As to Blanche de Sivry, whose real name was Jacqueline Bandu, she hailed from a village near Amiens.

Magnificent in person, stupid and untruthful in character, she gave herself out as the granddaughter of a general and never owned to her thirty-two summers.
The Russians had a great taste for her, owing to her embonpoint.

Then Daguenet added a rapid word or two about the rest.

There was Clarisse Besnus, whom a lady had brought up from Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer in the capacity of maid while the lady's husband had started her in quite another line.

There was Simonne Cabiroche, the daughter of a furniture dealer in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, who had been educated in a large boarding school with a view to becoming a governess.