A Zola Dictionary Part 25

MIGNON (ROSE), wife of Mignon, was a star actress at the Theatre des Varietes, being a fine comedienne and an admirable singer. She was dark and thin with that charming ugliness which is peculiar to the gamins of Paris. It was she who, annoyed by the rivalry of Nana, one day made Comte de m.u.f.fat aware of the liaison between his wife and Fauchery. She was, however, a good-hearted woman, and when she learned that Nana had contracted small-pox she arranged for her removal to the Grand Hotel, and nursed her there till she died. Nana.

MIGNOT, one of the salesmen in the glove department at "The Ladies'

Paradise." He entered into a conspiracy with Albert Lhomme to defraud his employer, and this was successful to a considerable extent before its discovery; his dismissal followed, but there was no prosecution, as the firm preferred not to bring its internal affairs before the public eye. He afterwards got a situation as a traveller, and had even the boldness to call at "The Ladies' Paradise." Au Bonheur des Dames.

MIMI-LA-MORT, a pupil at the College of Pla.s.sans, who was also nicknamed _Le Squelette-Externe_ (The Skeleton Day-Boarder) on account of his extreme thinness. Against the regulations of the College, he used to bring in snuff to the other scholars. L'Oeuvre.

MINOUCHE, a white cat which belonged to the Chanteaus. La Joie de Vivre.

MISARD, signalman on the railway at Croix-de-Maufras, between Malaunay and Barentin. He was a little puny man, with thin, discoloured hair and beard, and a lean, hollow-cheeked face. His work was mechanical, and he seemed to carry it through without thought or intelligence. His wife, a cousin of Jacques Lantier, looked after the level-crossing which adjoined their house until failing health prevented her from leaving the house. For this little man, silently and without anger, was slowly poisoning his wife with a powder which he placed in the salt which she ate. This crime, patient and cunning, had for its cause a legacy of a thousand francs left to Aunt Phasie by her father, a legacy which she had hidden, and refused to hand over to Misard. But the old woman triumphed in the end, for though Misard searched day and night for the treasure, he was never able to find it; she died taking her secret with her. An old woman of the neighbourhood, La Ducloux, whom he had employed to attend to the level-crossing after the death of his wife, induced him to marry her by pretending that she had discovered the secret h.o.a.rd. La Bete Humaine.

MISARD (MADAME), wife of the preceding. See Phasie (Aunt).

MORANGE (CHARLOT), son of Silvine Morange and of Goliath Steinberg.

Physically he resembled his father's race, whom, however, he was brought up to hate. Hidden behind his mother, he was at three years old a witness of the murder of his father by the francs-tireurs. La Debacle.

MORANGE (SILVINE), servant with Fouchard at Remilly. Her mother, who was a worker in a factory at Raucourt, died when she was quite young, and her G.o.dfather, Dr. Dalichamp, got her a situation with Fouchard.

Honore Fouchard fell in love with her, and they became engaged, but the opposition of the old man was so great that Honore went away from home and enlisted in the army. During his absence Silvine fell a victim to the wiles of Goliath Steinberg, and a child, Charlot, was born, Steinberg having previously disappeared. She had all along loved Honore, and when he pa.s.sed through Remilly on his way to fight the Prussians he forgave her, and promised to marry her on his return. When she heard that he had been killed in the battle of Sedan, she became nearly mad, and with Prosper Sambuc made a wild search of the battlefield for her lover's body. They found it eventually, and brought it back in a cart for burial. Goliath Steinberg, who was a German spy, again made advances to her, and, to save herself and her friends, she betrayed him to the francs-tireurs, who killed him in her presence. La Debacle.

MORIZOT, a friend of Malignon, who took him to the children's party at Deberle's house. Une Page d'Amour.

MOSER, a speculator on the Paris Bourse. He was a short, yellow-skinned man, who suffered from liver complaint and was continually lamenting, in constant dread of some imminent catastrophe. In consequence of his views, he was known on the Bourse as "bear" Moser. Speculating heavily against the rise in the shares of the Universal Bank, he was at one time on the verge of ruin, but the collapse of that inst.i.tution left him with an enormous fortune. L'Argent.

MOUCHE (LE PERE), the sobriquet of Michel Fouan, the third son of Joseph Casimir Fouan, and brother of La Grande, Pere Fouan, and Laure Badeuil. When his father's estate was divided, he received the family dwelling-house and some land, but was dissatisfied with his share and continued to accuse his brother and sister, though forty years had elapsed, of having robbed him when the lots were drawn. He had been long a widower, and, a soured unlucky man, he lived alone with his two daughters, Lise and Francoise. At sixty years of age he died of an attack of apoplexy. La Terre.

MOUCHE (FRANCOISE), younger daughter of Michel Fouan, alias Mouche. Her mother died early, and she was brought up by her sister Lise, to whom she was devotedly attached. She had a pa.s.sion for justice, and when she had said "that is mine and that is yours," she would have been prepared to go to the stake in support of her rights. This execration of injustice gradually led to a change of feeling between the two sisters, for after the marriage of Lise to Buteau a division of the land should have been made. Buteau and his wife on various pretexts put off this division, and it was only on the marriage of Francoise to Jean Macquart that it was carried out. An entire estrangement between the two families followed, and constant quarrels took place. After a shameful a.s.sault by Buteau upon Francoise, his wife threw her upon a scythe which lay upon the ground near by, and the unfortunate girl received injuries from which she died a few hours later. A sense of loyalty to her family induced her to conceal the cause of these injuries, which were attributed to accident. La Terre.

MOUCHE (LISE), elder daughter of Pere Mouche, and sister of the preceding. She had a son to her cousin Buteau, who, however, did not marry her for three years afterwards, when the death of her father made her heiress to some land. She was at first an amiable woman, but grew hardened under the influence of her husband, and ultimately her whole desire was to avoid the necessity of a division of her father's estate between her sister and herself. Moved by these feelings, her love for Francoise became transformed into a hatred so intense that she did not hesitate to a.s.sist her husband in attempting to bring about the girl's ruin. In the end, having a.s.sisted Buteau in a shameful a.s.sault on Francoise, she afterwards threw her upon a scythe which was lying on the ground near by, inflicting injuries which proved fatal. Pere Fouan, having been a witness of the a.s.sault, was subsequently murdered by Lise and her husband, to ensure his silence and their own safety. La Terre.

MOULIN, an a.s.sistant station-master at Havre along with Roubaud. La Bete Humaine.

MOULIN (MADAME), wife of the preceding. She was a little woman, timid and weak, who was seldom seen. She had a large family of young children.

La Bete Humaine.

MOUNIER, a tenor singer at the Opera, who gave the cue to Madame Daigremont at a performance in her house. L'Argent.

MOUQUE, father of Mouquet and of Mouquette. He had charge of the horses in the Voreux pit, and also acted as caretaker at a ruined mine known as the Requillart, where the company had given him two rooms to live in.

Almost every evening he received a visit from his old comrade Bonnemort.

Germinal.

MOUQUET, son of the preceding, was an inseparable companion of Zacharie Maheu, along with whom he worked at the Voreux pit. During the strike he went out of curiosity to see the attack by the strikers on the soldiers who were guarding the mines, and was killed by a stray ball which struck him in the mouth.

MOUQUETTE, daughter of Mouque. She was a putter in the Voreux pit, and lived with her father at the ruined mine of Requillart, where he was caretaker. She was present at the attack by the strikers on the soldiers guarding the Voreux, and when the fatal volley was fired she was killed, in an instinctive attempt to save Catherine Maheu, before whom she placed herself. Germinal.

MOURET, a hatter of Pla.s.sans who married Ursule Macquart in 1810 and went to live at Ma.r.s.eilles. He was devoted to his wife, and a year after her death in 1839, he hanged himself in a cupboard where her dresses were still suspended. He left three children, Helene, Francois, and Silvere. La Fortune des Rougon.

MOURET (MADAME), wife of the preceding. See Ursule Macquart. La Fortune des Rougon.

MOURET (DESIREE), born 1844, daughter of Francois Mouret, and sister of Octave and Serge. La Fortune des Rougon.

She was of feeble intellect, and when a girl of sixteen was still mentally like a child of eight. When her mother fell under the influence of Abbe Faujas, and began entirely to neglect her family, Francois Mouret removed Desiree to the home of her old nurse, in whose custody she remained. La Conquete de Pla.s.sans.

When her brother Serge was appointed priest of Les Artaud, she accompanied him there. By that time she had grown to be a tall, handsome girl, but her mind had never developed, and she was still like a young child. Her love of animals had become a pa.s.sion, and at her brother's home she was able to indulge it to the fullest extent, and to her complete happiness. La Faute de l'Abbe Mouret.

She accompanied her brother to Saint Eutrope, where he became cure, and she continued innocent and healthy, like a happy young animal. Le Docteur Pascal.

MOURET (FRANCOIS), born in 1817, son of Mouret and Ursule Macquart, his wife. He got a situation in the business of his uncle, Pierre Rougon, whose daughter Marthe he married in 1840. They had three children, Octave, Serge, and Desiree. On the retirement of his uncle, Mouret returned to Ma.r.s.eilles and established himself in business there. La Fortune de Rougon.

During fifteen years of close application on the part of Mouret and his wife, he made a fortune out of wines, oil, and almonds, and then retired to Pla.s.sans, where he lived on his means, making an occasional deal in wine or oil when a chance occurred. He was not on good terms with his wife's relations, and placed himself politically in opposition to them by supporting the Legitimist candidate, the Marquis de Lagrifoul. In 1858, having two vacant rooms in his house, he was induced by the Abbe Bourrette to let them to Abbe Faujas, a priest who had been sent to Pla.s.sans by the Government to undermine the existing clerical influence there, which had been exercised in support of the Marquis de Lagrifoul. Mouret was a man of narrow and restricted intellect, and his peculiarities became more and more marked as the Abbe Faujas gradually came to dominate the household and induce Madame Mouret to neglect her husband and family for the service of the Church. By degrees Mouret came to be regarded as insane, and his wife having had several epileptic attacks, he was accused of having caused the injuries she had really inflicted on herself. His wrongful removal to the asylum at Les Tulettes followed, and confinement soon confirmed the insanity which before had only threatened. In 1864, his uncle, Antoine Macquart, in order to annoy the Rougons contrived his escape from the asylum, and he returned by night to his home at Pla.s.sans. Finding it in the occupancy of Abbe Faujas and his relatives, he was overcome by the fury of madness, and set fire to the house in several places. So thoroughly did he do his work that all the inmates, including himself, perished in the flames. La Conquete de Pla.s.sans.

MOURET (MADAME MARTHE), wife of the preceding. See Marthe Rougon.

MOURET (HELENE), born 1824, daughter of Mouret and Ursule Macquart, his wife. La Fortune des Rougon.

When seventeen years old she married M. Grandjean, the son of a sugar-refiner of Ma.r.s.eilles, whose family were bitterly opposed to the match on account of her poverty. The wedding was a secret one, and the young couple had difficulty making ends meet until an uncle died, leaving them ten thousand francs a year. "It was then that Grandjean, within whom an intense hatred of Ma.r.s.eilles was growing, had decided on coming to Paris, to live there for good." The day after their arrival Grandjean was seized with illness, and after eight days he died, leaving his wife with one daughter, a young girl of ten. Helene, who was a woman of singular beauty, had no friends in Paris except Abbe Jouve and his half-brother M. Rambaud, but from them she received much kindness.

Her daughter Jeanne was far from strong, having inherited much of the hereditary neurosis of her mother's family, along with a consumptive tendency from that of her father. A sudden illness of the girl led to an acquaintance with Doctor Deberle, and this ripened into love between him and Helene, though considerations of duty kept them apart. Meantime, Helene had discovered the beginnings of an intrigue between Madame Deberle and M. Malignon, and in order to break it off was herself placed in such a compromising position towards Doctor Deberle that he became her lover. The discovery of the fact by Jeanne, whose jealous love of her mother amounted to a mania, led to the child's illness and death, and to her mother's bitter repentance. Two years later Helene married M.

Rambaud, and went to live at Ma.r.s.eilles. Une Page d'Amour.

She lived for many years, very happy, and idolized by her husband, in a house which he owned near Ma.r.s.eilles, close to the seash.o.r.e. She had no children by her second marriage. Le Docteur Pascal.

MOURET (OCTAVE), born 1840, son of Francois Mouret. La Fortune des Rougon.

A young man of high spirits and somewhat idle habits, he made little progress at college, and failed to pa.s.s the examinations for a degree.

His father was much annoyed at this, and sent him off to Ma.r.s.eilles to enter a commercial business. The reports regarding him were, however, unsatisfactory, as it appeared that he showed no inclination to settle to hard work and was living a dissolute life.[*] La Conquete de Pla.s.sans.

After the death of his parents, Serge Mouret, who was about to take Holy Orders, renounced his share of his father's fortune in favour of his brother Octave. La Faute de l'Abbe Mouret.

He was appointed a member of the family council which nominally had charge of Pauline Quenu's fortune. La Joie de Vivre.

After three years at Ma.r.s.eilles he came to Paris, where he secured an appointment as a.s.sistant at "The Ladies' Paradise" through the influence of the Campardons, who were old friends of his mother. He formed the project of advancing his prospects by making love to Madame Hedouin, wife of his employer, but she gave him no encouragement. He resigned his situation, and went as salesman to Auguste Vabre, a neighbouring silk merchant. Vabre's wife (nee Berthe Josserand) was not on good terms with her husband, and a liaison was formed between her and Octave Mouret, which subsisted for some time before it was discovered by Vabre, who received information from Rachael, his maid-servant. Mouret returned to his former employment at "The Ladies' Paradise," and M. Hedouin having died in the interval, he married the widow a few months afterwards. He had developed keen business ability, with large ideas, and under his management the shop became one of the most important in the district.

Pot-Bouille.

In Mouret's hands the business of "The Ladies' Paradise" continued to grow, and repeated extensions of the building became necessary. While one of these was in progress, Madame Mouret, who was inspecting the work, fell into a hole, and as a result of her injuries died three days afterwards. Mouret remained a widower, and devoted himself to the extension of his business, though it was believed that a liaison with Madame Desforges was not the only entanglement of its kind. On the introduction of Madame Desforges he came to know Baron Hartmann, director of the Credit Immobilier, who became interested in him, and eventually found the money necessary to carry out the vast schemes of extension which he had long had in mind. By this time Denise Baudu had come to "The Ladies' Paradise" as a saleswoman, and from the first Mouret had taken an interest in her. This was probably increased by the fact that she resisted all his advances, and refused all his offers.

Ultimately he became so infatuated by her that he asked her to marry him, which she agreed to do. By this time the success of "The Ladies'

Paradise" had become triumphant, and the smaller traders of the district were being crushed out of existence, and driven one by one into bankruptcy. Au Bonheur des Dames.

He a.s.sisted at the burial of his cousin, Claude Lantier the artist.

By this time he had become very rich, was decorated with the Legion of Honour, and was desirous of giving the impression of an enlightened taste for art. L'Oeuvre.

Octave Mouret, whose immense fortune continued to increase, had towards the end of 1872 a second child by his wife Denise Baudu, whom he adored, though he again began to lead a somewhat irregular life. Their little girl was puny, but the younger child, a boy, took after his mother, and grew magnificently. Le Docteur Pascal.

[*] It is interesting to note that by a curious oversight M.

Zola in _Pot-Bouille_ refers to Octave Mouret as having pa.s.sed the examination for his bachelor's degree before leaving Pla.s.sans, and states that at Ma.r.s.eilles the lad showed a pa.s.sion for business life, being able during his three years' stay there to make a sum of five thousand francs (two hundred pounds), which he took with him to Paris.

MOURET (MADAME CAROLINE), first wife of the preceding. See Madame Caroline Hedouin.

MOURET (MADAME DENISE), second wife of Octave Mouret. See Denise Baudu.

MOURET (SERGE), born 1841, son of Francois Mouret. La Fortune des Rougon.