# These Old Shades — Character guide

> Key figures in These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer.

- [Justin, Duke of Avon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/justin_alastair_duke_of_avon.md): Avon moves through Parisian society as a master of irony and manipulation, his motives as opaque to his friends as to his enemies. He acquires the boy Léon with suspicious ease, installs him as a ward, and watches with a
- [Léonie de Bonnard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/leonie_de_bonnard.md): Léonie enters the story disguised as a boy, quick with a blade and quicker with a retort, and is swept into Avon's household where she blossoms into a beauty with no memory of her true parentage. She adores Avon with a d
- [Hugh Davenant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/hugh_davenant.md): Hugh Davenant is the rare man who can tease Avon about his ruling passions and still be trusted with his secrets, moving between London and the Continent as his friend's discreet agent. He is the one who notices Léon's s
- [Lady Fanny Marling](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/lady_fanny_marling.md): Lady Fanny Marling moves through Parisian society with an eye for a petticoat of gold net and an ear for the latest scandal, and she takes the bewildered Léonie under her wing with genuine warmth. She reads Avon's feelin
- [Comte de Saint-Vire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/comte_de_saint_vire.md): Saint-Vire arrives at Merivale with a story about a schooner and a friend named Chalmer that no one quite believes, and his composure cracks the moment Léonie's name is mentioned. He probes for news of Avon's whereabouts
- [Léon Bonnard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/leon_bonnard.md): Léon Bonnard is the page who shares Léonie's face and her secret history, left behind when Avon carries her off to Paris and reduced to playing chess with Hugh Davenant while he waits for news. He plays a monstrous reckl
- [Lord Rupert Alastair](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/rupert_alastair.md): Rupert moves through the Polite World as a lounging man about town, forever betting Merivale a monkey on his brother's schemes and fleeing drawing rooms where anyone reads verse. Yet his real tension is loyalty: he has l
- [Armand de Saint-Vire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/armand_de_saint_vire.md): Known in society as 'the good Armand,' he moves through the same glittering salons as Avon and Léonie while carrying a name that others spit upon. His position is quietly impossible: he is heir to a man whose hatred of t
- [Jennifer Merivale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/jennifer_merivale.md): Jennifer moves through the Marling and Merivale circle as the soft-spoken counterweight to her brother's bluntness and Rupert's noise. Where others are dazzled by Léonie's daring or troubled by her strangeness, Jennifer 
- [Anthony Merivale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/anthony_merivale.md): Merivale is the reliable friend in Avon's orbit, the man who watches his host with curious eyes and dares to say, 'I think that you have grown, Alastair.' He trades snuffbox observations with the Duke about Léonie's scar
- [Madam Field](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/madam_field.md): The Duke of Avon's formidable housekeeper at his English estate.
- [Prince de Condé](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/prince_de_conde.md): A powerful French prince and ally to the Duke of Avon at the court of Versailles.
- [Monseigneur le Duc](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/monseigneur_le_duc.md): A high-ranking French nobleman, often referred to with deference at court.
- [Madame de Saint-Vire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/madame_de_saint_vire.md): The Comte de Saint-Vire's wife, a cold and calculating woman.
- [Edward Marling](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/edward_marling.md): Lady Fanny's brother, a sensible and kind-hearted country gentleman.
- [M. le Curé](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/m_le_cur%C3%A9.md): The local priest in the French village where Léonie and Léon grew up.
- [Madame Dubois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/fat_madame_dubois.md): A gossipy French baroness who provides comic relief and local news.
- [Gaston](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/gaston.md): A servant in the Duke of Avon's household.
- [Walker](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/walker.md): A servant at the Duke of Avon's English estate.
- [Henri](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/henri.md): A young French nobleman and friend of Armand de Saint-Vire.
- [Jean Bonnard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/jean_bonnard.md): Léonie and Léon's father, a poor but proud Frenchman.
- [Rachel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/rachel.md): A maid in the Duke of Avon's household who attends to Léonie.
- [Mère Bonnard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/mere_bonnard.md): Léonie and Léon's mother, a gentle and loving woman.
- [M. de Beaupré](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/m_de_beaupr%C3%A9.md): A French nobleman and acquaintance of the Duke of Avon.
- [Léon the Page](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/leon_the_page.md): Léonie's alias while disguised as a page boy for the Duke of Avon.
- [Florimond de Chantourelle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/florimond_de_chantourelle.md): A young French nobleman and suitor to Léonie.
- [Maman Marthe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters/maman_marthe.md): An elderly woman who cared for Léonie and Léon in their youth.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/these_old_shades_se/characters