DERVILLE (Madame), born Jenny Malvaut; wife of Derville the attorney; young Parisian girl, though born in the country. In 1826 she lived alone, but maintaining a virtuous life, supported by her work. She was on the fifth floor of a gloomy house on rue Montmartre, where Gobseck had called to collect a note signed by her. He pointed her out to Derville, who married her without a dowry. Later she inherited from an uncle, a farmer who had become wealthy, seventy thousand francs with which she aided her husband to cancel his debt with Gobseck. (Gobseck) Being anxious for an invitation to the ball given by Birotteau, she paid a rather unexpected visit to the perfumer's wife. She made much of the latter and of Mlle. Birotteau, and was invited with her husband to the festivities. It appears that some years before her marriage she had worked as dressmaker for the Birotteaus. (Cesar Birotteau)
DESCOINGS (Monsieur and Madame), father-in-law and mother-in-law of Dr. Rouget of Issoudun. Dealers in wool, acting as selling agents for owners, and buying agents for fleece merchants of Berry. They also bought state lands. Rich and miserly. Died during the Republic within two years of each other and before 1799. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
DESCOINGS, son of the preceding; younger brother of Mme. Rouget, the doctor's wife; grocer at Paris, on rue Saint-Honore, not far from Robespierre's quarters. Descoings had married for love the widow of Bixiou, his predecessor. She was twelve years his senior but well preserved and "plump as a thrush after harvest." Accused of foreclosing, he was sent to the scaffold, in company with Andre Chenier, on the seventh Thermidor of year 2, July 25, 1794. The death of the grocer caused a greater sensation than did that of the poet. Cesar Birotteau moved the plant of the perfumery "Queen of Roses" into Descoings' shop around 1800. The successor of the executed man managed his business badly; the inventor of the the "Eau Carminative" went bankrupt. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
