Source note

COURTOIS, Marsac miller, near Angouleme during the Restoration. In 1821 rumor had it that he intended to wed a miller's widow, his patroness, who was thirty-two years old. She had one hundred thousand francs in her own right. David Sechard was advised by his father to ask the hand of this rich widow. At the end of 1822 Courtois, now married, sheltered Lucien de Rubempre, returning almost dead from Paris. [Lost Illusions.]