GERARD (Gregoire), born in 1802, probably in Limousin.  Protestant of somewhat uncouth exterior, son of a journeyman carpenter who died when rather young; godson of F. Grossetete.  From the age of twelve the banker had encouraged him in the study of the exact sciences for which he had natural aptitude.  Studied at Ecole Polytechnique from nineteen to twenty-one; then entered as a pupil of engineering in the National School of Roads and Bridges, from which he emerged in 1826 and stood the examinations for ordinary engineer two years later.  He was cool-headed and warm-hearted.  He became disgusted with his profession when he ascertained its many limitations, and he plunged into the July (1830) Revolution.  He was probably on the point of adopting the Saint-Simonian doctrine, when M. Grossetete prevailed upon him to take charge of some important works on the estate of Mme. Pierre Graslin in Haute-Vienne.  Gerard wrought wonders aided by Fresquin and other capable men.  He became mayor of Montegnac in 1838.  Mme. Graslin died about 1844.  Gerard followed out her final wishes, and lived with her children, assuming guardianship of Francis Graslin.  Three months later, again furthering the desires of the deceased, Gerard married a native girl, Denise Tascheron, the sister of a man who had been executed in 1829. [The Country Parson.]

GERARD (Madame Gregoire), wife of foregoing, born Denise Tascheron, of Montegnac, Limousin; youngest child of a rather large family.  She lavished her sisterly affection on her brother, the condemned Tasheron, visiting him in prison and softening his savage nature.  With the aid of another brother, Louis-Marie, she made away with certain compromising clues of her eldest brother’s crime, and restored the stolen money, afterwards she emigrated to America, where she became wealthy.  Becoming homesick she returned to Montegnac, fifteen years later, where she recognized Francis Graslin, her brother’s natural son, and became a second mother to him when she married the engineer, Gerard.  This marriage of a Protestant with a Catholic took place in 1844.  “In grace, modesty, piety and beauty, Mme. Gerard resembled the heroine of ‘Edinburgh Prison.’” [The Country Parson.]

GERARD (Madame), widow, poor but honest, mother of several grown-up daughters; kept a furnished hotel on rue Louis-le-Grand, Paris, about the end of the Restoration.  Being under obligations to Suzanne du Val-Noble—­Mme. Theodore Gaillard—­she sheltered her when the courtesan was driven away from a fine apartment on rue Saint-Georges, following the ruin and flight of her lover, Jacques Falleix, the stockbroker.  Mme. Gerard was not related to the other Gerards mentioned above. [Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.]

GIARDINI, Neapolitan cook somewhat aged.  He and his wife ran a restaurant in rue Froidmanteau, Paris, in 1830-31.  He had established, so he said, three restaurants in Italy:  at Naples, Parma and Rome.  In the first years of Louis Philippe’s reign, his peculiar cookery was the fare of Paolo Gambara.  In 1837 this crank on the subject of special dishes had fallen to the calling of broken food huckster on rue Froidmanteau. [Gambara.]