LEBAS (Joseph), born in 1779, a penniless orphan, he was assisted and
employed in Paris, first by the Guillaumes, cloth-merchants on rue
Saint-Denis, at the Cat and Racket. Under the First Empire he married
Virginie,[*] the elder of his employer's daughters, although he was in
love with the younger, Mademoiselle Augustine. He succeeded the
Guilliaumes in business. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.] During
the first years of the Restoration he presided over the Tribunal of
Commerce. Joseph Lebas, who was intimate with M. and Madame Birotteau,
attended their ball with his wife. He also strove for Cesar's
rehabilitation. [Cesar Birotteau.] During the reign of Louis Philippe,
having for an intimate friend Celestin Crevel, he retired from
business and lived at Corbeil. [Cousin Betty.]

[*] The names of Virginie and Augustine are confused in the original
text.

LEBAS (Madame Joseph), wife of the preceding, born Virginie Guillaume
in 1784, elder of Guillaume's daughters, lived at the Cat and Racket;
the counterpart, physically and morally, of her mother. Under the
First Empire, at the parish church of Saint-Leu, Paris, her marriage
took place on the same day that her younger sister, Augustine de
Sommervieux, was wedded. The love which she felt for her husband was
not reciprocated. She viewed with indifference her sister's
misfortunes, became intimate in turn with the Birotteaus and the
Crevels; and, having retired from business, spent her last days in the
middle of Louis Philippe's reign at Corbeil. [At the Sign of the Cat
and Racket. Cesar Birotteau. Cousin Betty.]

LEBAS, probably a son of the preceding. In 1836 first assistant of the
king's solicitor at Sancerre; two years later counselor to the court