The image, I should suppose, of what her widowed mother was at her age.

Her name is Minna.
Daughter and only child of Madame Fontaine.

Madame Fontaine is a truly grand creature, a Roman matron.

She is the victim of envy and scandal.
Would you believe it?
There are wretches in Wurzburg (her husband the doctor was professor of chemistry at the University)--there are wretches, I say, who call my Minna's mother 'Jezebel,' and my Minna herself 'Jezebel's Daughter!' I have fought three duels with my fellow-students to avenge that one insult.

Alas, David, there is another person who is influenced by those odious calumnies!--a person sacred to me--the honored author of my being.