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Repertory of the Comedie Humaine-2 [66]

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pseudo-Herrera, to the head of a Paris hardware-house on Quai aux Fleurs, the Bouclier d'Achille. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

PREVOST (Madame), well-known florist, whose store still remains in the Palais-Royal. Early in 1830, Frederic de Nucingen bought a ten louis bouquet there for Esther van Gobseck. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

PRIEUR (Madame), laundress at Angouleme, for whom Mademoiselle Chardon, afterwards Madame David Sechard, worked. [Lost Illusions.]

PRON (Monsieur and Madame), both teachers. M. Pron taught rhetoric in 1840 at a college in Paris directed by priests. Madame Pron, born Barniol, and therefore sister-in-law of Madame Barniol-Phellion, succeeded Mesdemoiselles La Grave, about the same time, as director of their young ladies' boarding-school. M. and Madame Pron lived in the Quartier Saint-Jacques, and frequently visited the Thuilliers. [The Middle Classes.]

PROTEZ AND CHIFFREVILLE, manufactured chemicals; sold a hundred thousand francs' worth to the inventor, Balthazar Claes, about 1812. [The Quest of the Absolute.] On account of their friendly relations with Cochin, of the Treasury, all the Protezes and the Chiffrevilles were invited to the celebrated ball given by Cesar Birotteau, Sunday, December 17, 1818, on rue Saint Honore. [Cesar Birotteau.]

PROUST, clerk to Maitre Bordin, a Paris attorney, in November, 1806; this fact became known a few years later by Godeschal, Oscar Husson and Marest, when they reviewed the books of the attorneys who had been employed in Bordin's office. [A Start in Life.]

PROVENCAL (Le), born in 1777, undoubtedly in the vicinity of Arles. A common soldier during the wars at the close of the eighteenth century, he took part in the expedition of General Desaix into upper Egypt. Having been taken prisoner by the Maugrabins he escaped only to lose himself in the desert, where he found nothing to eat but dates. Reduced to the dangerous friendship of a female panther, he tamed her, singularly enough, first by his thoughtless caresses, afterwards by premeditation. He ironically named her Mignonne, as he had previously called Virginie, one of his mistresses. Le Provencal finally killed his pet, not without regret, having been moved to great terror by the wild animal's fierce love. About the same time the soldier was discoverd by some of his own company. Thirty years afterwards, an aged ruin of the Imperial wars, his right leg gone, he was one day visiting the menagerie of Martin the trainer, and recalled his adventure for the delectation of the young spectator. [A Passion in the Desert.]



Q

QUELUS (Abbe), priest of Tours or of its vicinity, called frequently on the Chessels, neighbors of the Mortsaufs, at the beginning of the century. [The Lily of the Valley.]

QUEVERDO, faithful steward of the immense domain of Baron de Macumer, in Sardinia. After the defeat of the Liberals in Spain, in 1823, he was told to look out for his master's safety. Some fishers for coral agreed to pick him up on the coast of Andalusia and set him off at Macumer. [Letters of Two Brides.]

QUILLET (Francois), office-boy employed by Raoul Nathan's journal on rue Feydau, Paris, 1835. He aided his employer by lending him the name of Francois Quillet. Raoul, in great despair, while occupying a furnished room on rue du Mail, threw several creditors off his track by the use of this assumed name. [A Daughter of Eve.]



R

RABOUILLEUSE (La), name assumed by Flore Brazier, who became in turn Madame Jean-Jacques Rouget and Madame Philippe Bridau. (See this last name.)

RABOURDIN (Xavier), born in 1784; his father was unknown to him. His mother, a beautiful and fastidious woman, who lived in luxury, left him a penniless orphan of sixteen. At this time he left the Lycee Napoleon and became a super-numerary clerk in the Treasury Department. He was soon promoted, becoming second head clerk at twenty-two and head clerk at twenty-five. An unknown, but influential friend, was responsible for this progress, and also gave him an introduction into the home of M. Leprince, a wealthy
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