[Secrets from a Courtesan's Life.] Urged by Ursule Mirouet, his ward, Denis Minoret, who was one of Savinien's neighbors at Nemours, raised the sum necessary to liquidate young Portenduere's debt, and freed him of its burden. The viscount enlisted in the marine service, and retired with the rank and insignia of an ensign, two years after the Revolution of July, and five years before being able to marry Ursule Mirouet. [Ursule Mirouet.] The Vicomte and Vicomtesse de Portenduere made a charming couple, recalling two other happy families of Paris, the Langinskis and the Ernest de la Basties. In 1840 they lived on the Rue Saint-Peres, became the intimate friends of the Calyste du Guenics, and shared their box at the Italiens. [Beatrix.]
PORTENDUERE (Vicomtesse Savinien de), wife of the preceding, born in 1814. The orphan daughter of an unfortunate artist, Joseph Mirouet, the military musician, and Dinah Grollman, a German; natural granddaughter of Valentine Mirouet, the famous harpsichordist, and consequently niece of the rich Dr. Denis Minoret; she was adopted by the last named, and became his ward, so much the more adored as, in appearance and character, she recalled Madame Denis Minoret, deceased.
Ursule's girlhood and youth, passed at Nemours, were marked alternately by joy and bitterness. Her guardian's servants, as well as his intimate friends, overwhelmed her with indications of interest. A distinguished performer, the future viscountess received lessons in harmony from Schmucke, the pianist, who was summoned from Paris. Being of a religious nature, she converted Denis Minoret, who was an adherent of Voltaire's teachings; but the influence she acquired over him called forth against the young girl the fierce animosity of Minoret-Levrault, Massin, Cremiere, Dionis and Goupil, who, foreseeing that she would be the doctor's residuary legatee, abused her, slandered her, and persecuted her most cruelly. Ursule was also scornfully treated by Madame de Portenduere, with whose son, Savinien, she was in love. Later, the relenting of Minoret-Levrault and Goupil, shown in various ways, and her marriage to the Vicomte de Portenduere, at last approved by his mother, offered Ursule some consolation for the loss of Denis Minoret. [Ursule Mirouet.] Paris adopted her, and made much of her; she made a glorious success in society as a singer.
[Another Study of Woman.] Amid her own great happiness, the viscountess showed herself the devoted friend, in 1840, of Madame Calyste du Guenic, just after her confinement, who was almost dying of grief over the treachery of her husband. [Beatrix.]
POSTEL was pupil and clerk of Chardon the druggist of L'Houmeau, a suburb of Angouleme; succeeded Chardon after his death; was kind to his former patron's unfortunate family; desired, but without success, to marry Eve, who was afterwards Madame David Sechard, and became the husband of Leonie Marron, by whom he had several sickly children.
[Lost Illusions.]
POSTEL (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Leonie Marron, daughter of Doctor Marron, a practitioner in Marsac (Charente); through jealousy she was disagreeable to the beautiful Madame Sechard; through cupidity she fawned upon the Abbe Marron, from whom she hoped to inherit. [Lost Illusions.]
POTASSE, sobriquet of the Protez family, manufacturers of chemicals, as associates of Cochin; known by Minard, Phellion, Thuiller and Colleville, types of Parisians of the middle class, about 1840. [The Middle Classes.]
POTEL, former officer of the Imperial forces, retired, during the Restoration, to Issoudun, with Captain Renard; he took sides with Maxence Gilet against the officers, Mignonnet and Carpentier, declared enemies of the chief of the "Knights of Idlesse." [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
POULAIN (Madame), born in 1778. She married a trousers-maker, who died in very reduced circumstances; for from the sale of his business she received only about eleven hundred francs for income. She lived then, for twenty years, on work which some fellow-countrymen of the late Poulain gave to her, and the meagre profits of which afforded her the opportunity of starting in a professional career her son, the future physician, whom she dreamed of seeing gain a rich marriage settlement.
Madame Poulain, though deprived of an education, was very tactful, and she was in the habit of retiring when patients came to consult her son. This she did when Madame Cibot called at the office on rue d'Orleans, late in 1844 or early in 1845. [Cousin Pons.]
