第176章 S(14)

[The Imaginary Mistress.] Living amid squalor on the rue du Doyenne, he was saved from suicide by his spinster neighbor, Lisbeth Fischer, who restored his courage and determination, and aided him with her resources. Wenceslas Steinbock then worked and succeeded. A chance that brought one of his works to the notice of the Hulot d'Ervys brought him into connection with these people; he fell in love with their daughter, and, the love being returned, he married her. Orders then came in quick succession to Wenceslas, living, as he did, on the rue Saint-Dominique-Saint-Germain, near the Esplanade des Invalides, not far from the marble stores, where the government had allowed him a studio. His services were secured for the work of a monument to be erected to the Marechal de Montcornet. But Lisbeth Fischer's vindictive hatred, as well as his own weakness of character, caused him to fall beneath the fatal dominion of Valerie Marneffe, whose lover he became; with Stidmann, Vignon, and Massol, he witnessed that woman's second marriage. Steinbock returned to the conjugal domicile on the rue Louis-le-Grand, towards the latter part of Louis Philippe's reign. An exhausted artist, he confined himself to the barren role of critic; idle reverie replaced power of conception. [Cousin Betty.]

STEINBOCK (Countess Wenceslas), wife of the preceding; born Hortense Hulot d'Ervy in 1817; daughter of Hector Hulot d'Ervy and Adeline Fischer; younger sister of Victorin Hulot. Beautiful, and occupying a brilliant position in society through her parents, but lacking dowry, she made choice of husband for herself. Endowed with enduring pride of spirit, Madame Steinbock could with difficulty excuse Wenceslas for being unfaithful, and pardoned his disloyalty only after a long while.

Her trials ended with the last years of Louis Philippe's reign. The wisdom and foresight of her brother Victorin, coupled with the results of the wills of the Marechal Hulot, Lisbeth Fischer, and Valerie Crevel, at last brought wealth to the countess's household, who lived successively on the rue Saint-Dominique-Saint-Germain, the rue Plumet, and the rue Louis-le-Grand. [Cousin Betty.]

STEINBOCK (Wenceslas), only son of the preceding couple, born when his parents were living together, stayed with his mother after their separation. [Cousin Betty.]

STEINGEL, an Alsatian, natural son of General Steingel, who fell at the beginning of the Italian campaigns during the Republic; was, in Bourgogne, about 1823, under head-keeper Michaud, one of the three keepers of Montcornet's estates. [The Gondreville Mystery. The Peasantry.]

STEVENS (Miss Dinah), born in 1791, daughter of an English brewer, ugly enough, saving, and puritanical, had an income of two hundred and forty thousand francs and expectations of as much more at her father's death; the Marquise de Vordac, who met her at some watering-place in 1827, spoke of her to her son Marsay, as a very fine match, and Marsay pretended that he was to marry the heiress; which he probably did, for he left a widow that erected to him, at Pere-Lachaise, a superb monument, the work of Stidmann. [A Marriage Settlement. Cousin Pons.]

STIDMANN, a celebrated carver and sculptor of Paris at the times of the Restoration and Louis Philippe; Wenceslas Steinbock's teacher; he carved, for the consideration of seven thousand francs, a representation of a fox-chase on the ruby-set gold handle of a riding whip that Ernest de la Briere gave to Modeste Mignon. [Modeste Mignon.] At the request of Fabien de Ronceret, Stidmann undertook to decorate an apartment for him on the rue Blanche [Beatrix.], he made the originals of a chimney-piece for the Hulot d'Ervys; was among the guests invited by Mademoiselle Brisetout at her little house-warming on the rue Chauchat (1838); the same year he was present at the celebration of Wenceslas Steinbock's marriage with Hortense Hulot; knew Dorlange-Sallenauve; with Vignon, Steinbock and Massol, he was a witness of Valerie Marneffe's second marriage to Celestin Crevel; entertained a secret love for Madame Steinbock when she was neglected by her husband [The Member for Arcis. Cousin Betty.]; executed the work of Charles Keller's and Marsay's monuments. [Cousin Pons.] In 1845 Stidmann entered the Institute. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

STOPFER (Monsieur and Madame), formerly coopers at Neuchatel, in 1823; were proprietors of an inn at Gersau (canton of Lucerne), near the lake, to which Rodolphe came. The same village sheltered the Gandolphinis, disguised under the name of Lovelace. [Albert Savarus.]

SUCY (General Baron Philippe de), born in 1789, served under the Empire; on one occasion, at the crossing of the Beresina, he tried to assure the safety of his mistress, Stephanie de Vandieres, a general's wife, of whom he afterwards lost all trace. Seven years later, however, being a colonel and an officer in the Legion of Honor, while hunting with his friend, the Marquis d'Albon, near the Isle-Adam, Sucy found Madame de Vandieres insane, under the charge of the alienist Fanjat, and he undertook to restore her reason. With this end in view, he arranged an exact reproduction of the parting scenes of 1812, on an estate of his at Saint-Germain. The mad-woman recognized him indeed, but she died immediately. Having gained the promotion of general, Sucy committed suicide, the prey of incurable despair. [Farewell.]

SUZANNE, real given name of Madame Theodore Gaillard.

SUZANNET was, with the Abbe Vernal, the Comte de Fontaine, and M. de Chatillon, one of the four Vendean chiefs at the time of the uprising in the West in 1799. [The Chouans.]

SUZETTE, during the first years of Louis XVIII.'s reign, was lady's-maid to Antoinette de Langeais, in Paris, about the time that the duchess was receiving attentions from Montriveau. [The Thirteen.]

SUZON was for a long time valet de chambre for Maxime de Trailles. [A Man of Business. The Member for Arcis.]

SYLVIE, cook for Madame Vauquer, the widow, on the rue Neuve-Saint-Genevieve, during the years 1819 and 1820, at the time when Jean-Joachim Goriot, Eugene de Rastignac, Jacques Collin, Horace Bianchon, the Poirets, Madame Couture, and Victorine Taillefer boarded there.

[Father Goriot.]