Page:Repertory of the Comedie Humaine.djvu/438

 and received their cousin, the young Pierrette Lorrain, a fatherless and motherless child of a delicate nature, whom they treated harshly, and who died as a result of the brutal treatment of Sylvie, an envious spinster. This woman had been sought in marriage, on account of her dowry, by Colonel Gouraud, and she believed herself deserted by him for Pierrette. (Pierrette)

ROGRON (Jerome-Denis), two years younger than his sister Sylvie, and like her sent to Paris by his father. When very young he entered the establishment of one of the leading haberdashers on rue Saint-Denis, the firm of Guepin at the Trois Quenouilles. He became first clerk there at eighteen. Finally associated with Sylvie in the haberdasher's establishment, the Soeur de Famille, he withdrew with her in 1823 to Provins. Jerome-Denis Rogron was ignorant and did not amount to much, but depended on his sister in everything, for Sylvie had "good sense and was sharp at a bargain." He allowed his sister to maltreat Pierrette Lorrain, and, when called before the Provins court as responsible for the young girl's death, was acquitted. In his little city, Rogron, through the influence of the attorney, Vinet, opposed the government of Charles X. After 1830 he was appointed receiver-general. The former Liberal, who was one of the masses, said that Louis Philippe would not be a real king until he could create noblemen. In 1828, although homely and unintelligent, he married the beautiful Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, who inspired in him an old man's foolish passion. (Pierrette)

ROGRON (Madame Denis), born Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, about 1803, one of the most beautiful young girls of Troyes, poor but noble and ambitious. Her relative, Vinet the attorney, had made "a little Catherine de Medicis" of her, and married her to Denis Rogron. Some years after this marriage she desired to become a widow as soon as possible, so that she might marry General Marquis de Montriveau, a peer of France, who was very attentive to her. Montriveau controlled the department in which Rogron had a receivership. (Pierrette)