第179章 T(3)

THIRION, usher to the closet of King Louis XVIII., was on terms of intimacy with the Ragons, and was invited to Cesar Birotteau's famous ball on December 17, 1818, together with his wife and his daughter Amelie, one of Servin's pupils who married Camusot de Marville. [The Vendetta. Cesar Birotteau.] The emoluments of his position, obtained by the patronage that his zeal deservedly acquired, enabled him to lay by a considerable sum, which the Camusot de Marvilles inherited.

[Jealousies of a Country Town.]

THOMAS was owner of a large house in Bretagne, that Marie de Verneuil (Madame Alphonse de Montauran) bought for Francine de Cottin, her lady's maid, and a niece of Thomas. [The Chouans.]

THOMAS (Madame) was a milliner in Paris towards the latter part of the reign of Charles X.; it was to her establishment that Frederic de Nucingen, after being driven to the famous pastry shop of Madame Domas, an error arising from his Alsatian pronunciation, betook himself in quest of a black satin cape, lined with pink, for Esther van Gobseck. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

THOMIRE contributed to the material splendors of the famous entertainment given by Frederic Taillefer, about 1831, at his mansion on the rue Joubert, Paris. [The Magic Skin.]

THOREC, an anagram of Hector, and one of the names successively assumed by Baron Hector Hulot d'Ervy, after deserting his conjugal roof. [Cousin Betty.]

THOREIN, a carpenter, was employed in making changes in Cesar Birotteau's apartments some days before the famous ball given by the perfumer on December 17, 1818. [Cesar Birotteau.]

THOUL, anagram of the word Hulot, and one of the names successively assumed by Baron Hector Hulot d'Ervy, after his desertion of the conjugal roof. [Cousin Betty.]

THOUVENIN, famous in his work, but an unreliable tradesman, was employed, in 1818, by Madame Anselme Popinot (then Mademoiselle Birotteau) to rebind for her father, the perfumer, the works of various authors. [Cesar Birotteau.] Thouvenin, as an artist, was in love with his own works--like Servais, the favorite gilder of Elie Magus. [Cousin Pons.]

THUILLIER was first door-keeper of the minister of finance in the second half of the eighteenth century; by furnishing meals to the clerks he realized from his position a regular annual income of almost four thousand francs; being married and the father of two children, Marie-Jeanne-Brigitte and Louis-Jerome, he retired from active duties about 1806, and, losing his wife in 1810, he himself died in 1814. He was commonly called "Stout Father Thuillier." [The Government Clerks.

The Middle Classes.]

THUILLIER (Marie-Jeanne-Brigitte), daughter of the preceding, born in 1787, of independent disposition and of obstinate will, chose the single state to become, as it were, the ambitious mother of Louis-

Jerome, a brother younger than herself by four years. She began life by making coin-bags at the Bank of France, then engaged in money-lending; took every advantage of her debtors, among others Fleury, her father's colleague at the Treasury. Being now rich, she met the Lempruns and the Galards; took upon herself the management of the small fortune of their heir, Celeste Lemprum, whom she had selected specially to be the wife of her brother; after their marriage she lived with her brother's family; was also one of Mademoiselle Colleville's god-mothers. On the rue Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer, and on the Place de la Madeleine, she showed herself many times to be the friend of Theodose de la Peyrade, who vainly sought the hand of the future Madame Phellion. [The Government Clerks. The Middle Classes.]

THUILLIER (Louis-Jerome), younger brother of the preceding, born in 1791. Thanks to his father's position, he entered the Department of Finance as clerk at an early age. Louis-Jerome Thuillier, being exempted from military service on account of weak eyes, married Celeste Lemprun, Galard's wealthy granddaughter, about 1814. Ten years later he had reached the advancement of reporting clerk, in Xavier Rabourdin's office, Flamet de la Billardiere's division. His pleasing exterior gave him a series of successes in love affairs, that was continued after his marriage, but cut short by the Restoration, bringing back, as it did, with peace, the gallants escaped from the battlefield. Among his amorous conquests may be counted Madame Flavie Colleville, wife of his intimate friend and colleague at the Treasury; of their relations was born Celeste Colleville--Madame Felix Phellion.

Having been deputy-chief for two years (since January 5, 1828), he left the Treasury at the outbreak of the Revolution of 1830. In him the office lost an expert in equivocal jests. Having left the department, Thuillier turned his energies in another direction. Marie-

Jeanne-Brigette, his elder sister, turning him to the intricacies of real estate, made him leave their lodging-place on the rue d'Argenteuil, to purchase a house on the rue Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer, which had formerly belonged to President Lecamus and to Petitot, the artist. Thuillier's conceit and vanity, now that he had become a well-known and important citizen, were greatly flattered when Theodose de la Peyrade hired apartments from him. M. Thuillier was manager of the "Echo de la Bievre," signed a certain pamphlet on political economy, was candidate for the Chamber of Deputies, purchased a second house, in 1840, on the Place de la Madeleine, and was chosen to succeed J.-J.

Popinot as member of the General Council of the Seine. [The Government Clerks. The Middle Classes.]