Gaudissart’s theatre passed into other hands a year ago, but M. Topinard is still the cashier.  M. Topinard, however, has grown gloomy and misanthropic; he says little.  People think that he has something on his conscience.  Wags at the theatre suggest that his gloom dates from his marriage with Lolotte.  Honest Topinard starts whenever he hears Fraisier’s name mentioned.  Some people may think it strange that the one nature worthy of Pons and Schmucke should be found on the third floor beneath the stage of a boulevard theatre.

Mme. Remonencq, much impressed with Mme. Fontaine’s prediction, declines to retire to the country.  She is still living in her splendid shop on the Boulevard de la Madeleine, but she is a widow now for the second time.  Remonencq, in fact, by the terms of the marriage contract, settled the property upon the survivor, and left a little glass of vitriol about for his wife to drink by mistake; but his wife, with the very best intentions, put the glass elsewhere, and Remonencq swallowed the draught himself.  The rascal’s appropriate end vindicates Providence, as well as the chronicler of manners, who is sometimes accused of neglect on this head, perhaps because Providence has been so overworked by playwrights of late.

Pardon the transcriber’s errors.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Baudoyer, Isidore
  The Government Clerks
  The Middle Classes

Berthier (Parisian notary)
  Cousin Betty

Berthier, Madame
  The Muse of the Department

Bixiou, Jean-Jacques
  The Purse
  A Bachelor’s Establishment
  The Government Clerks
  Modeste Mignon
  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
  The Firm of Nucingen
  The Muse of the Department
  Cousin Betty
  The Member for Arcis
  Beatrix
  A Man of Business
  Gaudissart II. 
  The Unconscious Humorists

Braulard
  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
  Cousin Betty

Brisetout, Heloise
  Cousin Betty
  The Middle Classes

Camusot
  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
  A Bachelor’s Establishment
  The Muse of the Department
  Cesar Birotteau
  At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

Camusot de Marville
  Jealousies of a Country Town
  The Commission in Lunacy
  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Camusot de Marville, Madame
  The Vendetta
  Cesar Birotteau
  Jealousies of a Country Town
  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Cardot (Parisian notary)
  The Muse of the Department
  A Man of Business
  Jealousies of a Country Town
  Pierre Grassou
  The Middle Classes

Chanor
  Cousin Betty

Crevel, Celestin
  Cesar Birotteau
  Cousin Betty

Crottat, Alexandre
  Cesar Birotteau
  Colonel Chabert
  A Start in Life
  A Woman of Thirty