Mme le marquise Adeline d'Espanet

A leading socialite and old schoolfriend of Renée Saccard's. Her family came from a fine estate in the Nivernais(an area of central France) and it was while staying with her after finishing at boarding school, that Renée was raped by a guest of the family.
She was married to a nobleman who had embraced the empire and was an aide-de-camp to Napoleon III. She was in a long term lesbian relationship with another old school friend, Suzanne Haffner. She appears at social gatherings throughout the story.