VANDENESSE (Marquise Charles de), born Emilie de Fontaine about 1802; the youngest of the Comte de Fontaine’s daughters; having been overindulged as a child, her insolent bearing, a distinctive trait of character, was made manifest at the famous ball of Cesar Birotteau, to which she accompanied her parents. [Cesar Birotteau.] She refused Paul de Manerville, and a number of other excellent offers, before marrying her mother’s uncle, Admiral Comte de Kergarouet.  This marriage, which she regretted later, was resolved upon during a game of cards with the Bishop of Persepolis, as a result of the anger which she felt on learning that M. Longueville, on whom she had centred her affections, was only a merchant. [The Ball at Sceaux.] Madame de Kergarouet scorned her nephew by marriage, Savinien de Portenduere, who courted her. [Ursule Mirouet.] Having become a widow, she married the Marquis de Vandenesse.  A little later she endeavored to overthrow her sister-in-law, the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse, then in love with Raoul Nathan. [A Daughter of Eve.]

VANDENESSE (Comte Felix de), brother-in-law of the preceding, born late in the eighteenth century, bore the title of vicomte until the death of his father; suffered much in childhood and youth, first in his home life, then as a pupil in a boarding-school at Tours and in the Oratorien college at Pontlevoy.  He was unhappy also at the Lepitre school in Paris, and during his holidays spent on the Ile Saint-Louis with one of the Listomeres, a kinswoman.  Felix de Vandenesse at last found happiness at Frapesle, a castle near Clochegourde.  It was then that his platonic liaison with Madame de Mortsauf began—­a union which occupied an important place in his life.  He was, moreover, the lover of Lady Arabelle Dudley, who called him familiarly Amedee, pronounced “my dee.”  Madame de Mortsauf, having died, he was subjected to the secret hatred of her daughter Madeleine, later Madame de Lenoncourt-Givry-Chaulieu.  About this time began his career in public life.  During the “Hundred Days” Louis XVIII. entrusted to him a mission in Vendee.  The King received him into favor, and finally employed him as private secretary.  He was also appointed master of petitions in the State Council.  Vandenesse frequently visited the Lenoncourts.  He excited admiration, mingled with envy, in the mind of Lucien de Rubempre, who had recently arrived in Paris.  Acting for the King, he helped Cesar Birotteau.  He was acquainted with the Prince de Talleyrand, and asked of him information about Macumer, for Louise de Chaulieu. [The Lily of the Valley.  Lost Illusions.  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.  Cesar Birotteau.  Letters of Two Brides.] After his father’s death, Felix de Vandenesse assumed the title of count, and probably won a suit in regard to a land-sale against his brother, the marquis, who had been badly served by a rascally clerk of Maitre Desroches, Oscar Husson. [A Start in Life.] At this time, Comte Felix de Vandenesse