第47章 C(17)

COURTEVILLE (Madame de), cousin of Comte de Bauvan on the maternal side; widow of a judge of the Seine Court. She had a very beautiful daughter, Amelie, whom the comte wished to marry to his secretary, Maurice de l'Hostal. [Honorine.]

COURTOIS, Marsac miller, near Angouleme during the Restoration. In 1821 rumor had it that he intended to wed a miller's widow, his patroness, who was thirty-two years old. She had one hundred thousand francs in her own right. David Sechard was advised by his father to ask the hand of this rich widow. At the end of 1822 Courtois, now married, sheltered Lucien de Rubempre, returning almost dead from Paris. [Lost Illusions.]

COURTOIS (Madame), wife of the preceding, who cared sympathetically for Lucien de Rubempre, on his return. [Lost Illusions.]

COUSSARD (Laurent). (See Goussard, Laurent.)

COUTELIER, a creditor of Maxime de Trailles. The Coutelier credit, purchased for five hundred francs by the Claparon-Cerizet firm, came to thirty-two hundred francs, seventy-five centimes, capital, interest and costs. It was recovered by Cerizet by means of a strategy worthy of a Scapin. [A Man of Business.]

COUTURE, a kind of financier-journalist of an equivocal reputation; born about 1797. One of Mme. Schontz's earliest friends; and she alone remained faithful to him when he was ruined by the downfall of the ministry of March 1st, 1840. Couture was always welcome at the home of the courtesan, who dreamed, perhaps, of making him her husband. But he presented Fabien du Ronceret to her and the "lorette" married him. In 1836, in company with Finot and Blondet, he was present in a private room of a well-known restaurant when Jean-Jacques Bixiou related the origin of the Nucingen fortune. At the time of his transient wealth Couture splendidly maintained Jenny Cadine. At one time he was celebrated for his waistcoats. He had no known relationship with the widow Couture. [Beatrix. The Firm of Nucingen.] The financier drew upon himself the hatred of Cerizet for having deceived him in a deal about the purchase of lands and houses situated in the suburbs of the Madeleine, an affair in which Jerome Thuillier was afterwards concerned. [The Middle Classes.]

COUTURE (Madame), widow of an ordonnance-commissary of the French Republic. Relative and protectress of Mlle. Victorine Taillefer with whom she lived at the Vauquer pension, in 1819. [Father Goriot.]

COUTURIER (Abbe), curate of Saint-Leonard church at Alencon, time of Louis XVIII. Spiritual adviser of Mlle. Cormon, remaining her confessor after her marriage with Du Bousquier, and influencing her in the way of excessive penances. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

CREMIERE, tax-collector at Nemours during the Restoration. Nephew by marriage of Dr. Minoret, who had secured the position for him, furnishing his security. One of the three collateral heirs of the old physician, the two others being Minoret-Levrault, the postmaster, and Massin-Levrault, copy-clerk to the justice of the peace. In the curious branching of these four Gatinais bourgeois families--the Minorets, the Massins, the Levraults and the Cremieres--the tax collector belonged to the Cremiere-Cremiere branch. He had several children, among others a daughter named Angelique. After the Revolution of July, 1830, he became municipal councillor. [Ursule Mirouet.]

CREMIERE (Madame), nee Massin-Massin, wife of the tax-collector, and niece of Dr. Minoret--that is, daughter of the old physician's sister.

A stout woman with a muddy blonde complexion splotched with freckles.

Passed for an educated person on account of her novel-reading. Her /lapsi linguoe/ were maliciously spread abroad by Goupil, the notary's clerk, who labelled them, "Capsulinguettes"; indeed, Mme. Cremiere thus translated the two Latin words. [Ursule Mirouet.]

CREMIERE-DIONIS, always called Dionis, which name see.

CREVEL (Celestin), born between 1786 and 1788; clerked for Cesar Birotteau the perfumer--first as second clerk, then as head-clerk when Popinot left the house to set up in business for himself. After his patron's failure in 1819, he purchased for five thousand seven hundred francs, "The Queen of Roses," making his own fortune thereby. During the reign of Louis Philippe he lived on his income. Captain, then chief of battalion in the National Guard; officer of the Legion of Honor; mayor of one of the arrondissements of Paris, he ended up by being a very great personage. He had married the daughter of a farmer of Brie; became a widower in 1833, when he gave himself over to a life of pleasure. He maintained Josepha, who was taken away from him by his friend, Baron Hulot. To avenge himself he tried to win Mme. Hulot. He "protected" Heloise Brisetout. Finally he was smitten with Mme.

Marneffe, whom he had for mistress and afterwards married when she became a widow in 1843. In May of this same year, Crevel and his wife died of a horrible disease which had been communicated to Valerie by a negro belonging to Montes the Brazilian. In 1838 Crevel lived on rue des Saussaies; at the same time he owned a little house on rue du Dauphin, where he had prepared a secret chamber for Mme. Marneffe; this last house he leased to Maxime de Trailles. Besides these Crevel owned: a house on rue Barbet de Jouy; the Presles property bought of Mme. de Serizy at a cost of three million francs. He caused himself to be made a member of the General Council of Seine-et-Oise. By his first marriage he had an only daughter, Celestine, who married Victorin Hulot. [Cesar Birotteau. Cousin Betty.] In 1844-1845 Crevel owned a share in the management of the theatre directed by Gaudissart. [Cousin Pons.]

CREVEL (Celestine), only child of the first marriage of the preceding.

(See Hulot, Mme. Victorin.)