VITAL, born about 1810, a Parisian hatter, who succeeded Finot Pere, whose store on rue du Coq was very popular about 1845, and deservedly so, apparently.  He amused J.-J.  Bixiou and Leon de Lora by his ridiculous pretensions.  They wished him to supply S.-P.  Gazonal with a hat, and he proposed to sell him a hat like that of Lousteau.  On this occasion Vital showed them the head-covering that he had devised for Claude Vignon, who was undecided in politics.  Vital really pretended to make each hat according to the personality of the person ordering it.  He praised the Prince de Bethune’s hat and dreamed of the time when high hats would go out of style. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

VITAL (Madame), wife of the preceding, believed in her husband’s genius and greatness.  She was in the store when the hatter received a call from Bixiou, Lora and Gazonal. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

VITEL, born in 1776, Paris justice of the peace in 1845, an acquaintance of Doctor Poulain; was succeeded by Maitre Fraisier, a protege of the Camusot de Marvilles. [Cousin Pons.]

VITELOT, partner of Sonet, the marble-cutter; designed tombstones.  He failed to obtain the contract for monuments to Marsay, the minister, and to Keller, the officer.  It was given to Stidmann.  The plans made by Vitelot having been retouched, were submitted to Wilhelm Schmucke for the grave of Sylvain Pons, who was buried in Pere-Lachaise. [Cousin Pons.]

VITELOT (Madame), wife of the preceding, severely rebuked an agent of the firm for bringing in as a customer W. Schmucke, heir-contestant to the Pons property. [Cousin Pons.]

VIVET (Madeleine), servant to the Camusot de Marvilles; during nearly twenty-five years was their feminine Maitre-Jacques.  She tried in vain to gain Sylvain Pons for a husband, and thus to become their cousin.  Madeleine Vivet, having failed in her matrimonial attempts, took a dislike for Pons, and persecuted him in a thousand ways. [Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.  Cousin Pons.]

VOLFGANG,[*] cashier of Baron du Saint-Empire, F. de Nucingen, when this well-known Parisian banker of rue Saint-Lazare fell madly in love with Esther van Gobseck, and when Jacques Falleix’s discomfiture occurred. [Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.]

[*] He lived on rue de L’Arcade, near rue des Mathurins, Paris.

VORDAC (Marquise de), born in 1769, mistress of the rich Lord Dudley; she had by him a son, Henry.  To legitimize this child she arranged a marriage with Marsay, a bankrupt old gentleman of tarnished reputation.  He demanded payment of the interest on a hundred thousand francs as a reward for his marriage, and he died without having known his wife.  The widow of Marsay became by her second marriage the well-known Marquise de Vordac.  She neglected her duties as mother until late in life, and paid no attention to Henri de Marsay except to propose Miss Stevens as a suitable wife for him. [The Thirteen.]