Page:Repertory of the Comedie Humaine.djvu/483

This page needs to be proofread.

daughter, Rosalie, whom she vainly tried to force to marry M. de Soulas. The pressure, at Besancon, of Albert Savarus, who was secretly loved by Mademoiselle de Watteville, gave a political significance to the salon of Rosalie's parents during the reign of Louis Philippe. Tired of her daughter's obstinacy, Madame de Watteville, now a widow, herself married M. de Soulas; she lived in Paris, in the winter at least, and knew how to be mistress of her house there, as she always had been elsewhere. (Albert Savarus)

SPARCHMANN, hospital surgeon at Heilsberg, attended Colonel Chabert after the battle of Eylau. (Colonel Chabert)

SPENCER (Lord), about 1830, at Balthazar Claes's sale, bought some magnificent wainscoting that had been carved by Van Huysum, as well as the portrait of President Van Claes, a Fleming of the sixteenth century,—family treasures which the father of Mesdames de Solis and Pierquin was obliged to give up. (The Quest of the Absolute)

SPIEGHALTER, a German mechanician, who lived in Paris on the rue de la Sante, in the early part of Louis Philippe's reign, made unsuccessful efforts, with the aid of pressure, hammering and rolling, to stretch the anomalous piece of shagreen submitted to him by Raphael de Valentin, at the suggestion of Planchette, professor of mechanics. (The Magic Skin)

SPONDE (Abbe de), born about 1746, was grand vicar of the bishopric of Seez. Maternal uncle, guardian, guest, and boarder of Madame du Bousquier—nee Cormon—of Alencon; he died in 1819, almost blind, and strangely depressed by his niece's recent marriage. Entirely removed from worldly interests, he led an ascetic life, and an uneventful one, entirely consumed in thoughts of salvation, mortifications of the flesh, and secret works of charity. (Jealousies of a Country Town)

STAEL-HOLSTEIN (Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Baronne de), daughter of the famous Necker of Geneva, born in Paris