“It is the sweetest happiness I have ever seen,” said the Comtesse de l’Estorade, speaking of them lately.

Bless them, therefore, and be not envious; seek an Ursula for yourselves, a young girl brought up by three old men, and by the best of all mothers—­adversity.

Goupil, who does service to everybody and is justly considered the wittiest man in Nemours, has won the esteem of the little town, but he is punished in his children, who are rickety and hydrocephalous.  Dionis, his predecessor, flourishes in the Chamber of Deputies, of which he is one of the finest ornaments, to the great satisfaction of the king of the French, who sees Madame Dionis at all his balls.  Madame Dionis relates to the whole town of Nemours the particulars of her receptions at the Tuileries and the splendor of the court of the king of the French.  She lords it over Nemours by means of the throne, which therefore must be popular in the little town.

Bongrand is chief-justice of the court of appeals at Melun.  His son is in the way of becoming an honest attorney-general.

Madame Cremiere continues to make her delightful speeches.  On the occasion of her daughter’s marriage, she exhorted her to be the working caterpillar of the household, and to look into everything with the eyes of a sphinx.  Goupil is making a collection of her “slapsus-linquies,” which he calls a Cremiereana.

“We have had the great sorrow of losing our good Abbe Chaperon,” said the Vicomtesse de Portenduere this winter—­having nursed him herself during his illness.  “The whole canton came to his funeral.  Nemours is very fortunate, however, for the successor of that dear saint is the venerable cure of Saint-Lange.”

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Bouvard, Doctor
  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Dionis
  The Member for Arcis

Estorade, Madame de l’
  Letters of Two Brides
  The Member for Arcis

Kergarouet, Comte de
  The Purse
  The Ball at Sceaux

Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des
  The Muse of the Department
  Eugenie Grandet
  A Bachelor’s Establishment
  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
  The Government Clerks
  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Marsay, Henri de
  The Thirteen
  The Unconscious Humorists
  Another Study of Woman
  The Lily of the Valley
  Father Goriot
  Jealousies of a Country Twon
  A Marriage Settlement
  Lost Illusions
  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
  Letters of Two Brides
  The Ball at Sceaux
  Modeste Mignon
  The Secrets of a Princess
  The Gondreville Mystery
  A Daughter of Eve

Mirouet, Ursule (see Portenduere, Vicomtesse Savinien de)