husband in her constant, childlike devotion. [Lost Illusions.]