of Diane de Cadignan by every one present in Madame d’Espard’s parlor; guided Maxime de Trailles between the hands, or, rather, the clutches of Claparon-Cerizet; accepted the invitation of Josepha Mirah to her reception on the rue Ville-l’Eveque.  When Wenceslas Steinbock married Hortense Hulot, Nucingen and Cottin de Wissembourg were the bride’s witnesses.  Furthermore, their father, Hector Hulot d’Ervy, borrowed of him more than a hundred thousand francs.  The Baron de Nucingen acted as sponsor to Polydore de la Baudraye when he was admitted to the French peerage.  As a friend of Ferdinand du Tillet, he was admitted on most intimate terms to the boudoir of Carabine, and he was seen there, one evening in 1845, along with Jenny Cadine, Gazonal, Bixiou, Leon de Lora, Massol, Claude Vignon, Trailles, F. du Bruel, Vauvinet, Marguerite Turquet, and the Gaillards of the rue Menars. [The Firm of Nucingen.  Father Goriot.  Pierrette.  Cesar Birotteau.  Lost Illusions.  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.  Another Study of Woman.  The Secrets of a Princess.  A Man of Business.  Cousin Betty.  The Muse of the Department.  The Unconscious Humorists.]

NUCINGEN (Baronne Delphine de), wife of the preceding, born in 1792, of fair complexion; the spoiled daughter of the opulent vermicelli-maker, Jean-Joachim Goriot; on the side of her mother, who died young, the granddaughter of a farmer.  In the latter period of the Empire she contracted, greatly to her taste, a marriage for money.  Madame de Nucingen formerly had as her lover Henri de Marsay, who finally abandoned her most cruelly.  Reduced, at the time of Louis XVIII., to the society of the Chaussee-d’Antin, she was ambitious to be admitted to the Faubourg Saint-Germain, a circle of which her elder sister, Madame de Restaud, was a member.  Eugene de Rastignac opened to her the parlor of Madame de Beauseant, his cousin, rue de Greville, in 1819, and, at about the same time, became her lover.  Their liaison lasted more than fifteen years.  An apartment on the rue d’Artois, fitted up by Jean-Joachim Goriot, sheltered their early love.  Having entrusted to Rastignac a certain sum for play at the Palais-Royal, the baroness was able with the proceeds to free herself of a humiliating debt to Marsay.  Meanwhile she lost her father.  The Nucingen carriage, without an occupant, however, followed the hearse. [Father Goriot.] Madame de Nucingen entertained a great deal on the rue Saint-Lazare.  It was there that Auguste de Maulincour saw Clemence Desmarets, and Adolphe des Grassins met Charles Grandet. [The Thirteen.  Eugenie Grandet.] Cesar Birotteau, on coming to beg credit of Nucingen, as also did Rodolphe Castanier, immediately after his forgery, found themselves face to face with the baroness. [Cesar Birotteau.  Melmoth Reconciled.] At this period, Madame de Nucingen took the box at the Opera which Antoinette de Langeais had occupied, believing undoubtedly, said Madame d’Espard,