Character guide

Prosper Bertomy

major

Also known as Prosper, M. Bertomy, M. Prosper Bertomy, Poor Prosper

Prosper Bertomy is the handsome, well-dressed head clerk at Fauvel's banking house, engaged to the banker's niece Madeleine and regarded as a model of probity. When three hundred and fifty thousand francs vanish from the safe he alone can open, he is arrested, and his marble-faced composure under interrogation only deepens the mystery around him. His stubborn silence about what he knows, and the shadow of some old sorrow that keeps him from confiding even in Madeleine, make him the still center of the novel's opening storm.

Marquis de Clameran

major

Also known as M. de Clameran, Louis, Marquis Louis de Clameran, Clameran

The Marquis Louis de Clameran arrives at Fauvel's bank demanding payment with a haughty insolence that stings the banker into open resentment, then returns hours later to apologize before the assembled clerks with a humility so uncharacteristic it unsettles everyone. He is a creditor, a man of rank, and a brother with a stake in the Clameran name that reaches back decades. His smooth reversal and his pointed interest in Mme. Fauvel's household mark him as a man playing a longer game than anyone in the bank realizes.

Gaston de Clameran

major

Also known as M. de Clameran, de Clameran, M. Gaston, poor Gaston

Gaston de Clameran loves Valentine de la Verberie across a feud between their families, a love kept secret until gossip and violence tear it into the open. Wanted for killing two men who dared speak her name, he crosses the Rhone by night and pleads with her to flee with him under a false name, invoking a bond he calls stronger than any earthly tie. Valentine's refusal, grounded in duty to her mother and her own conscience, sets the tragedy in motion whose consequences will reach a Paris bank decades later.

Mme. Fauvel

major

Also known as Mme, Fauvel, Madame Fauvel

Mme. Fauvel presides over a respectable household as the wife of a wealthy Parisian banker, yet she lives under the weight of a past she has never confessed to anyone. When her son Raoul forces from her the key to the money-safe and steals three hundred and fifty thousand francs, she lets an innocent man be arrested rather than expose the truth, terrified into complicity by a threat of suicide. Her guilt and her helpless love for her son make her both victim and enabler, and her silence is the hinge on which Prosper's ruin swings.

Valentine

major

Also known as XIII Valentine, Valentin - Raoul Wilson, Little Raoul, Raoul, Valentine de la Verberie, Mlle. Valentine, Poor Valentine

Valentine de la Verberie loves Gaston de Clameran with a passion that defies the feud between their families, but when he begs her to flee with him after killing two men, she refuses. Her duty to a hard, friendless mother and the voice of her own conscience hold her back, even as she confesses that stolen happiness must be paid for in bitterness. Her renunciation, and the secret she carries from that night, becomes the buried root from which the novel's present-day crime grows.

Fanferlot

major

Also known as M. Fanferlot, Master Fanferlot, poor Fanferlot, Fanferlot the Squirrel, Dubois

Fanferlot the Squirrel, as his colleagues call him, lodges at the Archangel and turns its corridors into a surveillance post, hiding in cupboards and darting into the street in linen blouses and false whiskers. Vain, excitable, and touchy about his professional dignity, he is outraged when a messenger slips past his watch and a weeping Mme. Gypsy keeps a rendezvous he meant to control. His dogged, bumbling pursuit of the bank thief keeps the investigation moving even as his vanity keeps him from seeing what the reader can.

Madeleine

supporting

Also known as Mlle. Madeleine, the charming Madeleine

Madeleine moves through the Fauvel household with a delicacy so fine it shows in the smallest habits of her day, and a conscience she will not bend for anyone. When Prosper reappears, her calm shatters for a moment before pride and duty reassert themselves, and she answers his reproaches with the composure of a woman who has already decided to suffer in silence. Her unexplained renunciation of him is one of the early mysteries that keeps the reader turning pages, since the reason she will not speak may be the same reason the crime happened.

André Fauvel

supporting

Also known as M. André Fauvel, M. Fauvel, Fauvel, André

André Fauvel stands at the head of a prosperous banking house and a family that believes its past is settled. But the Marquis of Clameran arrives with knowledge of a youthful passion, a sacrificed brother, and a child Mme. Fauvel thought buried in oblivion twenty years ago, and the banker's world tilts on its axis. His fortune, his name, and his household become the collateral in a quiet extortion that will eventually pull the theft at his bank into the same story.

M. Verduret

supporting

Also known as Verduret, the quick-sighted Verduret

Verduret works the case from outside the official police, dragging a reluctant Prosper through rain and sleet to peer into Raoul de Lagors's lighted window. He is older than his companion but tireless, indifferent to mud and discovery, and convinced that the solution of the mystery sits just beyond a ladder that is six feet too short. His methods are unorthodox and his manner almost playful, yet his instincts are the sharpest in the book, and the early investigation bends wherever he pushes it.

Raoul de Lagors

supporting

Also known as M. Raoul de Lagors, Lagors, Raoul, M. Raoul, the Lagors

Raoul de Lagors occupies a narrow two-story house in the middle of an immense garden, with only one window lit after dark and a staff that vanishes by dinner. He is charming enough to move easily among the wealthy, yet his habits are those of a man with something to hide, and the visitor who arrives from Paris at ten o'clock at night is the kind one does not receive in daylight. Verduret's determination to overhear that conversation makes Raoul the hinge on which the middle of the investigation turns.

Nina Gypsy

supporting

Also known as Gypsy, Nina, Mme. Nina Gypsy, Mme. Gypsy

Nina Gypsy lodges under Mme. Alexandre's roof, where she is watched, protected, and quietly used as bait by a detective who hides in closets. When an anonymous note summons her to a public rendezvous near the Saint Jacques tower, she goes without hesitation, telling her landlady that she is too unfortunate to fear anything more. Her loyalty to Prosper and her reckless willingness to meet a stranger make her both a target and a thread the investigators cannot afford to lose.

M. Lecoq

supporting

Also known as Lecoq, the official Lecoq

Lecoq arrives at Prosper's examination with the deference of subordinates trailing him and the calm of a man who has seen every variety of guilt. He waves aside the searchers who want to strip the prisoner's boots, ends the formalities with a word, and leaves Prosper to a cell he wrongly believes is private. Behind the official procedure stands a professional eye that misses nothing, and his presence signals that the theft at Fauvel's bank has graduated from a household scandal into a case the whole Paris police force is watching.

M. Patrigent

supporting

Patrigent embodies the examining magistrate's ideal: unhurried, methodical, and willing to spend years untangling a case rather than risk a hasty judgment. Yet his very thoroughness can look like slowness to those awaiting his verdict, and the gallery outside his door—crowded with the accused and their weeping families—is a purgatory in its own right. When Prosper Bertomy is finally called into his office, the young cashier's freedom rests entirely on this patient, deliberate man's reading of the evidence.

Cavaillon

minor

Also known as little Cavaillon, young Cavaillon, M. Eugene Cavaillon, M. Cavaillon

A clerk at the bank and friend of Prosper.

Mihonne

minor

Also known as the faithful Mihonne

A loyal servant in the de Clameran household.

Joseph Dubois

minor

Also known as Master Joseph Dubois, Master Joseph, Joseph, Dubois, the amazed Joseph

A detective working undercover with Fanferlot.

Caldas

minor

Also known as this Caldas

A mysterious figure who appears during the investigation.

Jean

minor

Also known as St. Jean, old St. Jean, poor St. Jean

An elderly servant at the de Clameran estate.

Manuel

minor

A servant in the de Clameran household.

Countess de la Verberie

minor

Also known as the Countess de la Verberie, the proud Countess de la Verberie

Valentine's proud and aristocratic mother.

Alexandre

minor

Also known as Mme. Alexandre

The Fauvels' housekeeper and confidante.

Jules Lazet

minor

Also known as Jules, Lazet

A friend of Prosper's from his hometown.

Lucien

minor

Also known as M. Lucien

A young man who befriends Valentine.

Dr. Raget

minor

The family physician for the Fauvels.

Palmyre Chocareille

minor

Also known as Palmyre

A former servant of the de Clamerans with a grudge.

Père Menoul

minor

Also known as old Menoul, Menoul

An old friend of the de Clameran family.

Fougeroux

minor

Also known as this Fougeroux, the wily Fougeroux, M. Fougeroux

A cunning lawyer involved in the case.

Antonin Poche

minor

Also known as Antonin

A clerk at the bank who provides key testimony.

Captain Warth

minor

Also known as the redoubtable Captain Warth

A military man and acquaintance of the de Clamerans.

Lord Murray

minor

An Englishman who plays a role in the past events.

James Spencer

minor

Also known as Spencer

An associate of the de Clameran brothers.

Sigault

minor

A notary involved in the family's legal affairs.

Pilorel

minor

Also known as young Pilorel

A young man from a neighboring family.

Lafourcade

minor

A lawyer consulted by the de Clamerans.

Janouille

minor

Also known as the faithful Janouille

A loyal servant of the de Clameran family.

La Verdure

minor

Also known as Verdure

An innkeeper who provides information.

Evariste

minor

Also known as M. Evariste

A friend of the Fauvel family.

Beaucaire

minor

A name mentioned in connection with the past.

Abel

minor

A young man who appears briefly.

Toinette

minor

A servant in the de Clameran household.

M. Jacobson

minor

A jeweler consulted during the investigation.