JACQUES, for a considerable period butler of Claire de Beauseant, following her to Bayeux. Essentially "aristocratic, intelligent and discreet," he understood the sufferings of his mistress. [Father Goriot. The Deserted Woman.]
JACQUET (Claude-Joseph), a worthy bourgeois of the Restoration; head of a family, and something of a crank. He performed the duties of a deputy-mayor in Paris, and also had charge of the archives in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Was greatly indebted to his friend Jules Desmarets; so he deciphered for him, about 1820, a code letter of Gratien Bourignard. When Clemence Desmarets died, Jacquet comforted the broker in the Saint-Roch church and in the Pere-Lachaise cemetery. [The Thirteen.]
JACQUINOT, said to have succeeded Cardot as notary at Paris, time of Louis Philippe [The Middle Classes.]; but since Cardot was succeeded by Berthier, his son-in-law, a discrepancy is apparent.
JACQUOTTE, left the service of a cure for that of Dr. Benassis, whose house she managed with a devotion and care not unmixed with despotism. [The Country Doctor.]
JAN,* a painter who cared not a fig for glory. About 1838 he covered with flowers and decorated the door of a bed-chamber in a suite owned by Crevel on rue du Dauphin, Paris. [Cousin Betty.]
* Perhaps the fresco-painter, Laurent-Jan, author of "Unrepentant
Misanthropy," and the friend of Balzac, to whom the latter
dedicated his drama, "Vautrin."
JANVIER, priest in a village of Isere in 1829, a "veritable Fenelon shrunk to a cure's proportions"; knew, understood and assisted Benassis. [The Country Doctor.]
JAPHET (Baron), celebrated chemist who subjected to hydrofluoric acid, to chloride of nitrogen, and to the action of the voltaic battery the mysterious "magic skin" of Raphael de Valentin. To his stupefaction the savant wrought no change on the tissue. [The Magic Skin.]
JEAN, coachman and trusted servant of M. de Merret, at Vendome, in 1816. [La Grande Breteche.]
JEAN, landscape gardener and farm-hand for Felix Grandet, enagaged about November, 1819, in a field on the bank of the Loire, filling holes left by removed populars and planting other trees. [Eugenie Grandet.]