Part 29

GAUDIN (Pauline), daughter of the foregoing. Was acquainted with, loved, and modestly aided Raphael de Valentin, a poor lodger at Hotel Saint-Quintin. After the return of her father she lived with her parents on rue Saint-Lazare. For a long time her whereabouts were unknown to Raphael who had quitted the hotel abruptly; then he met her again one evening at the Italiens. They fell into each other's arms, declaring their mutual love. Raphael who also had become rich resolved to espouse Pauline; but frightened by the shrinkage of the "magic skin" he fled precipitately and returned to Paris. Pauline hastened after him, only to behold him die upon her breast in a transport of furious, impotent love. [The Magic Skin.]

GAUDISSART (Jean-Francois), father of Felix Gaudissart. [Cesar Birotteau.]

GAUDISSART (Felix), native of Normandy, born about 1792, a "great" commercial traveler making a specialty of the hat trade. Known to the Finots, having been in the employ of the father of Andoche. Also handled all the "articles of Paris." In 1816 he was arrested on the denunciation of Peyrade--Pere Canquoelle. He had imprudently conversed in the David cafe with a retired officer concerning a conspiracy against the Bourbons that was about to break out. Thus the conspiracy was thwarted and two men were sent to the scaffold. Gaudissart being released by Judge Popinot was ever after grateful to the magistrate and devoted to the interests of his nephew. When he became minister, Anselme Popinot obtained for Gaudissart license for a large theatre on the boulevard, which in 1834 aimed to supply the demand for popular opera. This theatre employed Sylvain Pons, Schmucke, Schwab, Garangeot and Heloise Brisetout, Felix's mistress. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Cousin Pons.] "Gaudissart the Great," then a young man, attended the Birotteau ball. About that time he probably lived on rue des Deux- Ecus, Paris. [Cesar Birotteau.] During the Restoration, a "pretended florist's agent" sent by Judge Popinot to Comte Octave de Bauvan, he bought at exorbitant prices the artificial flowers made by Honorine. [Honorine.] At Vouvray in 1831 this man, so accustomed to fool others, was himself mystified in rather an amusing manner by a retired dyer, a sort of "country Figaro" named Vernier. A bloodless duel resulted. After the episode, Gaudissart boasted that the affair had been to his advantage. He was "in this Saint-Simonian period" the lover of Jenny Courand. [Gaudissart the Great.]

GAUDRON (Abbe), an Auvergnat; vicar and then curate of the church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, rue Saint-Antoine, Paris, during the Restoration and the Government of July. A peasant filled with faith, square below and above, a "sacerdotal ox" utterly ignorant of the world and of literature. Being confessor of Isidore Baudoyer he endeavored in 1824 to further the promotion of that incapable chief of bureau in the Department of Finance. In the same year he was present at a dinner at the Comte de Bauvan's when were discussed questions relating to woman. [The Government Clerks. Honorine.] In 1826 Abbe Gaudron confessed Mme. Clapart and led her into devout paths; the former Aspasia of the Directory had not confessed for forty years. In February, 1830, the priest obtained the Dauphiness' protection for Oscar Husson, son of Mme. Clapart by her first husband, and that young man was promoted to a sub-lieutenancy in a regiment where he had been serving as subaltern. [A Start in Life.]

GAULT, warden of the Conciergerie in May, 1830, when Jacques Collin and Rubempre were imprisoned there. He was then aged. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GAY, boot-maker in Paris, rue de la Michodiere, in 1821, who furnished the boots for Rubempre which aroused Matifat's suspicion. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

GAZONAL (Sylvestre-Palafox-Castel), one of the most skillful weavers in the Eastern Pyrenees; commandant of the National Guard, September, 1795. On a visit to Paris in 1845 for the settlement of an important lawsuit he sought out his cousin, Leon de Lora, the landscape artist, who in one day, with Bixiou the caricaturist, showed him the under side of the city, opening up to him a whole gallery full of "unconscious humorists"--dancers, actresses, police-agents, etc. Thanks to his two cicerones, he won his lawsuit and returned home. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

GENDRIN, caricaturist, tenant of M. Molineux, Cour Batave, in 1818. According to his landlord, the artist was a profoundly immoral man who drew caricatures against the government, brought bad women home with him and made the hall uninhabitable. [Cesar Birotteau.]

GENDRIN, brother-in-law of Gaubertin the steward of Aigues. He also had married a daughter of Mouchon. Formerly an attorney, then for a long time a judge of the Court of First Instance at Ville-aux-Fayes, he at last became president of the court, through the influence of Comte de Soulanges, under the Restoration. [The Peasantry.]

GENDRIN, court counselor of a departmental seat in Burgundy, and a distant relative of President Gendrin. [The Peasantry.]

GENDRIN, only son of President Gendrin; recorder of mortgages in that sub-prefecture in 1823. [The Peasantry.]

GENDRIN-WATTEBLED (or Vatebled), born about 1733. General supervisor of streams and forests at Soulanges, Burgundy, from the reign of Louis XV. Was still in office in 1823. A nonagenarian he spoke, in his lucid moments, of the jurisdiction of the Marble Table. He reigned over Soulanges before Mme. Soudry's advent. [The Peasantry.]

GENESTAS (Pierre-Joseph), cavalry officer, born in 1779. At first a regimental lad, then a soldier. Sub-lieutenant in 1802; officer of the Legion of Honor after the battle of Moskowa; chief of squadron in 1829. In 1814 he married the widow of his friend Renard, a subaltern. She died soon after, leaving a child that was legally recognized by Genestas, who entrusted him, then a young man, to the care of Dr. Benassis. In December, 1829, Genestas was promoted to be a lieutenant- colonel in a regiment quartered at Poitiers. [The Country Doctor.]

GENESTAS (Madame Judith), Polish Jewess, born in 1795. Married in 1812 after the Sarmatian custom to her lover Renard, a French quartermaster, who was killed in 1813. Judith gave him one son, Adrien, and survived the father one year. /In extremis/ she married Genestas a former lover, who adopted Adrien. [The Country Doctor.]

GENESTAS (Adrien), adopted son of Commandant Genestas, born in 1813 to Judith the Polish Jewess and Renard who was killed before the birth of his son. Adrien was a living picture of his mother--olive complexion, beautiful black eyes of a spirituelle sadness, and a head of hair too heavy for his frail body. When sixteen he seemed but twelve. He had fallen into bad habits, but after living with Dr. Benassis for eight months, he was cured and became robust. [The Country Doctor.]

GENEVIEVE, an idiotic peasant girl, ugly and comparatively rich. Friend and companion of the Comtesse de Vandieres, then insane and an inmate of the asylum of Bons-Hommes, near Isle-Adam, during the Restoration. Jilted by a mason, Dallot, who had promised to marry her, Genevieve lost what little sense love had aroused in her. [Farewell.]

GENOVESE, tenor at the Fenice theatre, Venice, in 1820. Born at Bergamo in 1797. Pupil of Veluti. Having long loved La Tinti, he sang outrageously in her presence, so long as she resisted his advances, but regained all his powers after she yielded to him. [Massimilla Doni.] In the winter of 1823-24, at the home of Prince Gandolphini, in Geneva, Genovese sang with his mistress, an exiled Italian prince, and Princess Gandolphini, the famous quartette, "Mi manca la voce." [Albert Savarus.]

GENTIL, old valet in service of Mme. de Bargeton, during the Restoration. During the summer of 1821, with Albertine and Lucien de Rubempre, he accompanied his mistress to Paris. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

GENTILLET, sold in 1835 an old diligence to Albert Savarus when the latter was leaving Besancon after the visit on the part of Prince Soderini. [Albert Savarus.]

GENTILLET (Madame), maternal grandmother of Felix Grandet. She died in 1806 leaving considerable property. In Grandet's "drawing room" at Saumur was a pastel of Mme. Gentillet, representing her as a shepherdess. [Eugenie Grandet.]

GEORGES, confidential valet of Baron de Nucingen, at Paris, time of Charles X. Knew of his aged master's love affairs and aided or thwarted him at will. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GERARD (Francois-Pascal-Simon, Baron), celebrated painter--1770-1837-- procured for Joseph Bridau in 1818 two copies of Louis XVIII.'s portrait which were worth to the beginner, then very poor, a thousand francs, a tidy sum for the Bridau family. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] The Parisian salon of Gerard, much sought after, had a rival at Chaussee-d'Antin in that of Mlle. de Touches. [Beatrix.]

GERARD, adjutant-general of the Seventy-second demi-brigade, commanded by Hulot. A careful education had developed a superior intellect in Gerard. He was a staunch Republican. Killed by the Chouan, Pille- Miche, at Vivetiere, December 1799. [The Chouans.]

GERARD (Gregoire), born in 1802, probably in Limousin. Protestant of somewhat uncouth exterior, son of a journeyman carpenter who died when rather young; godson of F. Grossetete. From the age of twelve the banker had encouraged him in the study of the exact sciences for which he had natural aptitude. Studied at Ecole Polytechnique from nineteen to twenty-one; then entered as a pupil of engineering in the National School of Roads and Bridges, from which he emerged in 1826 and stood the examinations for ordinary engineer two years later. He was cool- headed and warm-hearted. He became disgusted with his profession when he ascertained its many limitations, and he plunged into the July (1830) Revolution. He was probably on the point of adopting the Saint- Simonian doctrine, when M. Grossetete prevailed upon him to take charge of some important works on the estate of Mme. Pierre Graslin in Haute-Vienne. Gerard wrought wonders aided by Fresquin and other capable men. He became mayor of Montegnac in 1838. Mme. Graslin died about 1844. Gerard followed out her final wishes, and lived with her children, assuming guardianship of Francis Graslin. Three months later, again furthering the desires of the deceased, Gerard married a native girl, Denise Tascheron, the sister of a man who had been executed in 1829. [The Country Parson.]

GERARD (Madame Gregoire), wife of foregoing, born Denise Tascheron, of Montegnac, Limousin; youngest child of a rather large family. She lavished her sisterly affection on her brother, the condemned Tasheron, visiting him in prison and softening his savage nature. With the aid of another brother, Louis-Marie, she made away with certain compromising clues of her eldest brother's crime, and restored the stolen money, afterwards she emigrated to America, where she became wealthy. Becoming homesick she returned to Montegnac, fifteen years later, where she recognized Francis Graslin, her brother's natural son, and became a second mother to him when she married the engineer, Gerard. This marriage of a Protestant with a Catholic took place in 1844. "In grace, modesty, piety and beauty, Mme. Gerard resembled the heroine of 'Edinburgh Prison.' " [The Country Parson.]

GERARD (Madame), widow, poor but honest, mother of several grown-up daughters; kept a furnished hotel on rue Louis-le-Grand, Paris, about the end of the Restoration. Being under obligations to Suzanne du Val- Noble--Mme. Theodore Gaillard--she sheltered her when the courtesan was driven away from a fine apartment on rue Saint-Georges, following the ruin and flight of her lover, Jacques Falleix, the stockbroker. Mme. Gerard was not related to the other Gerards mentioned above. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GIARDINI, Neapolitan cook somewhat aged. He and his wife ran a restaurant in rue Froidmanteau, Paris, in 1830-31. He had established, so he said, three restaurants in Italy: at Naples, Parma and Rome. In the first years of Louis Philippe's reign, his peculiar cookery was the fare of Paolo Gambara. In 1837 this crank on the subject of special dishes had fallen to the calling of broken food huckster on rue Froidmanteau. [Gambara.]

GIBOULARD (Gatienne), a very pretty daughter of a wealthy carpenter of Auxerre; vainly desired, about 1823, by Sarcus for wife, but his father, Sarcus the Rich, would not consent. Later the social set of Mme. Soudry, the leading one of a neighboring village, dreamed for a moment of avenging themselves on the people of Aigues by winning over Gatienne Giboulard. She could have embroiled M. and Mme. Montcornet, and perhaps even compromised Abbe Brossette. [The Peasantry.]