DAVID (Madame), woman living in the outskirts of Brives, who died of fright on account of the Chauffeurs, time of the Directory. [The Country Parson.]

DELBECQ, secretary and steward of Comte Ferraud during the Restoration.  Retired attorney.  A capable, ambitious man in the service of the countess, whom he aided to rid herself of Colonel Chabert when that officer claimed his former wife. [Colonel Chabert.]

DENISART, name assumed by Cerizet.

DERVILLE, attorney at Paris, rue Vivienne, from 1819 to 1840.  Born in 1794, the seventh child of an insignificant bourgeois of Noyon.  In 1816 he was only second clerk and dwelt on rue des Gres, having for a neighbor the well-known usurer Gobseck, who later advanced him one hundred and fifty thousand francs at 15 per cent., with which he purchased the practice of his patron, a man of pleasure now somewhat short of funds.  Through Gobseck he met his future wife, Jenny Malvaut; through the same man he learned the Restaud secrets.  In the winter of 1829-1830 he told of their troubles to the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu.  Derville had re-established the fortune of the feminine representative of the Grandlieu’s younger branch, at the time of the Bourbon’s re-entry, and therefore was on a friendly footing at her home. [Gobseck.] He had been a clerk at Bordin’s. [A Start in Life.  The Gondreville Mystery.] He was attorney for Colonel Chabert who sought his conjugal rights with Comtesse Ferraud.  He became keenly interested in the old officer, aiding him and being greatly grieved when, some years later, he found him plunged into idiocy in the Bicetre hospital. [Colonel Chabert.] Derville was also attorney for Comte de Serizy, Mme. de Nucingen and the Ducs de Grandlieu and de Chaulieu, whose entire confidence he possessed.  In 1830, under the name of Saint-Denis, he and Corentin inquired of the Sechards at Angouleme concerning the real resources of Lucien de Rubempre. [Father Goriot.  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.]

DERVILLE (Madame), born Jenny Malvaut; wife of Derville the attorney; young Parisian girl, though born in the country.  In 1826 she lived alone, but maintaining a virtuous life, supported by her work.  She was on the fifth floor of a gloomy house on rue Montmartre, where Gobseck had called to collect a note signed by her.  He pointed her out to Derville, who married her without a dowry.  Later she inherited from an uncle, a farmer who had become wealthy, seventy thousand francs with which she aided her husband to cancel his debt with Gobseck. [Gobseck.] Being anxious for an invitation to the ball given by Birotteau, she paid a rather unexpected visit to the perfumer’s wife.  She made much of the latter and of Mlle. Birotteau, and was invited with her husband to the festivities.  It appears that some years before her marriage she had worked as dressmaker for the Birotteaus. [Cesar Birotteau.]

DESCOINGS (Monsieur and Madame), father-in-law and mother-in-law of Dr. Rouget of Issoudun.  Dealers in wool, acting as selling agents for owners, and buying agents for fleece merchants of Berry.  They also bought state lands.  Rich and miserly.  Died during the Republic within two years of each other and before 1799. [A Bachelor’s Establishment.]